Be the Boss Everyone Wants to Work For: A Guide for New Leaders

Becoming a leader for the first time is one of the biggest and most stressful psychological and emotional shifts you will ever experience. You're suddenly given an important job that has almost nothing in common with what you've been trained to do. It's as though, at the age of sixteen, your parents said “You ride a bike so well you might as well take the car” and handed you the keys. Cool, but what now?

William Gentry feels your pain. He was happy as a senior research scientist at the Center for Creative Leadership—and then he was promoted to his first leadership role. So this book doesn't just draw on his years of studying and training new leaders—it's personal. And his singular insight? New leaders must flip their scripts.

We all have scripts that tell us how things are supposed to be. As a worker, your script is all about “me”: your individual contribution. But when you become a boss, you must focus on your group: flip that script from “me” to “we.” This means flipping pretty much everything else—your mindset, your skillset, your work relationships, your “do it all” attitude, your view of the organization, and more.

Gentry walks you through each of six flips, offering practical, research-based advice and examples drawn from his work at CCL. But this book is more than a series of best practices—it's your guide to internalizing a leader's perspective. Gentry helps you flip your script so you'll know what to do to help yourself and the team you lead succeed. That's the kind of boss everyone wants to work for—and the kind of boss who accomplishes the most.

About the Author

William A. (Bill) Gentry is currently a senior research associate at the Center for Creative Leadership and an adjunct assistant professor in the leadership studies doctoral program at North Carolina A&T State University. He graduated summa cum laude from Emory University and received his MS and PhD in applied psychology (with a concentration in industrial-organizational psychology) from the University of Georgia. He has published (or has work forthcoming) in the Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Personnel Psychology, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Leadership Quarterly, and Journal of Leadership Studies.