Much like physical fitness, leadership capabilities need to be continuously worked on if you want to develop new skills and maintain existing ones. Leadership is not a static skill set learned one day and then relied upon and applied for the rest of your career. The Leadership Workout therefore provides you with a 31-day framework to purposefully direct and regularly review your leadership through daily reflection and practice, helping you to refine and further develop your leadership. One facet at a time, one day at a time. For this book to have a real impact on your leadership effectiveness we strongly recommend to not to just read one reflection a day but to actually spend a few minutes each day working through the daily leadership practice which accompanies each reflection. Because only when you connect these reflections to your own experiences as a leader will you gain insights on how you might improve your leadership. Otherwise it will just remain a lot of talk about abstract concepts and it won't have any impact on how you show up as a leader each day. Though we're not going to proclaim that miracles will happen to your leadership effectiveness overnight, we're fairly certain that by the time you get to day 31 you will most likely have made some significant improvements to your leadership effectiveness, resulting from a combination of several small tweaks and perhaps one or two big shifts as a result of one or two real AHA moments driven by these daily reflections and practices.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Brenda van Camp-Elmes is the founder and CEO of SharpAlice, a SaaS company which offers a platform that provides a personalized leadership development experience to create digital-era ready leaders . Prior to founding SharpAlice, Brenda spend 20 years working as a marketing executive for consumer companies around the world. Most recently she was the Chief Marketing Officer of Blurb.com, the leading online publishing platform based in San Francisco. Prior to that, Brenda was the SVP, International Head of Marketing for the international fine art auction house Christie's. Earlier in her career, Brenda honed her business skills as a consultant for Booz Allen & Hamilton and Publicis Consultants and as an Investment Director for two European venture capital firms.

She has worked & lived in the US, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East and holds a BA and MA in Economics from the University of Amsterdam and professional coaching training from CTI's Co-Active Coach Training Program, The Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) Coach program and the Presence-Based Coaching program.

Brenda is originally from the Netherlands but nowadays she lives in Napa, California, with her husband and two Labrador Retriever puppies, Dropje and Woody.

REVIEWS:

How do you eat an elephant? The same way you cultivate strong leadership skills....one bite at a time!

In an authentic and approachable way, Brenda demystifies how to become a stronger leader. Brenda reminds us that leadership is a skill within us that requires our consistent attention to strengthen. Leadership is a skill anyone can develop. What can be a daunting topic is thoughtfully deconstructed, giving the reader thoughtful daily reflections on how to create their own leadership muscle memory. All in a crisp, actionable way.
-Justine_Zilliken

This book is a must read for any leader and a fabulous gift for anyone beginning their leadership journey. It offers direct, no nonsense, practical advice...as well as concrete tips and exercises. I appreciate that it is a quick read, but the topics stay with you and the practice exercises at the end of every chapter allow instant application. The author is a Leadership Development expert and reading the book is like having a personal leadership coach.

I share the author's belief and the premise of the book...that all of us should strive to be intentional leaders and that takes practice. I love the direct and digestible thoughts of each chapter on key aspects of leadership (eg radical self knowledge, productive conflict, storytelling, charisma, etc). Don't miss her last chapter entitled My Own Journey to Leadership...From Ballerina to the C­Suite.
-Meg Crofton