Thank you for helping us select the best title and subtitle for the new book by bestselling author Mark Miller.
Leadership has never been easy. The growing complexity in our world is making the challenge even more difficult. To thrive, leaders must think and act differently.
Continuing the fable format that has proven so successful in his previous books, Mark tells the story of Blake Brown, a new, struggling CEO overwhelmed by declining company sales, employees with low engagement and morale, and a lackluster leadership team. Nothing Blake learned from his previous jobs seems to help him deal with the bigger, more complex problems he now faces. The game has changed.
Blake's new mentor is Jack Deluca, a retired CEO and chess grandmaster who helps Blake look at his challenges with new eyes. Jack shows Blake how he is playing a simple game of checkers when he should be playing chess.
Drawing on his extensive knowledge of chess and business, Jack uses the metaphor of playing "chess not checkers" to help leaders utilize the unique abilities of each employee, spur strategic thinking throughout an organization, and think ahead, not just to the next move, but to the moves after that and the moves of competitors.
As the story continues, Blake learns how to apply this new chess-not-checkers mentality to four major priorities for creating high performance organizations: leadership development, employee engagement, organizational alignment, and disciplined execution.
This book will help leaders successfully navigate the complexities they face while producing the results they aspire to.