In a complicated, insecure, and constantly changing world, how do effective leaders in high-performing companies continue to succeed? Are they fearless heroes who have all the right answers-transforming businesses, making fast decisions, and inspiring everyone no matter how complex the situation? Or are they "real people" who work hard to trust others, acknowledge their own flaws, and challenge conventional thinking? Are leaders who win followers and get things done heroic figures? Or do they actually possess characteristics and practice skills that fall outside the comfort zone of executives steeped in traditional leadership methods?
Written by David Dotlich and Peter Cairo— two of the country’s top executive coaches and educators— Unnatural Leadership debunks the common notion of the natural leader as a flawless figure. The book describes the truth about being a real leader in a business environment turned upside down by e-commerce, diversity, security concerns, globalization, and matrix structures. Drawing on personal experience working with successful leaders in top-tier companies throughout the world, Dotlich and Cairo identify a style of leadership used by those who succeed in complicated business and people situations, a style that maximizes a leader’s strengths and acknowledges weaknesses.
Using a variety of tools and techniques based on their proven Action Learning workshops and Action Coaching methods, the authors reveal how to transition from the traditional natural leadership role and develop successful, effective unnatural leadership traits. Dotlich and Cairo recommend simple, practical ways that effective leaders use to get things done, motivate and lead, and deal with their own weaknesses and impulses.
Each chapter contains a wealth of tips and techniques to help implement and develop the skills needed to become a new kind of leader. Dotlich and Cairo challenge conventional wisdom about leadership such as "be in control" and "hide your flaws." Instead, they identify ten "unnatural acts" that effective leaders regularly commit and are, in fact, the best response to an "irrational, chaotic, and unpredictable universe." These include:
o Refuse to be a prisoner of experience
o Expose your vulnerabilities
o Create teams that create discomfort
o Trust others before they earn it
o Coach and teach rather than lead and inspire


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword (Stephen H. Rhinesmith)
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction

Part One: The Importance of Unnatural Leadership
1 Ten Unnatural Acts
Exercise: Assessing Your Unnatural Leadership
2 Adapting to an Increasingly Unnatural Environment
Exercise: Breaking the Rules of Natural Leadership
3 Resistance Factors
Exercise: Assessing Your Resistance to Unnatural Leadership

Part Two: Personal Challenges for the Unnatural Leader
4 Refuse to Be a Prisoner of Experience
Exercise: Refusing to Be a Prisoner of Experience
5 Expose Your Vulnerabilities
Exercise: Exposing Your Vulnerabilities
6 Acknowledge Your Shadow Side
Exercise: Acknowledging Your Shadow Side
7 Develop a Right-Versus-Right Decision-Making Mentality
Exercise: A Tool for Developing an Unnatural Decision-Making Mentality

Part Three: Leading Teams as an Unnatural Leader:
8 Create Teams That Create Discomfort
Exercise: Creating Teams That Create Discomfort
9 Trust Others Before They Earn It
Exercise: Trusting Others Before They Earn It
10 Coach and Teach Rather Than Lead and Inspire
Exercise: Coaching and Teaching Rather Than Leading and Inspiring

Part Four: Leading the Organization as an Unnatural Leader
11 Connect Instead of Create
Exercise: Connecting Instead of Creating
12 Give Up Some Control
Exercise: Giving Up Some Control
13 Challenge the Conventional Wisdom
Exercise: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom
14 Giving Yourself Unnatural Options

Bibliography
Index
About the Authors