The Next Level: What Insiders Know About Executive Success

This weeks Resource Recommendation is The Next Level: What Insiders Know About Executive Success by Scott Eblin.

There are two important things you should know about this book right away:

• This book is written by a good writer who has been an executive in a Fortune 500 company; so, it is not only well written, but it’s readable and practical.
• This book is a Second Edition – a “revised and expanded” book. In my experience, poor books don’t get “revised and expanded”.

This is a very good book.

I have been reading Scott Eblin’s Next Level Blog for a long time – in fact it was nominated as one our Best Leadership Blogs in 2009. Scott consistently brings a great perspective and solid advice to his blog. The same can be said for this book.

Scott helps leaders think about some of their key challenges and provides great advice on what to do to meet (and exceed) those challenges. The book is organized about personal, team and organizational presence and will help you see the importance of what leaders bring in each of these contexts.

While I love the whole book, Appendix B alone makes it one that belongs on your shelf. Called the Situation Solutions Guide, it is like having an executive coach always at your side. This appendix outlines specific situations including (and this is just a small sampling):

• Being promoted to a more senior position
• Getting a new boss
• Feeling overwhelmed
• Trouble with executive peers

Plus, it outlines specific actions to take – and where in the book you can get help with those tasks.

The title of the book talks about executive success, and most its examples are in that realm. This makes sense because it is Scott’s experience and this level of leadership is Scott’s primary Clients. If you are, or aspire to be, an executive in any organization large or small you need to read this book.

If you are a leader at a different level, the book’s ideas and applications will help you just as much as more senior leaders – the only difference is that you won’t find as many directly relatable examples.

This fact doesn’t change the value or importance of this book! If you are a student of leadership and you want to get to the next level in your leadership skills, you want this book on your shelf.