Leadership OS: The Operating System You Need to Succeed

Based on years of original research, this book controversially counters almost every existing leadership model and approach.

It shows how as leaders rise to senior levels, their roles become less about doing things that directly drive results and more about directing and supporting others to achieve objectives. Using case studies and research insights the authors reveal how leadership success is thus not so much about having the right core capabilities, but about creating the right environment.

Using the analogy of a smartphone operating system (OS), the book presents a new way of thinking about leadership. The authors provide a clear and practical framework to follow and show how your leadership OS becomes the impact you have, the imprint you make and the foundation of your legacy as a leader.

After reading it, you will learn:

• How to diagnose the impact you have as a leader and understand the OS you create
• How famous business and societal leaders have created effective – and sometimes ineffective – OSs
• How to optimise your OS to produce the best results
• How to get people working together effectively, and be a high-performing leader

Providing you with practical and easy to follow advice, this book will show you how leadership success is not about having the core capabilities, but about creating the right operating systems for your organisation.

Nik Kinley is a London-based Director of the global leadership consultancy YSC. His experience over the past thirty years encompasses work with CEOs, life-sentence prisoners, factory-floor workers, government officials and children. He began his career in commercial roles, before spending the next decade working in prisons as a forensic psychotherapist. He then returned to the corporate world, where he held global leadership roles in talent management and leadership development for the likes of BP and Barclays. He currently works advising firms across the globe on their leadership and people strategies, and as a coach with Boards, CEOs and senior execs. He has published award-winning research papers, authored multiple books, and is a regular speaker at global conferences.

Shlomo Ben-Hur is an organisational psychologist and Professor of Leadership and Organisational Behaviour at the IMD Business School in Switzerland. He is the Director of the school’s flagship program for top executives, Cultivating Leadership Energy through Awareness and Reflection (CLEAR).  Shlomo is the author and co-author of a variety of award-winning books, business cases, and articles and he advises a wide variety of organisations across the globe. Prior to joining IMD, Shlomo spent over twenty years in the corporate world holding senior executive positions including at BP in London, UK, and DaimlerChrysler in Berlin, Germany. He earned his doctoral degree in Psychology from the Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany.