Craig T. Owens

It’s not that we don’t need leaders anymore; actually, we need more leaders. But we also need the right kind of leaders. It is exactly those right kinds of leaders that Jeremie Kubicek calls upon in Leadership Is Dead: How Influence Is Reviving It.

Many leadership books tend to be very head-oriented. That is, most leadership books give you the how to’s. Jeremie takes a different approach. Instead of leading with the how to’s, he leads with the why. From the opening chapter Jeremie wants his readers to look deep inside to find out why they want to be a leader, or a better leader. Then once that is firmly in mind, he begins to dismantle all of the self-serving motivations, and replace them with the ultimate tool for effective leadership: influence.

In many ways this book is as much a people-skills book as it is a leadership book. But, after all, unless you are leading sheep, you need to know about interacting with people. Rest assured, Leadership Is Dead is not a touchy-feely book; it is an in-your-face confrontation about doing reviving true leadership.

The last chapter is called “Why You Probably Won’t Do This.” In this chapter, Jeremie says, “Most leaders never reach the levels of significant influence because their instincts for self-preservation are too strong.” And then he adds, “True influence comes when you change yourself to change the world.”

Do you want to make a lasting impact on your world? It starts when you can make the changes in yourself that will lead to greater levels of influence on those around you. Because in order to change your world, you’re going to need a lot of help from a lot of other people! This book can help.

(Special thanks to Michael Hyatt for selecting me as a winner on his blog, so that I could get a copy of this book. And thank you as well to Howard Books for making these books available to Michael Hyatt.)