Just Because It Quacks Like a Duck…

... doesn’t mean it’s the real thing.

A lot of what passes for leadership today doesn’t hold up under pressure. If you’ve ever felt let down by a leadership model—or struggled to live up to one—you’re not alone.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Buy The Book

“Leadership is the process of getting other people to move along together with you, and each other, with competence and full commitment to achieve a goal.”

— Elliott Jaques & Stephen D. Clement

Multiple colorful arrows converge and turn into a single blue arrow pointing to the right.

In plain language, leading is about influencing people.

Influence Isn’t NeW

These days, influence has been repackaged as something to be curated, monetized, and measured by the number of followers you can amass.
But long before influence became a marketing term, it described something essential to human life: the way people affect one another through attention, trust, and shared purpose.

Influence isn’t a thing leaders do — it’s what emerges through the quality of the attention they give, the trust they earn, and the working relationships they build. It’s how people have shaped communities, decisions, and progress since humans first began working together.

That’s a definition worth reclaiming — it’s quieter, steadier, and far more consequential — something that builds rather than brands.

And once you see influence this way, the real question becomes:
How can you become more effective in how you influence —

more deliberate, more human, more real?

Meet the people whose work lives in that question

Leadership Actually Advance Reviews

  • “Leadership Actually is an invitation to cast aside most of what have been taught about leadership to make room for a new concept - the craft of leadership - and explore its possibilities for transforming you, those you lead, and the world around you”

    R. Tom Lenz, Emeritus Professor of Management, Kelly School of Business, Indiana University

  • “It's a good idea to have two copies of Leadership Actually: one for the office to share with colleagues and one for home to share with family and friends."

    E.R. Dunn, President, Dunn Group Ltd.

  • "Rooted in deep psychological principles, military and business strategy as well as ancient wisdom, it invites us to reimagine leadership in a holistic, pragmatic and far more human way in every area of our lives."

    Rob Meekins, Co-Founder and Former CEO, Med School Tutors

  • “ This book is a hands-on guide for leaders who know they can get the best out of their teams (and themselves) but have been struggling with how."

    Sarah Redgrave, Vice President, Center Operations, KinderCare 

  • “Leadership Actually eloquently uses the narrative of a Vietnam Veteran to remind us that true leadership skills are not something that can be taught or even refined through training, but through an openness to what life and those we encounter bring to us. It reminds us that our leadership is not something we have earned by being better than, but an honor we have gained by being open to; a burden we carry by caring for; a responsibility we assume for hoping for a brighter tomorrow.”

    Michelle Craven, Ph.D, School Counselortion

Order Leadership Actually

The Actually. . . Blog

Read More
Blog
With Competence and Full Commitment…
With Competence and Full Commitment…

No doubt Sam and Earl would recognize CCLA’s definition of leadership: the process of getting people to move along together with you—and each other—with competence and full commitment to achieve a goal.

Every Picture Tells a Story
Every Picture Tells a Story

Please take a look at our brand mark above for a moment.

Most people comment that it’s colorful, seems to move from left to right, and feels “directional.” We agree.

But the mark is much more than the decorative part of our logo. It’s a visual expression of how we understand leadership.

It appears on the cover of our book Leadership Actually, on our business cards, and on most of our correspondence.

The Taste of Agency
The Taste of Agency

Bonfire Burrito has become something different.

People come for more than the food. They come for the experience—an experience shaped by people who are encouraged to contribute, to try something, to add something of their own.