The Leader Lab - by Tania Luna & Leeann Renninger

About the Book

"Through painstaking research and practice, the authors have identified the only eight underlying skills that truly matter--eight "tipping point" skills. These are the behavioral skills that, when mastered, accelerate learning in every other core competency a manager needs: stepping: how to default to a question and develop question agility. Playbacks & split-tracks: how to create clarity and connection in any conversation by playing back key ideas/feelings/needs and splitting different topics Deblurring: how to spot blur words' (words that can mean different things to different people) and ask deblurring questions. Pause skills: how to create space for yourself and others to regulate emotions, manage energy, build anticipation, and spark creative ideas. CAMPS Model: how to diagnose and increase personal and team member engagement using the LifeLabs CAMPS framework: Certainty, Autonomy, Meaning, Progress, Social inclusion. Stating skills: how to make the implicit explicit to drive clarity and motivation. Tone skills: how to be deliberate about paralinguistic communication (i.e., nonverbal messages) in writing, speaking, and live interactions. Extracting the learning: how to spark insights and adopt any new skill faster by individually and collectively identifying lessons learned. ãA New managers are promoted without any learning or resources for the qualitative responsibilities of the modern manager: being part coach, part player, part therapist, part role model. Based on LifeLabs workshops and combining research, tools and templates, and the style that has made them the go-to personal development program for Silicon Valley, The Leader Lab will serve as the definitive guide to what it means to be a great manager today."--

Book Synopsis

What if you could become a great manager, leader, and communicator faster?

The Leader Lab is a high-speed leadership intensive, equipping managers with the Swiss Army Knife of skills that help you handle the toughest situations that come your way.

Through painstaking research and training over 200,000 managers, authors Tania Luna and LeeAnn Renninger, PhD (co-CEOs of LifeLab Learning) identified the most important skills that distinguish great managers from average. Most importantly, they've discovered how to help people rapidly develop these core skills. The result? You quickly achieve extraordinary team performance and a culture of engagement, fulfillment, and belonging.

Too often, folks are promoted without any training for the countless crucial responsibilities of the modern manager: being part coach, part player, part therapist, part role model.The Leader Labserves as your definitive guide to what it means to be a great manager today - and how to become a great leader faster. This book is based on LifeLabs Learning's wildly successful workshop series. It combines research, tools, and the playful, fluff-free style that's made LifeLabs the go-to professional development resource for over 1,000 innovative companies around the world.

You'll learn how to:

• Quickly improve performance and engagement
• Handle tough conversations with confidence
• Identify and resolve the underlying issues holding your team back
• Create a culture of inclusion
• Spark innovation
• Reduce stress and burnout
• Finetune your coaching, productivity, feedback, one-on-one, strategic thinking, meeting facilitation, people development, and leading change skills
• Learn the same high-leverage skills that new managers at the world's most innovative organizations are using to create impactful change in business and in life

This interactive, accessible, and brain-friendly resource will help you and your team ramp up and reach the tipping point of managerial greatness fast.

From the Back Cover

Praise for THE LEADER LAB

"This book will make you a better leader of people, full stop. I learned a ton. Why can't all business books be this fresh, interesting, and immediately actionable?"
--DAN HEATH, co-author of Switch, Made to Stick, and The Power of Moments

"The definitive guide to the most valuable 'tipping point' skills needed by modern managers and leaders. These skills are elegantly dissected, combined, illustrated with practical real-world examples, and backed by research. I loved every minute of this read!"
--TOM DRAPEAU, Director of Engineering, Squarespace

"This book is transformational and practical--LifeLabs Learning nails the HOW in a field that often stays abstract. An enjoyable and truly helpful read!"
--DR. HEIDI BROOKS, Professor, Yale School of Management

"This is a book that I believe every People Manager and aspiring leader should read. By demystifying and breaking down the traits of great leadership, LifeLabs Learning has given every curious person a key to unlock what being an exceptional manager might look like for them.... If everyone read this book, workplaces would be a lot more empathetic and human-centered and managers would feel capable of being great at their jobs. Leadership is learnable, and this book shows you how."
--RACHEL PECK, Director of Learning and Development, Harry's

About the Author

TANIA LUNA is the co-founder of LifeLabs Learning--a leadership skills accelerator for culture-conscious companies, including Google, TED, Slack, Reddit, and The New York Times. She is also a psychology researcher, TED speaker, writer for Psychology Today and Harvard Business Review, and co-host of the podcast Talk Psych to Me.

LEEANN RENNINGER, PHD, is the co-founder and lead researcher at LifeLabs Learning. She has a doctorate in cognitive psychology, with an emphasis on idea transfer and rapid skill acquisition. She has lectured at Columbia Business School, Princeton, MIT, Yale, and the University College London. She is also the co-author of the book Surprise: Embrace the Unpredictable and Engineer the Unexpected.