Technical Professional to Innovation Leader

The book is targeted for technical and analytical professionals, in engineering, IT, finance, accounting, and other areas, who rely heavily on their analytical and functional capabilities. It is a leadership development manual by and for technical leaders. Drawing upon his and other successful leaders' experiences, the author provides unique insights into the roadblocks encountered during the leadership development journey and practical ideas to overcome them.

We, the technical/analytical professionals, are programmed and think differently.

Yes, the market is full of leadership books, and the technical professionals this book addresses have read these generic leadership books. But they do not help us because we, the technical/analytical professionals, and managers, are programmed differently by our education and training. The sixteen years of schooling we undertake toward our bachelor's degrees have helped us develop our analytical left brain. For people completing graduate school, like me, there are another two years of still more analytical programming. Technical professionals view the world differently.

People know and can articulate the desired leadership skills and behaviors but have difficulty applying those on the job. The book helps them bridge the gap, between knowing and doing, by addressing the root causes.

This book starts with where people are

To help a person climb up to higher ground where you are standing, you have to reach down and extend your hand to the person where he is standing. That is, you have first to understand where they are at. How do they see the world? How do they comprehend the responsibilities and the skills required to be successful in their new roles? Once they feel understood, they are ready to listen to and see the big picture, visible from the higher elevation - the responsibilities and corresponding skills required to succeed in the new position. Our strengths as technical professionals provide a solid foundation to build upon.

The section, Developing and Unleashing Yours and Team's Natural Innovation Skills, has dedicated chapters on 'How to Generate Creative Ideas, ' and 'How to Gain Acceptance of Your Ideas.

Finally, it addresses a very important and ignored reality that Leadership is an extension of the total person- your knowledge, skills, worldview, attitude, feelings - the analytical you and the feeling you, the truly and completely human you with human needs. As a human, anything that impacts you, positively or negatively, also affects your leadership.

It presents practical ideas from leaders at Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Audi, Hilton, FedEx, TCS, IBM and others.