Caterpillars obliterate themselves to produce the butterflies that dazzle us. McCleary thoughtfully and without apology asks you to obliterate yourself to liberate your leadership and give it wings. If you are looking for easy 1-2-3 leadership, look elsewhere. This is deep and necessary provocation.

Ron Crossland, co-author of The Leader's Voice and former Vice-Chair, Tom Peters Company

“A bold guide for leaders courageous enough to engage in serious self-reflection; an invitation to explore what is perhaps the last frontier for excellence – self-interference.”

Timothy Gallwey, author of The Inner Game of Tennis, The Inner Game of Work, and The Inner Game of Stress

Chapter689

111920

Chapter258

131417

Chapter347

12151618

Courageous Voices of Truth

6 – Judging Judgment Fears, Control, Decision Making

8 – Painless Prisons Pain Avoidance, Unhelpful Kindness

9 – Fear’s Sentencing Hiding, Ivory Towers, Dehumanizing,

Power Distance 11 – Apprehended by Appearances

Masks, Authenticity, Hypocrisy, Ego-Death19 – The Seditious Undertow of Silence

Truth, Freedom, Collusion of Silence20 – Exiled in Action

Meaningless Motion

Wounded Healers

2 – Unresolved GriefPast Wounds, Angry Hero, Victimization

5 – Scaling Walls of WoundsHiding, Ivory Towers, Dehumanizing,

Power Distance 8 – Painless Prisons

Pain Avoidance, Unhelpful Kindness13 – Captivity of Indecision

Indecisive, Worthless, Hesitation, Helpless14 – Corked in a Bottle

Emotion Avoidance, Disproportionate Response17 – Deserts of Disavowal

Rejected, Disavowed, Disempowered, Shame

Powerfully Irrelevant3 – False Sense of Freedom

Dehumanizing, Tyranny, Projecting Incarceration4 – Ties that Bind

Leadership is Relationship, Community, Isolation7 – Arrested by Adoration

Worship and Following, Humility, Equality12 – Confined in Blindness

Blindness, Desensitizing, Vulnerability, Domination15 – Desensitized Detainment

Numbness, Coercion, Supremacy, Impersonal16 – Trapped in Competence

Deceitful, Disloyal, Self-Protective, Ends/Means18 – Cells of Solipsism

Omnipotence, Omniscience, Questions

Avoid

ance

of

Realit

y

Self

-Aw

are

ness

Reje

ctio

n &

Judg

ment

Self

-Accep

tan

ce

Defe

nsi

veness

&

Bla

me

Self

-A

ccou

nta

bilit

y

Fear

& S

elf-

Pro

tect

ion

Vu

lnera

bilit

y &

O

pen

ness

Isola

tion

& L

onelin

ess

Mean

ing

ful

Con

necti

on

© 2009 David McCleary. All rights reserved.

Self-Interference, the Last Frontier of Excellence

What courage is required of me now? What choices would set me free?

What is my contribution to my frustrations? What music is trapped inside me?

Change-Facilitative Leadership… Collaborative Leadership

All change is a self-inflicted woundAll significant change involves choice, discomfort, vision, & movement All group/organization change is preceded by personal change Pause Challenge Choose

In what ways is my thinking limited to the past & present

time periods?

In what ways can I bring a sense of

future & possibility into all

conversations?

In what ways do I convey to others, in my words and deeds, that change will be over or should be

avoided?

In what ways can I live and act from the belief that change is normal and exciting?

In what ways do I support the view that

leadership is for senior management

only?

In what ways can I share the power and

rewards of leadership with others?

Partnering to Release Trapped Value in Leaders, Teams, and Organizations

SM

“To develop oneself as a leader, turn away from the familiar, the comfortable, and even the sources of existing power. That’s the message of this book, and David McCleary makes it sound not just possible, but compelling.”

Art Kleiner, author of The Age of Heretics and editor-in-chief of Strategy+Business