The Five-Week Leadership Challenge: 35 Action Steps to Become the Leader You Were Meant to Be

by Patrick R. Leddin, Stephen M.R. Covey (Foreword)

Wall Street Journal Bestseller Develop and expand your innate leadership abilities through daily exercises and challenges designed to help you grow into the leader you want to be and prepare you for the job you were made to have. A recent Harvard Business Review article outlining a study of over 17,000 leaders found that although, on average, people begin to supervise others at age 30, most do not start to receive formal leadership training until their forties. In addition to serving as a U.S. Army airborne, infantry, and ranger-qualified officer, Patrick Leddin has founded successful businesses and trained thousands of leaders. In The Five-Week Leadership Challenge , Leddin shows you how to quickly build standout leadership skills so that when the next opportunity comes along, you're the only person for the job. In this book , you will Don't wait for training that doesn't come until it's too late. The Five-Week Leadership Challenge is an invaluable guide to help any aspiring leader begin a daily practice of exercises and challenges designed to develop and grow your leadership ability as quickly as possible.

Genres: Leadership, Business, Nonfiction

240 pages, Paperback

Published September 6, 2022

About the author

Patrick is coauthor with James Patterson of the book "Disrupt Everything and Win: Take Control of Your Future" (Sep 25). He is also the author of The Wall Street Journal bestseller, "The Five-Week Leadership Challenge: 35 Action Steps to Become the Leader You Were Meant to Be."

Patrick has benefited from both hands-on leadership and management experience coupled with academic rigor and expertise. He served as a U.S. Army master parachutist, infantry, ranger-qualified officer, worked as a Project Manager at KPMG Consulting, and, along with his wife, Jamie, started and ran an Inc. 5000 recognized consulting firm which was acquired in 2012.

His speaking engagements and consulting work have allowed him to partner with clients and present to countless audiences in the United States, Canada, China, Malaysia, Singapore, Great Britain, Aruba, Iceland, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Guam, and many other countries around the world.

Patrick served an Associate Professor at Vanderbilt University and Director of Business Studies where he taught Corporate Strategy, Negotiation, and Crisis Leadership. He is a Senior Advisor for Leadership and Culture at FranklinCovey.

source: Amazon

Reviews

[Daniel Quitério · Rating 2 out of 5]

This author is certainly proud of himself. Nearly every chapter begins with something along the lines of “I climbed Kilimanjaro,” or “I completed an intensive program that most fail on the first day,” or “I hiked some remote jungle in a far-off land,” or “I jumped out of a plane, completed a series of backflips, and landed on my feet…blindfolded.” It’s nearly impossible to relate to him, particularly since these ridiculous stories take up about 90% of each chapter with the actual lesson learned reflected in the mere leftover 10%. And the chapters are extremely short, meaning each lesson is relegated to just a few sentences in many cases. Who’s he trying to impress?

[Audrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5
This was cute! Kinda like youth pastor vibes of trying to connect obscure stories to life lessons. I felt like there were times where Leddin was struggling to come up with relevant connections, and I almost wish this book had just gone more in-depth on his strongest stories.
The questions about each chapter weren't the most engaging. Some of them were literally like yes or no questions lol.
Read this for food pantry book club tho so I will always remember it fondly <3

[Josie Jones (Lutz) · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was just okay for me.
First, I do see the value of a 5 week challenge and the benefits of that but I think this one is a bit unrealistic. The chapters were kind of all over the place and the questions were too deep without sufficient support, examples or direction. I found myself skipping over many questions because I felt like the chapter didn’t help me process it well.
Second, for someone who brags on their stories right out of the gate, I didn’t actually find the author’s stories very compelling or helpful.
Lastly, I don’t believe this structure of short general tips/lessons to be a great way to grow in leadership. So many of these topics were fantastic and super interesting but with so many of them, the lessons and takeaways get lost. I’m finding it hard to sum up what I learned from this experience because there was just too much going on. I think it can be much more helpful to really deep dive into each idea and build on those to develop leadership skills over time versus a quick guide like this. Overall, the idea of this was good, some of the lessons were really interesting but the actually book fell flat to me.

[Dana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a leadership workbook that offers learning through anecdotes and lessons that the author has collected through his time in business and the Armed Forces, along with daily and weekly challenges to help the reader apply their knowledge in a real life setting.

Each week has an overall theme - Gain Perspective, Discover Purpose, Determine Priorities, Create Plans, and Inspire Performance. I found that each of the themes touches on the critical components for being a successful people leader. Each day, the book guides you through a series of questions related to the topic at hand, and a challenge to help you apply your learnings. I really enjoyed the questions, and thought that for the most part, they led to good reflection. Some of the challenges were very helpful, others I had a bit of trouble connecting the dots on how they were related to the lesson at hand.

This book was interesting and kept me engaged through the stories that Patrick Leddin shared along the way. An established people leader will likely not learn too many new concepts from the book, but will still benefit from using the questions and exercises in the book as an exercise in reflection to find opportunities for growth. I think this would be a valuable companion resource for a new line manager, particularly if the book is followed in the 5 week pattern as intended.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Leadership for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review!

[Achu Aswathi · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Five-Week Leadership Challenge is a great book written with all needed things to be known to be a good leader. Each chapter deals with each sort of things to be learned and practiced in your life daily to be a right leader for your fellow members. There are chapters where he talk about how the communication is important, hear your team opinion before making any decision rather than thinking they will accept. Owning your mistakes, having the right relationship with client, employees, how to manage time and how to present an information in right way.

There are a lot of things to be learned from this book. He is a good story teller who was explained each topic with some stories related to it which was from his personal experience. In each chapter end we can write answers for the questions and problems we faced in life. It felt like a conversation with the author who was narrating and explaining to us to be a right and good leader.

I loved the way it is written and I will reread this whenever it is needed. I found it a helpful one.

[Kurtis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book goes through 5 themed weeks to help you develop your leadership skills: gain perspective, discover purpose, determine priorities, create plans, and inspire performance. Each week has 7 different topics, with the intent of completing one a day. At the end of each day/chapter, there is a thought of summary for the day, some questions for reflection, and a challenge. This book is great for reflecting on many different areas of leadership and has enough reflection to facilitate growth. The chapter points are made through telling stories to drive the theme home. Some of these are effective and some not, but overall it is a solid book for a leader who is looking to reflect and grow in their leadership.

This book was provide to me through netgallery in exchange for fair feedback.

[Dora Okeyo · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are plenty of books on leadership- from how to lead to how not to lead; however, this book builds on 5 major areas that are key for you as a leader and you get to tackle each area per week.
These 5 key focus areas are: perspective, purpose, priorities, plans and performance.
Now, what's even better is that each week (7 days) has 7 challenges to help you assess your strengths and weaknesses and build on them.

This is the kind of book I'd recommend as a guide, a companion best suited when you know growth requires time and other investments.
It's easy to read, insightful and you'll enjoy it as well.
Thanks Netgalley for the eARC.

[G Newman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Patrick Leddin has written a remarkable book to challenge anyone desiring to lead at a higher level. The 35 Day / 5 Week challenge is broken-up into 35 daily nuggets with a life illustration and practical learning steps for you to reflect on and journal as you grow. It's great book for groups, leaders, and teams. I plan on using this book with a small group of people next year.

The practical application of these lessons will make each of us a better leader. If you desire to improve your world and your personal life, I encourage you to apply this book to your life.

[Addison Zane · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had some thoughtful moments and segments that inspired me to evaluate myself and my career. However, it felt generic at times as well. Especially when it came to the action sections (in which we're given questions with lines to answer them).

Not the most amazingly impactful leadership book ever; felt corporate and trying to too hard to value being inclusive over delivering a strong message.

But, if you do have the time, this is a good book because it offers an avenue for critical self-examination.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a collection of lessons and anecdotes that the author has experienced during his working career. There are daily and weekly challenges to help apply these techniques in the real world. I love how each week has a theme and it doesn't jump around and cause anxiety in trying to apply 3-4 different tips each week. The questions and challenges helped with my self-reflection and allowed me to apply these to my team at work.

[Renata · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title of the book is very good, motivational.
The read was good, just wanted more variaty of challenges, because mainly they were conversations with others, journaling exercises. As well, what next steps should be done after each challenge on any specific results?

🙏 #netgalley #PatrickRLeddin #ThefiveWeekLeadershipChallenge

[Chad Manske · Rating 4 out of 5]

Former US Army Airborne and Ranger-qualified officer and author Patrick Leddin left the Army to open a consulting business and train leaders around the world. In this 35-day plan designed to be consumed over 5 work weeks, Leddin uses personal stories, thoughtful questions, and introspective exercises to allow leaders to better understand themselves and grow as leaders. A great resource for lifelong leaders and learners who strive to stay sharp and fulfill their potential.

[Shauna Morrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like that Patrick wants you to read this book over 5 weeks and take the time each day to reflect on the lesson learned, assess how this could be used within your team, and how it could benefit you and your team. I love the baby elephants, I have worked at many companies that allowed baby elephants to become large elephants, causing derision, anger, annoyance, and ultimately resignations.

[Chel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book which doesn't just talk the talk - it provides lots of recommendations to implement with daily activities/ challenges and tips. It helps to improve leadership and team communication. Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Christopher Peter Makris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed the daily anecdotes, brief reflective exercises, & daily challenges to consider a wide range of leadership aspects. Each provided food for thought and allowed for cursory exploration of many topics into which one could choose to delve deeper.

[Kwakiutl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Practical and Motivating

Patrick Leddin provides a very helpful guide on the foundation elements to evolve your leadership capabilities. Follow this one, twice or as often as you need to to improve.