IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU

From the bestselling authors of The Go-Giver, a new parable about the power of persuasion in business.

Meet Ben, a young manager at the Marden Group, charged with persuading 500 employees of Allen & Augusting, a struggling chair manufacturing company to vote "yes" to a merger with Marden as a way out of their financial woes. Facing what seems like an impossible uphill climb, Ben seeks the advice of Claire, an old friend who introduces him to an eccentric elderly lady known simply as Aunt Elle, who will prove to be more than she appears.
As the week continues, Aunt Elle teaches Ben about the power of influence and positive persuasion in preparation for the crucial vote. Ben also meets with each of Allen & Augustine's four directors in an effort to learn where they went wrong, and is surprised to come away from each meeting with a different key persuasion principle: Hold the vision (lead with your mind); Build your people (lead with your heart); Do the work (lead with your gut); Stand for something (Lead with your soul). Still, he feels no closer to his goal, and as the deadline looms Ben goes from confident to concerned to anguished.
Ultimately the answers come not from his encounters with others as much as from deep reflection on his own life experience. In a surprising turn, both Allen & Augustine's founders and Ben's own boss learn the critical lesson from Ben, the one principle so many people in positions of influence fail to adequately grasp: Give it away (remember that it's not about you). Genuinely successful leaders are those who have learned to let go and get out of the way.