Land On Your Feet, Not On Your Face: A Guide To Building Your Leadership Platform

This book is an honest and practical guide that helps new and experienced leaders land on their feet while taking on the challenge of leadership. Leadership is tough, but it can be learned if a strong platform of attitudes, habits, and understanding is built. While many books would like you to believe that leadership is a matter of learning a few secrets, there's much more to it than that. The Leadership Platform presented in this book is a practical, real-world construction. This book is an excellent way to start--or re-energize-- your journey to leadership.

Jim Hessler is the Founder of Path Forward Leadership Development Services in Issaquah, Washington.

Jim gained extensive real-world leadership experience in a "bootstrap" business career after studying Music and Literature in college. He started in low-level retail work and developed into a strategic executive in one of America's largest corporations. He distinguished himself by conducting a series of successful business turnarounds, which gave him the perfect laboratory to learn his craft and test his ideas.

Along this unusual journey, Jim was struck by just how challenging the path to leadership can be. He recognized that leadership is best learned as a result of a long-term commitment, learning through one's current experiences, and working through the process of learning in the company of other seekers.

Building on his extensive experience as a business leader, Jim developed the Path Forward Leadership Workshops built on the conceptual model of the Leadership Platform. This book acts as a study guide for Workshop participants, as well as a candid, down-to-earth, and useful guide for anyone striving to understand the essential art of leadership.

Jim has been married for over 30 years and has two adult children. He lives in Issaquah, Washington and can be reached at JimH@PathForwardLeadership.com.
Steve Motenko is a Harvard-educated leadership trainer and certified personal coach. Formerly an award-winning journalist, Steve is now a partner in Path Forward Leadership Development Services. He has facilitated management training experiences at Fortune 100 companies such as Boeing and Microsoft, as well as in government agencies, nonprofits, community organizations, and educational insti- tutions across the United States. In his individual coaching practice, he supports leaders who are serious about living into their highest aspirations. Steve makes his home in paradise--Washington State's Whidbey Island--with his wife Karen and their rambunctious puppy Lucas.