About the Book
How do today's leaders move from playing it safe to playing for great? In a volatile time of climate crisis, global pandemics, and disruptive technologies, leaders may find themselves clinging to fear-based mindsets that favor individualism over collectivism - inadvertently controlling their teams rather than inspiring genuine commitment in them. To navigate uncertainty and seize emerging opportunities, leaders must move toward a more facilitative, enabling approach that centers on purpose before profit and the team before the individual.
In Safe to Great, consultant, keynote speaker, and author Skip Bowman outlines an integrated organizational and leadership development process for implementing a growth mindset based on psychological safety. Grounded in more than 25 years of experience working with global organizations, Bowman's model unites theory and practice in a set of practicable principles designed to meet the opportunities and challenges of leading and organizing in the twenty-first century and beyond.
Bowman looks to the concept of psychological safety, as described in Amy C. Edmondson's work on fearless organizations, to examine how a workplace that tolerates risk and exhibits a willingness to experiment can facilitate high levels of innovation. The tenets of a growth mindset, as popularized by Carol Dweck, also serve as a guiding philosophy: Bowman urges organizations to take a generative approach to managing people and resources, putting at least much back as they extract. In this relational model, success rests on the combined achievements and developmental growth of the collective rather than on the accumulation of power and wealth by a single executive or small group of stakeholders.
Conversational in tone and packed with big hopes and uncomfortable truths, Safe to Great makes an impassioned appeal for a new standard of leadership that will move people and organizations from a place of relative comfort and little risk to a space of daring curiosity, engagement, and collaboration.
About the Author :
Skip Bowman is author, consultant and keynote speaker focusing on how to transform organizations with a growth mindset and psychological safety. Australian-born and Europe-based, he has worked with global organizations for over 25 years developing unique programs and approaches that are captured in his recently released Safe2Great concept.
Review :
"A timely and positive way forward in our time-starved and often bleakly-portrayed future."
--Ricardo Troiano, Global Head, Change and Organizational Development, Syngenta "This is a call to action that no thinking person can ignore! Skip offers us a leadership framework which will become a classic. An important and necessary piece of work."
--Katie Dardagan, Executive Coach & Leadership Development Facilitator, Dardagan & Associates
"The new psychology of leadership emphasizes the importance of empathy, authenticity, and emotional intelligence in effective leadership. Bowman recognizes that great leadership is not simply about achieving goals, but also about building relationships and creating positive change."
--Dietmar Baro, VP, Applications, Systems and Technology, Danfoss
"Safe to Great weaves together engaging examples and psychological principles that will help any leader wanting to take their team and organization to new heights. Equal parts challenging and inspiring, Skip presents us a future where people will thrive in organizations that are truly great."
--Andrew Beveridge, Psychologist & Founder, Leadership Today
"Exceedingly entertaining and compelling, Safe to Great leaves the reader engaged and thinking deeply as to how best to face our challenges--both individually and collectively as a planet. I look forward to adopting the models and principles Bowman shares here throughout my organizations."
--Charlie Pillans, CEO and Entrepreneur, UK
"The principles in Skip Bowman's Safe to Great have formed the foundation for the leadership and culture at the Northern European region at Danfoss. In Safe to Great,
Skip supplies you with comprehensive yet easy-to-understand insights and tools to identify behaviors, form a strategy, and create impactful change. I highly recommend this book to all leaders no matter level or seniority. It's never too late to learn."
--Sandra Bertelsen, Regional Head of HR, Scandinavia, Danfoss
"Safe to Great is changing the game for leadership development. It represents a shift in the leadership paradigm and provides a new lens for leaders to see themselves and the organizations they lead. This book is genuine, effective, and engaging, and promises to create a deep impact with leaders at all levels. This book made me pause, reflect, and commit to being a leader who is not afraid to walk down the road less traveled and be courageous in my choices."
--Swati Seth, Senior HR Director, EMEAI, MKS Instruments
"Skip Bowman's book Safe to Great is both confrontational as it is inspirational. It clearly explains how organizations where people feel psychological safe can adapt a growth mindset. Bowman points out how confrontational leadership behaviors negatively influence performance, and how, by adapting a growth mindset, leaders can inspire change in their organizations so they can adapt to and survive in today's ever changing business environment."
--Jan Schoemaker, Regional President, Asia Pacific Region, Danfoss
"Safe to Great goes beyond the 'why?' of great leadership and into the 'why now?!' Bowman ingeniously synthesizes our daunting and unprecedented global context and incites a call to action that embraces the challenges, responsibilities, and opportunities for leaders in today's world. Skip's unique use of metaphors and his ability to communicate complexity in a succinct and catchy way makes learning from his extensive experience with leaders, their teams, and his
leadership research, compelling and impactful."
--Christine Khalifa, Independent Leadership Consultant, South Korea
"Safe to Great is extremely engaging and connects growth mindset development to leadership agility within organizations. The examples and cases Bowman describes are very interesting and the hippo metaphor and character are unforgettable."
--Tom Sebastian, Co-Founder & Program Director, NORDIN SME Accelerator, India
