800-CEO-READ Blog

Launching The Prepared Mind World Tour

I want to introduce you to a book today. It is called The Prepared Mind of a Leader and it is written by Bill Welter and Jean Egmon. We at 800ceeoread like this book alot and will be doing a numbers of things to feature it over the next four months.

Why so much love?

1. I can 99% guarantee you haven't heard of this book. It has gotten no major media coverage. We like highlighting books you won't see anywhere else.
2. It is a really good book. We immediately identified with their definition of leadership:
   

   ...we see leadership as the practice of continously envisioning opportunities for growth within complex, dynamic environments, built on core principles the organization is committed to sustaining and using as the basis for value delivered to all its stakeholders. Implied in our definition is that leaders, no matter where they are in the organization, are strategists in terms of making opportunities explicit and knowing why and when and how to move into and navigate the problems and opportunities they face.

3. This is a book that expects alot from its reader. You are not going to charge through it on that flight from Chicago to DC. To get the most out of the book, you are going to have to commit some time to the skills it is teaching. For that reason, we are going to do a number of features across the 800ceoread family of sites.

Here is our plan. This week, we will be featuring the book on inBubbleWrap. That will give a number of you a chance to get a copy of the book. We are also going to do a follow-up offer for those who don't get your name pulled out of the hat.

inBubblewrap winners and those who take us up on the offer will be invited to teleconference with the authors. It will be a kick-off to a eight week book club. During the tcon, Bill and Jean will introduce everyone to the concept of the book and introduce the first of eight skills. Each week following, the authors will post a entry on here on the daily blog explaining another one of the skills. After we have gotten through all of the skills, we are going to invite everyone back for a final tcon to talk about what was learned and give people a chance to ask more questions.

We have never gone all out like this for a book. We feel like it is the right book and one that you need to spend time with. So stay tuned and we'll keep you posted on the next leg of the Tour.