Becoming the Best: Build a World-Class Organization Through Values-Based Leadership - Hardcover

Kraemer Jr., Harry M. Jansen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1118999428 ISBN 13: 9781118999424

Publisher: Jossey-Bass, 2015

Synopsis

What does it mean in practice to be a values-based leader? When faced with real situations, how can you be your best self and create best teams―while also being a best partner with customers and vendors, a best investment for your stakeholders, and a best citizen making a difference in the world? It's a tall order, but these are the expectations for world-class organizations today.

In his bestselling book From Values to Action, Harry Kraemer showed how self-reflection, balance, true self-confidence, and genuine humility are the traits of today's most effective leaders. In Becoming the Best, his highly anticipated follow-up, Kraemer reveals how, in practical terms, anyone can apply these principles to become a values-based leader and to help create values-based organizations.

Drawing on his own experiences as the former CEO and chairman of Baxter International, as well as those of other notable leaders and organizations, Kraemer lays out a pathway for understanding the principles and putting them into practice, showing specifically, how to:

• Use self-reflection to become your "best self" as you lead yourself and others more effectively
• Create a "best team" that understands and appreciates what they're doing, and why
• Forge "best partnerships" through win/win collaboration with vendors and customers that enhance the end user's experience Support the mission, vision, and values of the organization to generate returns that distinguish a "best investment"
• Make a difference in the world beyond the organization by becoming a "best citizen"

Powerful case studies from Campbell's Soup, Ernst & Young, Target, Northern Trust, and many others demonstrate the four principles of values-based leadership in action and show how thinking beyond the corporation can trigger positive outcomes for both the company and the world.

Regardless of level or job title, individuals can make a difference in their organization and beyond by embodying the essential traits of a great leader. Becoming the Best offers a definitive, actionable guide to show anyone how to apply in practice the principles of values-based leadership personally and professionally, making it an indispensable manual for the new wave of better leaders.

All of Harry’s proceeds from the book sales are donated to the One Acre Fund in Africa.

About this title

About the Author

HARRY M. JANSEN KRAEMER Jr. is a professor of management and strategy at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, where he teaches in the MBA and the Executive MBA programs. He is an executive partner with Madison Dearborn Partners, one of the largest private equity firms in the United States, where he consults with CEOs and other senior executives of companies in MDP's extensive portfolio. Kraemer is the former chairman and chief executive officer of Baxter International Inc., a multibillion-dollar global health care company, and the author of From Values to Action.

For more information, please visit

www.harrykraemer.org.

From the Back Cover

PRAISE FOR BECOMING THE BEST

"Harry Kraemer is on to a fundamentally powerful concept in applying values-based leadership to building world-class organizations. Filled with rich insights drawn from his remarkable career as a business leader, university professor, and executive mentor, Becoming the Best is a unique guidebook on personal leadership and team-building that can help both emerging and seasoned leaders create new high-performance organizations and improve existing ones."
W. James McNerney, Jr., Chairman and CEO, The Boeing Company

"Harry Kraemer offers compelling insight into creating a world-class business by cultivating the 'best' components from leaders to teams to suppliers. The principles he explores aren't merely rhetorical; as a former CEO, he walked the talk. Through the years, Harry has spoken to and enlightened thousands of AT&T leaders with his masterful approach to values-based leadership, providing us with innovative thinking, practical wisdom and aspirational goals."
William Blaseé, Executive Vice President, Human Resources, AT&T

"Once again Harry Kraemer has captured the subtleties of leadership in a pragmatic formula that we can all understand and begin practicing today. Responding to the enthusiasm from his first book, From Values to Action, Harry builds on the foundational virtue of self-awareness and artfully describes key features that define values-based leadership. Harry has written Becoming the Best in a style that combines his wealth of personal experience with a masterful gift for storytelling. He continues to inspire our search for selfless, world-class performance."
General (Ret) John P. Jumper, Former Chief of Staff, U.S. Air Force; Former Chairman and CEO, Leidos Corporation and SAIC

"In Becoming Your Best, Kraemer brings his renowned teaching from the classroom at the Kellogg School of Management to these pages, offering powerful insights on how leaders must and can bring their values to their work each day resulting in rich personal fulfillment and outstanding impact on their business and its wide-ranging stakeholders."
Sally Blount, Dean, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

"Becoming The Best is an energetic and engaging narrative on values-based leadership, one crafted by an author who has taught leadership and also practiced it, extensively. Harry Kraemer focuses on self development. This book will set your sights high as it should."
Barbara Kellerman, James MacGregor Burns Lecturer in Leadership, Kennedy School, Harvard University; author Hard Times: Leadership in America

"Becoming the Best will earn a place in your playbook for leadership spirit and soul. Harry Kraemer has shined a light on what it means to lead through real purpose, and how universal human values can be unleashed in your companies to create sustained excellence."
Tony Vernon, President and CEO, Kraft, Inc.

From the Inside Flap

What does it mean in practice to be a values-based leader? When faced with real situations, how can you be your best self and create best teams while also being a best partner with customers and vendors, a best investment for your stakeholders, and a best citizen making a difference in the world? It's a tall order, but these are the expectations for leaders and world-class organizations today.

In his bestselling book From Values to Action, Harry Kraemer showed how self-reflection, balance, true self-confidence, and genuine humility are the traits of today's most effective leaders. In Becoming the Best, his highly anticipated follow-up, Kraemer reveals how, in practical terms, anyone can apply these principles to become a values-based leader and to help create a values-based organization.

Drawing on his own experiences as the former CEO and chairman of Baxter International, as well as those of other notable leaders and organizations, Kraemer lays out a pathway for understanding the principles and putting them into practice, showing specifically, how to:

• Use self-reflection to become your "best self" as you lead yourself and others more effectively
• Create a "best team" that understands and appreciates what they're doing, and why
• Forge "best partnerships" through win/win collaboration with vendors and customers that enhance the end user's experience
• Support the mission, vision, and values of the organization to generate returns that distinguish a "best investment"
• Make a difference in the world beyond the organization by becoming a "best citizen"

Powerful case studies from Campbell's Soup, Ernst & Young, Target, Northern Trust, and many others demonstrate the four principles of values- based leadership in action and show how thinking beyond the corporation can trigger positive outcomes for both the company and the world.

Regardless of level or job title, individuals can make a difference in their organization and beyond by embodying the essential traits of a great leader. Becoming the Best offers a definitive, actionable guide to show anyone how to apply in practice the principles of values-based leadership personally and professionally, making it an indispensable manual for the new wave of better leaders.

Edition details

• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1118999428
• ISBN 13: 9781118999424
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224