Geoff Smart - Power Score: Your Formula for Leadership Success

ghSMART is the worlds top firm for helping leaders hire talented teams and run them at full power. Nothing is more important.

Marshall Goldsmith, recognized by Thinkers 50 as one of the ten most influential business thinkers in the world, author of the New York Times bestsellers Mojo and What Got You Here Wont Get You There

I wouldnt be surprised if Power Score became the new go-to guide for leadership. Effective teams are key in everything from health care to business to government to nonprofits, and this book will help organizations change the conversation about getting results.

Atul Gawande, surgeon, author (Being Mortal, The Checklist Manifesto), and executive director of Ariadne Labs Power Score offers practical and insightful advice that should be read by anyone leading todays workforce.

Maynard Webb, chairman of Yahoo!, former chief operating officer of eBay, and author of Rebooting Work

Power Score is an easily understandable process and tool that drives incredible organizational alignment and performance.

Matt Simoncini, president and chief executive officer of Lear Corporation

Smart, Street, and Foster have turned more than twenty years of research on leadership into a practical, systematic approach for getting results.

Frederick W. Smith, chairman and chief executive officer of FedEx Corporation

My entire team applied the principles of Power Score and has enjoyed explosive growth as a result. Even better, I am having more fun as a leader than ever before.

Jeff Booth, chief executive officer and founder of BuildDirect

My team used this approach and got more out of a one-hour conversation than we did in any other strategic planning session we have ever done.

Reggie Bicha, executive director of the Colorado Department of Human Services

The ghSMART team has done it again. With Who, they demystified the process of hiring A Players. Now they have decoded how to become an A+ leader.

Panos Anastassiadis, managing partner of Global Cyber

I was afraid this would be yet another book telling me the one hundred things I was supposed to do differently. Instead, I was delighted that this book is ridiculously practical.

John Zillmer, former executive chairman of Univar

Power Score lays out a practical, straightforward approach to delivering results as a leader. I highly recommend reading it.

Art Collins, former chairman of the board of Medtronic

Smart, Street, and Foster nailed itthey found the equivalent of the theory of relativity for becoming a top performing leader, a simple, elegant, and practical formula you can put to use immediately in scaling up significant results in your organization. And its a fun and fast read!

Verne Harnish, founder of the Entrepreneurs Organization (EO), chief executive officer of Gazelles, and author of Scaling Up and The Greatest Business Decisions of All Time

1. Leadership. 2. Industrial psychology. 3. Success in business. I. Street, Randy. II. Foster, Alan (Consultant). III. Title.

HD57.7.S62 2015

658.4'092dc23 2014041057

eBook ISBN9780345547361

www.ballantinebooks.com

eBook design adapted from printed book design by Simon M. Sullivan

Cover illustration based on images Shutterstock

v4.1

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The most useful book about leadership. That is what we hope you and your team will say after finishing Power Score.

Other books promise this.

Thats true, but three things make this one unique.

First, its based on the largest body of research of its kind. Over the past 20 years, we have conducted in-depth interviews (four hours in length) of more than 15,000 leaders, producing more than 9 million data points.

Thats a lot of data!

It is. If you think listening to the advice of one leader is helpful, imagine having fifteen thousand leaders giving you their best advice!

The Wall Street Journal has called our database coveted. Research teams from top universities have helped us analyze the data. And the leadership advisors at ghSMART have reflected upon our clients biggest challenges, and how they have led to success or failure.

We have distilled this research and advice into a simple score that you can calculate with your team. It highlights exactly what you need to do to achieve your goals. We truly believe you will come to see this as the secret formula for success.

Whats the second reason this book is useful and different?

We designed this book in Q&A format to make it easy and fun to read. You talk in bold.

I talk in bold?

Thats right, you talk in bold, and we respond. This book is a conversation. Well tell you what we know and what you need to know, and well share some amazing storiespeople who turned their companies, their teams, and even their lives around by using the Power Score.

Thats a big claim.

It is, but we know that we can back it up.

These ideas have been battle tested for nearly two decades in thousands of big companies, entrepreneurial ventures, and even social service agencies. They work. We have even put them into practice ourselves. Well tell you about times when we have failed and learned so you can avoid our mistakes with your own team.

So what is this book about?

That brings us to the third reason this book is so useful. We provide a simple formula called the Power Score that enables you and your team to identify ways to improve your results.

When your team achieves better results, you will have a more positive impact on the world. You will make a bigger difference for your cause, whatever that might be. And you will enjoy more career success.

My team and I want those things. So what is this Power Score?

Its our grand unified theory of leadership boiled down to one number, your Power Score.