Leadership Memoir

Sailing Upwind is more than just another memoir of a distinguished former naval officer's highly diverse career. This book by Admiral James "Sandy" Winnefeld is also intended to offer useful reflections regarding how he accepted and managed risk along the way, as well as a concise description of the qualities one must develop to become a successful leader. Winnefeld began his career as an F-14 fighter pilot and TOPGUN instructor, commanded an aircraft carrier, and then served in a variety of flag officer billets on the way to becoming the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

This biography of educational activist and Black studies forerunner Bertha Maxwell-Roddey examines a life of remarkable achievements and leadership in the desegregated South. Sonya Ramsey modernizes the nineteenth-century term "race woman" to describe how Maxwell-Roddey and her peers turned hard-won civil rights and feminist milestones into tangible accomplishments in North Carolina and nationwide from the late 1960s to the 1990s.

It’s the business of saving lives. Miracle Medicines goes behind the scenes of the pharmaceutical industry and into the high-security laboratories to tell the stories of the men and women - chemists, physiologists, medical and clinical researchers, engineers - who have chosen to toil for years in the lab in order to transform scientific theories into new lifesaving medicines. You’ll witness the day-to-day labors, victories and defeats of the dedicated professionals who are waging a war against the diseases that still plague mankind.

In 1998, the thought of launching a startup in San Antonio was ludicrous. Just over two decades later, the scrappy little underdog that no one believed in is a billion-dollar business with more than 6,000 employees worldwide. The rocket-ship growth was exhilarating, but exposed Rackspace’s early flaws. The Rack We Built is Lorenzo’s recollections from those days, told only as he can tell it. With the principles in the book, you can create the type of culture that makes people want to volunteer their best.

After a dramatic election amid a raging pandemic, racial violence, economic collapse, and historic national divisions that have threatened our democracy, Joe Biden succeeds Donald Trump as the 46th president of the United States. For Catholics, this is a momentous occasion in US public life, as he is the second Catholic to be elected to the nation’s highest office, joining John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

A Higher Standard takes a candid look at the exciting military career of US Army General Ann Dunwoody, who received her fourth star - a rank never before reached by a woman - in her fourth decade of service. From her first command leading 200 soldiers to her final one leading 69,000, Dunwoody reveals the challenges she faced and the changes she initiated by sharing both the smallest moments and the most pivotal events in her career.

Tony Wagner is an eminent education specialist: He has taught at every grade level from high school through graduate school; worked at Harvard; done significant work for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; and speaks across the country and all over the world. But before he found his success, Wagner was kicked out of middle school, expelled from high school, and dropped out of two colleges. Learning by Heart is his powerful account of his years as a student and teacher.

Cheekys' founder Jessi Roberts reveals how she grew one small store hurdle-by-hurdle into a national clothing and accessories brand with a one-and-a-half-million-strong community. Best of all, she did it by standing tall for her values: Always be kind, lift up the next gal, and treat employees and customers like family. More than a business book, Backroads Boss Lady is about embracing your passion even when others don't see value in it - or you - and about putting food on the table and believing in yourself.

Renowned as a diversity and inclusion strategist, Michelle Gadsden-Williams held C-Suite positions at major organizations for many years and then took the off-ramp to probe a different career path, launching Ceiling Breakers LLC, with the primary goal to help women and professionals of color reach their full potential. As a woman of color and corporate executive who has worked and traveled the world for several Fortune 500 companies - all while managing a chronic illness - she provides insight into overcoming the barriers facing professionals in today's workplace.

In early 2012, Jim Tselikis visited LA and met up with his cousin Sabin Lomac. Over a few drinks they waxed nostalgic about their childhood in Maine, surrounded by family, often elbow deep in delicious lobster while gathered around the picnic table. From this strong memory was born the very first Cousins Maine Lobster food truck. Smart, authentic marketing, and sustainable, delicious ingredients helped turn that one food truck into an overnight sensation.

In 2010 Tony Hsieh was introduced to many as a visionary modern business leader. Under Hsieh's leadership, Zappos became the world's largest online shoe company by championing satisfied customers and a valued workforce. After his company was purchased by Amazon, Hsieh turned his energies and considerable fortune toward a much larger goal: building a new and more socially conscious Silicon Valley in the heart of downtown Las Vegas, all within his five-year plan.

Frank Savage's is an unlikely success story. Raised in segregated Washington, DC, by his mother, a hairdresser and entrepreneur with little formal education, Savage's career has taken him around the world as a globetrotting financier. From his first banking job at Citibank to his current position as Chairman Emeritus of Howard University, The Savage Way shares the life and business lessons he learned along the way.

Conventional wisdom says most startups need to be in Silicon Valley, started by young engineers around a sexy new idea and backed by VC funding. But as Mikkel Svane reveals in Startupland, the story of founding Zendesk was anything but conventional. Founded in a Copenhagen loft by three 30-something friends looking to break free from corporate doldrums, Zendesk Inc. became one of the hottest enterprise software companies, rapidly growing with customers in 150 countries. But its success was anything but predestined.

Delane Parnell is not your typical tech entrepreneur. He was raised in a gang-riddled neighborhood on Detroit’s west side, bouncing between homes as his mother tried to make ends meet. Many of his closest friends and family members ended up in jail or dead. This makes it even more incredible that Delane became the 25-year-old founder and CEO of PlayVS, a Los Angeles company that is forever changing the gaming landscape in America.

Lord knows, Rev Al has had his personal and very public ups and downs - but he's come out bigger and better than ever. Though the host of MSNBC's PoliticsNation is as fiery and outspoken as ever about the events and issues that matter most, he's learned that the only way we can get right as a nation is by getting right from within. In this, his first book in over a decade, Rev Al will take you behind the scenes of some unexpected places - from officiating Michael Jackson's funeral, hanging out with Jay-Z and President Barack Obama at the White House, to taking charge of the Trayvon Martin case.

Charles de Gaulle a été le Français le plus notable du XXe siècle. L'homme appartient à l'Histoire. Mais sa personnalité semble défier l'analyse : homme d'action il écrit des livres d'un style raffiné, militaire de carrière il excelle en manœuvre politique, homme de droite il nationalise à tour de bras, personnalité charismatique c'est un solitaire. Et finalement cet homme réussit à paraître tout d'une pièce à force de contradictions.

In this practical and inspiring book, Willow Creek Executive vice president and teaching pastor Nancy Beach speaks to women with God-given gifts of leading and teaching. Sharing from her thirty-year journey in a local church, Nancy offers guidance on such issues as: character development, earning respect, finding your voice, managing work and personal life, and forming an intentional support network.

From Major General Jeffrey Schloesser - former commanding general of the 101st Airborne Division and Regional Command-East - comes a revealing memoir of leadership in the chaos and fog of the Afghanistan War.

This exciting series opens with “the Desert Fox”, the most famous German field marshal in World War II, Erwin Rommel. A hero of the people of the Third Reich and widely respected by his opponents, Rommel proved himself highly adept at blitzkrieg warfare. He displayed an outstanding ability to seize the initiative and retain it, and here, Charles Messenger draws on the skills behind this ability for the benefit of modern-day leaders.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is one of today's most recognized public figures, but few people are aware of the astonishing range of his leadership successes over the past four decades. Whether directing battles in the mountains of Afghanistan or guiding multibillion-dollar corporations through troubled waters, Rumsfeld has carved out a position among the most remarkable leaders of our time.