As a leader tasked with seizing new ground and improving an organization’s performance, do you start with the systems, the people, or yourself?

Get out the mirror!

According to leadership expert, Chris Hutchinson, leaders cannot be effective if they don’t begin by understanding their own values, visioning their personal futures, and recognizing their unique strengths and weaknesses.

In his new book, Ripple: A Field Manual for Leadership That Works, Hutchinson demonstrates that true leadership is like skipping stones in a pond. With an engaging conversational tone and fun, whiteboard-style sketches, he teaches that the secret to leadership is that the power isn’t in the stone. It’s in the ripples. And stone-throwers simply can’t set robust, long-lasting ripples in motion if they’re not starting from a place of self-alignment.

To get into alignment Hutchinson recommends three steps.

Click here to read about them in my full book review on Forbes. 

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Kevin Kruse is the creator of the Leading for Employee Engagement eLearning program for managers and author of the bestselling book, Employee Engagement 2.0.