First of all, a giant thank you to my mentors. I would not have arrived here and written this book if it were not for you. I can never thank you enough, but here is one more feeble attempt…THANK YOU: Jim Davis, Al Fasola, Webb McKinney, Bill Russell, and Duane Zitzner.

Next, thank you to my advisory board. You always have my back. You provide so many insights. Your fingerprints are all in this book: Al Fasola, Bob Kaplan, Sandor Kovacs, Brian Kilcourse, Joanna Kulesa, Barbara Nelson, Resa Pearson, and Richard Walker.

Now on to the many people who inspired the ideas in this book and who helped it come to life by sharing insights, metaphors, quotes, and examples; people whose stories I told in the book; people I learned these lessons from; and people who helped me along the way: Jonathan Adams, Jill Ambrose, Paul and Chrisna Avenant, Linda Beardsley, Paul Beavers, Paul Beiser, Brian Bergdoll, Andy Burtis, John Buzza, Eric Carrasquilla, Pam Cass, Cindy Clarke, Steve Diamond, Beth Devin, Julie Dubas, John Fernandez, Cathy FitzGerald, Nancy Friedman, Nelson Gonzales, Nick Goss, Jim Grant, Don Joos, Scott Jordan, Ben Kiker, Carol Kruse, Mark Lieberman, Heidi Lorenzen, Brad Maihack, Katherine Mancuso, Andrea Masina, Paul Muller, Jim McDonnell, Mike McGrorey, Marc McKenzie, Meta Mehling, Rob Meinhardt, Vonda Mills, Dhiren Pardhanani, John Peters, Dale Predmore, Suzanne Pherigo, Ramona Pierson, Stuart Rakley, William Reeves, Kay Rhodes, Stephanie Robinson, Liz Saiz, Rich Sanzi, Jan Silverman, Stan Slap, Bill Sudlow, Jessica Swank, Tom Tiernan, Tiffany Tuell, Mary Tinkcom, Tom Viola, Thomas Volk, Jacek Walicki, Dave Wright, Jim Zafarana, and Nitza Zuppas.

Also, thank you to the members of Azzarello Group, my professional development program. Our monthly webinars and Coaching Hour calls give me so many ideas and new insights about what leaders deal with. Many of the ideas in this book stemmed from our conversations. I hope you know that I get value from these exchanges too. Thank you.

I also must acknowledge the dark side. There were so many people who inspired the ideas in this book by being the bad examples: the bullies, the egomaniacs, the terrible communicators, the inconsistent leaders—those who had a total lack of valor and could not make a decision or stick to anything. You showed me the way forward by creating the examples of how things go very wrong. I learned a lot from you and from what happened and didn't happen in your organizations, and the havoc and damage you wreaked for the business and the people. I thank you for the learning, and will in return leave you unnamed!

Finally, I want to thank the people who helped me in the review and production of this book: Thank you to Andrew Binstock, Eric Carrasquilla, Jim Davis, Al Fasola, Ben Kiker, Brian Kilcourse, Marc McKenzie, and Jacek Walicki for your insights and feedback. And many thanks to the editorial and production team at John Wiley & Sons for bringing this book into the world: Richard Narramore, Deborah Schindlar, Peter Knox, Paul McCarthy, and Tiffany Colon.