Layered Leadership

New York Times Bestseller

USA Today Bestseller

Winner of the 2025 International Impact Book Awards, Literary Titan Gold Book Awards, PenCraft Book Awards, Goody Business Book Awards, and Independent Author Network Book Awards Finalist

From one of the world’s most successful global leaders in architecture and design, discover a holistic, humanist approach to leadership centering on an unwavering commitment to developing well-rounded leaders within any organization.

Lawrence Armstrong’s vision for competitive excellence is animated by investing in and caring about the development of the whole person and their surrounding community. Under his creative, layer-based approach, Ware Malcomb has become a global leader in the industrial building sector—one of the world’s most successful and admired businesses of its kind.

Now, in Layered Leadership, Lawrence distills the secrets and internal processes of Ware Malcomb’s “whole brain leadership” culture and its fearless Strategic Growth strategy, teaching companies of all kinds how to:

• Synthesize influences, metaphors, and life lessons into a style of leadership
• Build a mentoring culture that coaches and supports rising leaders
• Protect executive time for creative work
• Drive consistent growth through up and down economic cycles
• Find your formula for greatness and deploy it to attract, keep, and expand business
• Implement succession strategies that stick

When people can bring their whole selves to work, cultivate their diverse capabilities, and identify their best career opportunities, they’re on the path to becoming great leaders—and building a surrounding culture of success. An accessible handbook featuring illustrations by Larry, also an accomplished artist, Layered Leadership is an evidence-based guide to raising leaders who will prove instrumental to all kinds of companies’ success.

Lawrence R. Armstrong is the chair on the Board of Directors for Ware Malcomb. In the spirit of the Renaissance, Armstrong is an admired executive and an accomplished artist whose work is exhibited in multiple galleries. He is a community leader fighting homelessness, a teacher, mentor, and a charitable leader for his alma mater Kent State. Larry’s art has been exhibited around the world for over 10 years at venues such as the Agora Gallery and Grimandi Art Gallery in New York City, the Hamptons Fine Art Fair, Galleria 360 in Florence, Italy, SOFA Art Fair in Chicago, Galleria Azur in Madrid, and the Artblend Summer Exhibit in Fort Lauderdale, among many others.