Care to Dare: Unleashing Astonishing Potential Through Secure Base Leadership

Have you ever been led by someone who cared for you like family, and dared you to achieve more than you ever thought possible for yourself, your organization, and even society?

Award-winning author of Hostage at the Table, George Kohlrieser, along with his co-authors Susan Goldsworthy and Duncan Coombe, explain how becoming a secure base leader releases extraordinary potential in others.

Part of the Warren Bennis leadership series Care to Dare shows you how to become a Secure Base Leader so that you release your followers from the fears that get in the way of their performance. It shows you how you can unleash astonishing potential by building the trust, delivering the change, and inspiring the focus that underpins sustainable high performance.

From extensive interviews with executives from all over the world, as well as from surveys with more than a thousand executives, the book reveals the nine characteristics that Secure Base Leaders display on a daily basis. The research shows that a primary difference between a successful leader and a failed leader is the presence or absence of secure bases in his or her life.

Care to Dare will take you on a journey where you will discover your own secure bases, past and present, and determine how you can be a secure base for other people in your life at work and at home.

About the Author

GEORGE KOHLRIESERis an organizational and clinical psychologist. He is Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behavior and the creator and director of the flagship High Performance Leadership Program at one of the world's leading business schools, IMD (International Institute for Management Development), located in Switzerland.

Incorporating the lessons he learned as a psychologist and hostage negotiator, George has worked with global companies and their leaders in over 100 countries. Additionally, he has worked with the police, the military and humanitarian organizations in such hot spots as Israel, the Palestinian territories and Croatia as well as with other police departments and police academies around the world. In the course of his work, George has been taken hostage four times–once in a hospital emergency room and three times in homes during domestic violence disputes. Each time, using Secure Base Leadership skills, he successfully negotiated his way out. His first book, Hostage at the Table: How Leaders Can Overcome Conflict, Influence Others, and Raise Performance, was an international best seller which received the “Best Business Book Award 2007” from DCF (French Association of Business Leaders) and “Best Management Book 2008” in Germany from Managementbuch.de.

George is an engaging teacher and a highly sought after motivational speaker for conferences and keynote addresses. He had his own acclaimed radio call-in talk show, “Matters of the Mind,” for over a decade. George has been a guest on the BBC, CNN, ABC and CBS, and his work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Economist and other leading newspapers and magazines.

George has won numerous awards, including the prestigious BrandLaureate International Brand Personality Award.

SUSAN GOLDSWORTHY is founder and CEO of Goldswolf & Associates, a company specializing in leadership development, executive coaching and change communications. She works with a number of international clients, is on the faculty at Webster University, Geneva and is an executive coach and consultant lecturer at IMD.

A former Olympic finalist and European and Commonwealth bronze medallist, Susan combines experience from the fields of sports, business and neuroscience. She is passionate about helping people turn knowledge into behavior and creating the conditions for healthy high performance.

Susan has more than 20 years of management experience in large multinational companies, working for Japanese (Hitachi), American (Digital) and European (Tetra Pak) corporations across a range of industry areas. Her most recent corporate role was as Vice President, Communications, Tetra Pak International, where she worked on the company's vision, motto and brand positioning projects; founded the company's informal network for women; was appointed a member of the Diversity Council; and was elected into the Ruben Rausing Circle of Entrepreneurs.

Susan holds a Master's degree (MSc) in Consulting and Coaching for Change from HEC and Oxford University, a certification in Coaching for Leadership & Professional Development from The Tavistock Institute, a graduate certificate in The Neuroscience of Leadership and post-graduate diplomas in Marketing, Direct Marketing and Change Management. She is also qualified in the use of a number of psychometric assessment tools.

DUNCAN COOMBE is a teacher, researcher, author and advisor. He is on the faculty of Ashridge Business School and is a consultant to the Fowler Center for Sustainable Value. He works as an external consultant to a variety of for-profit and non-profit organizations. Duncan's teaching and advisory work with senior executives includes topics of leadership development, organization development, culture and change management. He has served clients in many sectors including financial services, hotels, poverty alleviation, FMCG and pharmaceuticals. His work has taken him to five continents and places as diverse as Bhutan, Burkina Faso and the Arctic Circle. The central theme of all of his work is human well-being, whether at the individual, team, organization or societal level. He is deeply committed to being a voice for humanity in the workplace and is particularly focused on the topic of love in organizations.

Duncan completed his Doctorate in Organizational Behavior at the Weatherhead School of Management. He holds an MBA from IMD, an LLB (Dean's Merit List) and a Bachelor of Social Science (majors in Psychology and Economics). Duncan is on the faculty of the Gestalt Center for Organization and Systems Development and is also a Lifeline crisis counselor. Previously, Duncan worked at Procter & Gamble and Investec Asset Management in a variety of business development roles. He has lived and worked in the U.S., Switzerland, the U.K. and South Africa.