Praise for The Wisdom of Failure -- Title page -- Copyright page -- Contents -- ONE: Flawless Leadership -- Two Leaders, Two Stories -- Great Leadership: Shaped by Opposing Forces -- The Performance Review Trap -- A Culture of Perfectionism -- Losing Balance Between "What" and "How" -- The Failure Paradox -- A Perfect Storm: Empirical Research, Unforeseen Timing, and Untold Stories -- Phase One: Investigating the Efficacy of Learning from Mistakes -- Phase Two: Identifying the Most Damning Mistakes -- Phase Three: Verification, Takeaways, and Insights -- Putting It All Together -- A Taxonomy of Leadership Mistakes -- Unbalanced Orchestration -- Drama Mismanagement -- Personality Issues -- New Discoveries -- The Rest of the Story -- PART ONE: Unbalanced Orchestration -- TWO: Seduced by Yes -- Irrational Greed: Chasing Pennies with Dollars -- Escalation of Commitment: Knowing When to Say When -- Being All Things to All People -- Just Say No: Avoiding the Mistake of Yes -- Perceive Your Organization's Value Proposition -- Relentlessly Pursue Potential -- Determine Strategic Appropriateness -- Use Segmentation -- THREE: Businesses You Have No Business Being In -- Boxes and Strategic Direction -- The Lure of the Exciting and the New -- Letting Competitors Define the Box -- Thinking inside the Box -- Inside-the-Box Leaders -- The Power of Common Sense -- FOUR: Entrenched in Efficiency -- Understanding Effectiveness -- Who Is Our Customer? -- What Value Do We Provide to Our Customer? -- What Needs Are Emerging in Our Markets? -- Why Effectiveness Trumps Efficiency -- How Leaders Get Trapped in an Efficiency Mind-Set -- Shooting Stars -- The Demise of Pets.com -- Webvan's Big Bust -- Avoiding the Efficiencies Trap -- Seeing the Forest and the Trees -- Accessing the "Right" Data -- PART TWO: Drama Management -- FIVE: The Playground in the Workplace.

The Old-School Manager -- The Overt Bully -- The Covert Bully -- Bullying or Assertive Leadership? -- The Consequences of Old-School Management -- Why Good People Become Old-School Leaders -- Why Good People Tolerate Old-School Managers -- Ending Old-School Management and Repairing the Damage -- Recognize -- Repurpose -- Reform -- Define -- If the Military Can Do It, So Can You -- SIX: When Utopia Becomes Dystopia -- Why We Want Utopia-And Why We Shouldn't -- Constructive Conflict Is Missing -- Bosses Make Bad Friends -- Trust Erodes -- Initiative Suffers -- The Bottom Line Sinks -- Avoiding Dysfunctional Harmony Without Being a Bully -- Identify Dysfunctional Harmony in Yourself or Your Workplace -- Motivate Your Employees the Hard Way-with Transparency and Honest Communication -- Aim to Be Respected, Not Necessarily Liked -- Bring in Disparate Voices, and Encourage Debate Wisely -- Make the Chain of Command Clear-and True -- If You're Accepting Feedback, Show It -- Look at the Big Picture -- SEVEN: The Battle Within -- Distraction Soup: The Forms of Distracted Purpose -- Costly Competition -- Favoritism and Perceived Unfairness -- Inability to Manage Strengths and Weaknesses -- An Obsession with Synergy -- Rescuing Your Team from Distracted Purpose -- Discourage Competition by Encouraging Co-opetition -- Play Fair -- Leverage Cliques -- Support Workers' Strengths and Help Their Weaknesses -- Practice Safe Synergy -- PART THREE: Personality Issues -- EIGHT: Standing in the Way -- The What and Why of Hoarding -- Consequences of Hoarding -- Hoarding and the Power of Expectation -- Hoarders' Long Tails -- Are You a Hoarder? -- Low Tolerance for Ambiguity -- Focused on the Trees and on Putting Out Fires -- Confusing Authority with Ability -- "My Way or the Highway" Thinking -- Too Much Focus on Process.

Stop Managing and Start Leading: Overcoming the Urge to Hoard -- Lessons for the Hoarding Manager -- Using Empowerment to Avoid Hoarding -- NINE: Living Outside the Storm -- Misfit and Burnout Leaders -- Celebrity Leaders -- The Consequences of Celebrity Leadership -- Celebrity Leadership and Malfeasance -- Avoiding the Mistakes of Disengagement -- Ask Yourself the Tough Questions -- Open Your Doors -- Nourish Thyself -- Ask: What Would Darwin (Smith) Do? -- TEN: "Does This Doorframe Make My Head Look Big?" -- The Alchemy of the Self-Absorbed Leader -- Narcissism -- Arrogance -- Hubris -- The Perils of the Self-Absorbed Leader -- The Silent Victims of Self-Absorbed Leaders -- Self-Confidence versus Self-Absorption -- Know the Signs of Self-Absorbed Leadership -- Talking Big -- Sense of Entitlement -- A Sense of Infallibility -- Lack of Empathy for Others -- Intense Desire to Win at All Costs -- One-Upmanship -- Know-It-All Attitude -- Inability to Listen -- Steering Clear of Self-Absorbed Leadership -- Find a Truth Teller -- Be Willing to Work on Yourself -- A Final Caveat -- Notes -- Acknowledgments -- Index -- About the Authors -- Introducing the Wisdom of Failure Keynote -- Take Advantage of Free Wisdom of Failure Assessment Tools on the Web.