Lead Like A Human: Practical Steps To Building Highly Engaged Teams

by Adam Weber, Verne Harnish

Do you ever feel like you aren’t living your fullest at work? Or that you have to pretend to be someone else just to be successful?

Adam Weber has made it his life’s mission to help people become their best selves and discover how their careers can become the answer to their purpose. As a thought leader on people solutions, he shows leaders how to get the best out of their staff and he’s seen how, when employees bring their full selves to work, they unleash their true potential and do great things―both for themselves and for the organizations that employ them. How? Through a new approach to leadership that requires businesspeople to be authentic, to be vulnerable, to be themselves―to be human.

In Lead Like a Human, Adam shares his unique perspective on leadership as well as practical tips on building and leading engaged teams of empowered employees. From creating an enduring culture to using data to pinpoint your organization’s toughest problems, you’ll learn how to engage your people in a way that drives innovation and real business growth. When you lead like a human, you unlock the potential in yourself and in your people, allowing everyone to do impactful work that is challenging, captivating, and, ultimately, inspiring.

162 pages, Paperback

Published September 1, 2020

Reviews

[Brittany Darr · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a younger leader who has been in a management role for about two years. I'm trying to read a lot of different books to help me lead my people to the best of my abilities. This book, and the speaker himself, were presented to my company's HR before my time at the company. My friend in HR lent me the book and a copy of the slideshow that Weber talked through; the title alone drew me in because I am always noting how we are all just humans trying to make it through the days.

Any self-help or leadership book will have bits that apply to you and bits that don't. Just like a cookbook, not every recipe fits with you. Lead Like A Human does a good job at just explaining how businesses have changed in the last 20-30 years and that managers now should be focusing on their employees needs, not just the company's. I particularly liked how Weber outlined the difference between satisfaction and engagement, and have realized where I need to adjust my own work-styles there. It has made me want to come up with a company (or at least my shift's) purpose, as my company only has a "vision", and that is geared towards our customers. I figure, making a purpose or mantra will be for our employees, our people.

This was a decent, and fairly quick read. The beginning was a little confusing, just outlining Weber's personal history, but the bones of how to Lead Like A Human were strong points to help people build relationships and make a difference in their workplaces. One of the sayings I liked most in this was that we must engage with an employees head to put passion in their hearts to get motivation into their hands.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great insight and practical support in this book.

"People are at the core of every business function: customer experience, operational efficiency, sales, you name it. When you start prioritizing the right people initiatives, you'll see a lift in other critical business metrics too."

[Lola Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a REALLY good read for new leaders, and a refresher of getting back to basics and leading your team like a human for seasoned leaders.