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Zusammenfassung von The Promises of Giants

Name: The Promises of Giants
Rating: 4.3 (30 reviews)
Author: John Amaechi

John Amaechi

How YOU can fill the leadership void

4.3 (30 Bewertungen)

25 Min.

Worum geht es in The Promises of Giants?

The Promises of Giants (2021) offers a series of strategies that will transform you into an extraordinary leader. Regardless of what you do or where you are on your career journey, this series of practical tips will expedite your success while empowering those around you.

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What’s in it for me? Learn how to succeed by effecting positive change.

Do you dream of doing something extraordinary with your life? Perhaps you’re already doing it, pursuing your goal and tackling whatever obstacles stand in your way. But how well have you planned that journey?

For example, have you taken the time to unearth all the hidden assets and liabilities that will affect the outcome? And how much thought have you given to the people and the spaces you’re working in? Success isn’t just about personal achievement, after all. It’s about creating environments that foster the potential in everyone.

If you want to transform those environments to support success, you need to make some promises – to yourself and to others. These blinks will guide you through seven of those promises, so that you can actively support yourself in reaching your full potential, while helping others do the same.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

the most important thing you need to do to achieve success;
the truth about unconscious bias training; and
the handy acronym that’ll revolutionize your workplace.

Everyone is a giant.

John Amaechi is a giant. At over two meters tall, he has to pay attention to what he’s doing, so he doesn’t accidentally hurt anyone. A careless move on the dancefloor can break a nose. Pointing to the restroom can knock a passerby to the ground.

But Amaechi is a giant in another, more significant sense. After retiring from professional basketball, he became a psychologist. He wanted to explore and share two life-changing abilities that he’d discovered on his journey to success – both on and off the basketball court: the first was that he had the power to tap into his own potential. In fact, everyone does. No matter who you are, what you do, or where you sit in your workplace’s organizational chart, you’re like Amaechi: a giant. Whether you realize it or not.

And as a giant, it’s crucial to understand your innate power because of the second truth Amaechi discovered: that you can use this power to empower and elevate others – or leave a trail of unintended destruction in your wake.

Being a giant means committing to success – but not just your own. Giants understand that success isn’t an individual pursuit. It occurs in an environment where everyone is given the chance to thrive. That means taking a two-pronged approach to achievement.

Firstly, when you’re a giant, you commit to a journey of deep, thorough, and continually developing self-knowledge. Being armed with this knowledge puts you in a position to develop strategies that will help you achieve your goals.

Secondly, you actively build an environment where injustices are called out and addressed, so that everyone has the chance to explore and use their unique gifts and talents. This will help them on their journey to success, and may even contribute to your own.

Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? But if you want to do something extraordinary with your life – whether that’s heading up a successful business, advocating for marginalized communities, or nurturing meaningful connections with everyone you meet – you need a solid game plan. That game plan is a series of promises you must commit to keeping, every day of your life.

In the blinks ahead, we’ll explore some of those promises. Keeping them will give you a roadmap that will let you achieve your goals, distinguish yourself as a leader, and make the world a better place.

To become a true leader, promise to know yourself deeply.

John Amaechi was a clever teenager. He knew that becoming an NBA basketball player was an ambitious goal – especially for a kid from Manchester, England, who wasn’t even good at sports. So before he told his mother about his dream, he came up with a strategy that he thought was watertight, considering everything from catching the attention of a college sports recruiter to what time of day was best to tell her.

But when Amaechi told his mom his plan, she didn’t pick it apart or tell him it was a pipe dream. Instead, she asked him if he’d recognize his soul in the dark.

By promising to be vulnerable, you open yourself up to progress.

Determined to be an NBA star even if it meant giving up pie, teenage Amaechi hit the gym. He also wrote letters to coaches at American high schools. His sports prowess wasn’t impressive – yet. But he knew that if he spent a year in an American high school he’d improve his skills, giving him a better chance of being recruited by a college that would lead to the NBA.

Since this was the late 1980s, Amaechi had to write thousands of letters by hand. And he poured his heart into them, each describing his dream of playing for the NBA. [pause} He didn’t receive a single reply. Amaechi imagined coaches across the US laughing at him, a deluded kid from Manchester. Still, he gathered his courage and wrote more letters, etching his dream deeper and deeper into his heart each time he wrote it down.

You can’t eliminate your biases, so promise to monitor them vigilantly.

When Amaechi was eleven, his mom changed his first name to John; up until that point, he’d been Uzoma Ekwugha Amaechi. But it wasn’t that she was worried about what people might think of her son because of his name. She was worried about what they’d do. A hiring manager might call John in for an interview, whereas she might have tossed a resume from somebody named Uzoma in the trash. A John might be more embraced in the workplace than an Uzoma would, too.

Amaechi’s mom understood a truth about humanity; no matter how much we want to deny it, everyone has biases. But people often forget that they can choose whether or not they let those biases influence their words and actions. A giant knows how damaging biases are – and not just those of others. They understand they have to pay constant attention to their own biases too, so that they don’t cause harm.

Promise to nurture everyone’s potential so they can become their best self.

Amaechi’s name wasn’t the only thing that changed when he was eleven. He also started school in an area outside his hometown. A lot of kids find changing schools rough, but for Amaechi, it was devastating.

Up until that point, he’d seen himself through his mom’s eyes – a clever kid she was proud of. But the people in his new school told a different story. They either were afraid of him because of his size, mocked him like he was a sideshow freak, or spoke really slowly, like he was stupid or had only just arrived in the UK. For a bright kid who took pride in being studious, this was hurtful and confusing.

Promise to be consistently present for the people you interact with.

Once, after a long international flight, Amaechi used a car service to get to his hotel. Once in the car, Amaechi noticed that both front seats had been pushed forward to give him more legroom in the back.

He was touched by this level of care. The driver had clearly looked him up beforehand and thought of ways to make him comfortable. It made Amaechi feel seen and valued, and he realized how important these qualities were in the workplace.

Promise to drive your workplace culture.

From his balcony at home, Amaechi can see into a courtyard shared by some office buildings. He’s watched smokers there flick their butts to the curb while onlookers say nothing. Since the space is already littered, other employees don’t bother taking their garbage to the trash can. And more often than not, before you know it, a butt has ignited trash on the ground and everyone is upset. How on earth could a fire have started? And why didn’t anyone stop it from happening?

Workplace culture is a lot like that accumulation of trash. No one calls out a small transgression because, hey, is it really worth the confrontation? But when that small transgression isn’t called out, other people think it’s okay for them to behave that way too. It isn’t until the situation reaches crisis point and management can’t ignore it any longer that they finally clean up the mess. But they usually don’t address the behavior that led to that crisis in the first place, so the whole pattern repeats.

Promise to foster belonging to create a true team.

Amaechi’s dream of becoming a pro basketball player came true when he secured a spot on NBA team the Cleveland Cavaliers. After playing a season with them, and a few more overseas, Amaechi joined the Orlando Magic – a fringe playoff team. Then, in the year 2000, the Los Angeles Lakers tried to recruit him. They offered him millions more dollars than the Magic, and the chance to play for a team on its way to the championships. On paper, it was the offer of a lifetime.

But Amaechi turned it down. The Magic gave him something he valued more than money and fame – a team in the truest sense. Everyone working for the organization – from management to support personnel – was committed to trust, psychological safety, and individual agency. Amaechi knew these qualities foster success. But more important than success, Amaechi felt he truly belonged to the Magic family, and that was a source of deep joy. He couldn’t give that up for any amount of money.

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Über den Autor

John Amaechi OBE is a former professional basketball player turned organizational psychologist, executive coach, and founder of consulting company APS. Best-selling author of the memoir Man in the Middle, Amaechi is also an advocate for LGBTQIA+ rights in sports.

Wer The Promises of Giants lesen sollte

Ambitious dreamers
Success hunters
Leaders wanting to drive change

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Management & Leadership

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