John Amaechi - The Promises of Giants

Praise for

The Promises of Giants

Amaechi is a towering force for good with a rare ability to defuse the most pungent provocations.

James OBrien, broadcaster & writer

Wise, challenging and inspiring, The Promises of Giants is a much-needed book that will resonate with you long after you have finished reading it.

Fiona Cannon OBE, Managing Director
Sustainable Business, Lloyds Banking Group

One of the most useful, enjoyable and challenging books on leadership of the last decade. An essential read for those aspiring to lead.

David DSouza, Membership Director at CIPD
(Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development)

Johns ability to bring souls out of the dark is real. Prepare to be lifted.

Colin Salmon, Actor

The Promises of Giants is packed full of inspirational, strategic tools and insights to make everyone learn and growwhether starting out in their leadership journey or a seasoned professional looking to transform their management.

Jean Tomlin OBE, CEO of Chanzo Ltd,
Independent Director at Capri Holdings

The Promises of Giants is about being a better leader by understanding who you are, why you are, and what impact you want to have in the world

Lord Victor O Adebowale CBE, MA,
Non-executive director, Co-Op

To Mum

The Promises of Giants

How YOU can fill the leadership void

John Amaechi OBE

In many ways I am ill-suited and ill-equipped to write this foreword. Although I have had the pleasure of working with John over the years, John would not count me as one of his close friends or work colleagues. I am not an organizational psychologist, and Im no use at team sports. I am a white, late-fifties, slightly stocky, straight male with a full head of hair.

So we are fabulously different!

However, that may be precisely why John has asked me to write this foreword. As someone responsible for the strategy of a very large, purpose-led professional services business, I have had the privilege of observing Johns work and influence, both within our own organization and with global corporates.

His work and this book are nothing short of arresting.

Take the time to read and reflect on this book, and in addition to discovering some wonderful things about John and his mum, you should also start to reflect more on yourself, your choices, your impact and influence, and the impact and influence you have on your friends, family and your own organizations.

Resist any temptation to skim The Promises of Giants and chalk it up as another book devoured. Instead, listen to the book, and listen to yourself as you read it. It will cause you to appraise and even confront your good self. You will start to weave a giants coat.

Slowly, gems and nuggets will wash up which you will sew into your giants coat. Gems like what winning is all about, that boldness and vulnerability are twins, or that vigilance is an essential weapon against bias. Nuggets for your business life, helping you to think again about the people you might not always pay attention to, seeking out those in your organization at the vanguard of change, or finding antidotes for dealing with insurgents!

By the end, your giants coat will be an intricate weave of your own choices and promises as well as your organizations culture. If your promises are The Promises of Giants, you will wear your coat lightly, with conviction, humility and integrity.

Alastair Morrison

Pinsent Masons

London

Some of you reading this might have a vague awareness of who I am from my ten-year career playing professional basketball. Or from my first book, Man in the Middle, and the rush of publicity that accompanied my coming out. Being the first openly gay former NBA player is still what Im best known for, and probably always will be. An unfortunate truth, given that the bit about being gay required zero effort on my part.

Since my retirement from sport in 1995, Ive worked a lot harder for what I believe are far greater accomplishments. So, to reintroduce myself, my name is John Amaechi, and I am the founder of APS, a professional consultancy that is now in its twentieth year of operation. We have a brilliant staff and a diverse client list that includes industry titans from across all sectors. We are welcomed into the inner sanctums of senior management teams and the rank-and-file, and together we work to identify and apply evidence-based and practical solutions to the most vexing challenges that face organizations today.

In addition to my work with APS, I am a member of the Occupational Psychology Division of the British Psychological Society; a Chartered Scientist and Science Council Member with the Institute of Science Technology; a research fellow at the University of East London Department of Psychology; a director of the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust and our nine area hospitals and community services; a contributing writer with the British Psychological Society; and an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE), awarded for contributions to charity and sport.

I appreciate that you dont need this level of detail. For most of you, those titles and affiliations are mere words on a page. But Ive become accustomed to leading with my credentials because I know they are not what people see when they first look at me. What they initially see is what people have always seen, ever since I was a child: an awe-inspiring and/or terrifying giant.

I could be presented to an audience with the most grandiose of introductions and a recitation of my accolades that is even more extensive than the list above, but the first reaction, no matter the size of the group or the context of the gathering, will always be absolute bewilderment.

Wow. He is tall. He is really, really tall. I dont believe Ive ever seen someone so tall. How tall must he be, exactly?

You will have to do an Internet search for that, Im afraid. Thats my response now to even the most well-intentioned stranger who asks about my height or my shoe size or how the weather feels way up here. After nearly 50 years, I no longer feel obliged to respond to such questions. So, to that extent, I am more confident and psychologically resilient than I was as a child giant navigating the streets of Manchester and the expressions of fear, shock, and ridicule that met me at every turn.

I am still evolving, however. In professional settings, I still feel compelled to disarm the reactions to my size. This colossal vessel that contains my brain is, at best, a distraction. Audiences are never sure what to make of me, and their cognitive dissonance only worsens once they hear me speak. British people fully expect an American accent. And Americans tend to assume that all Brits look like the Queen or Harry Styles. So everything about me is out of sorts.

Thus, I lead with credentials. I wear my CV like a sandwich board and overdress for most occasions. I seek to impress by appending that haughty OBE to my name (which isnt even my real name because using my real name would likely have the opposite effectbut well get to that).

I list my qualifications as instinctively as clearing my throat. A preemptive and defensive measure employed to shake loose false perceptions. To convince skeptics that what theyre seeing is more than a giant ex-jock who clearly spends more time these days eating airport and hotel food than running wind sprints.

Neutralizing peoples impressions is not easy; words are not always enough. Several years after I retired from basketball, I was seated on a flight from London to Boston and a flight attendant approached before takeoff to ask what team I played for. She framed her question in the present tense, despite the fact that I was already graying in the beard and significantly rounder than the average pro athlete. It was flattering in a way but also a bit daft.