The Advantage Makers: How Exceptional Leaders Win by Creating Opportunities Others Don't

Some leaders consistently see possibilities others miss. They learn more, learn faster, and transform their insights into breakaway strategies. They are more effective collaborators, more powerful influencers, better at handling adversity, and dramatically more successful at execution.

 

They are the Advantage-Makers.

 

Their winning skills are not innate: they are entirely teachable and learnable. Steven Feinberg has been teaching these skills to executives for more than twenty years: leaders who’ve gone on to transform their organizations.

 

Now, it’s your turn.

 

In this book, Feinberg helps you master every skill Advantage-Makers need. He doesn’t just exhort you to “think different”: he shows you how. You’ll learn how to find the “commanding vantage point” in your situation, no matter how complex or dynamic...and use your high ground to spot and maximize every opportunity.

• Shift the odds in your favor
  Change focus to discover your next breakthrough solution

• Drive superior outcomes despite limited resources
  Engage your constraints, and put them to work for you

• Grab hold of your hidden “levers of opportunity”
  Learn how to leverage timing, interaction, perception, and structure

• Use dissatisfaction and skepticism constructively
  Pinpoint the real difficulties then transform them into opportunities

• Avoid the “Laws of Defeat”
  Discover the surprising mistakes that keep leaders from succeeding

 

“WARNING! Reading Steven Feinberg’s The Advantage-Makers will cause habitually inspired decision making. It reveals the accomplishments of extraordinary people who could see what others could not. Feinberg helps us demystify the secrets of inspirational decision making and makes us all realize we can be inspiring, too.”

–MARV TSEU, Chairman of the Board, Plantronics

 

“The Advantage-Makers not only helps you avoid errors, it helps you see what is possible. This translates into moving the organization forward. You will be better by applying the know-how in this book.”

–SHELLY BEGUN, VP, HR Xilinx

 

“Whether you as a manager are trying to build a high-performing team of first-level managers or senior executives, you will find Dr. Feinberg’s tools and techniques intuitive and effective. The Advantage-Makers will get you started in the right direction.”

–JIM HAAR, CIO, BEA Systems

 

“The Advantage-Makers will captivate your mental and intuitive processes. You will experience many ‘ahas’ and be elated to find within its pages real life help that can put you on the leading edge of organizational and personal thinking. You will receive an arsenal of profound leadership thoughts and an array of actionable ideas that you will continually refer to throughout your life.”

–BILL FIELDS, President, Packaging Results, Inc.

 

“I count myself hard to impress. But I was highly impressed after reading several sections of The Advantage-Makers. The material offers a wealth of excellent information and advice, allowing readers to move from research-based evidence to decidedly practical action steps.”

–ROBERT CIALDINI, PHD and author of Influence: Science and Practice

 

Great leaders can see opportunities where others see only problems...influence outcomes where others are hopelessly stuck...transform their obstacles into powerful advantages. They’ve learned to use levers of power that other executives don’t even know exist.

 

They are the Advantage-Makers.

And you can be one, too.

 

Straight from renowned Advantage-Maker consultant Steven Feinberg, this relentlessly practical, hands-on book will show you how. It’s packed with new ideas, techniques, exercises, and checklists that will transform the way you view every business challenge…so you can find the winning solutions that are hidden in plain sight!

 

www.stevenfeinberginc.com

 

 

Foreword  xiii

Preface  xv

Acknowledgments  xxiii

Part 1  Strategic Shifting: How to See What Others Miss

Chapter 1        How to Shift the Odds in Your Favor in the Best of Times and the Worst of Times  3

Chapter 2        Breaking the Secret Code of the Great Advantage-Makers  25

Chapter 3        Wise or Otherwise: Are You Following Any of the Hidden Laws of Defeat?  61

Chapter 4        Shifting to a Commanding (Ad)Vantage Point  87

Part 2  The Advantage Points: The Levers of Advantage-Making

Chapter 5        Adaptive Stretching: It’s Not the BestWho Wins[md]It’s Who’s the Most Adaptive  111

Chapter 6        The Game Changer: If You Are in a Hole, Stop Digging and Change the Game  137

Chapter 7        Move or Lose: Manage Momentum to Advance Your Organization  169

Chapter 8        Strategic Influence: How to Get People to Say Yes in the Right Way to the Right Things  195

Chapter 9        Influence Perception: Helping People See What They Need to See  223

Chapter 10      Being an Advantage-Maker: How to Play in a Different League  251

Index  266

 

 

Steven Feinberg has spent more than thirty years applying the study of human behavior to performance efficacy. For the past twenty-three years, he has advised senior executives on key leadership, team, and organizational issues, with an emphasis on advantage-making: how to maximize their opportunities.

 

As President of Steven Feinberg, Inc., he has designed and developed advantage-making programs that have turned around ailing organizations, teams, and leaders in multiple industries and business environments.

 

His client list ranges from Fortune 500 firms to start-ups, and includes Wells Fargo, Visa, Citibank, Sun Microsystems, Plantronics, Symantec, Cadence Design Systems, HBO & Co., BEA Systems, Synopsys, NVidia, Pac Bell, Xilinx, Affymax, firstRain, and many more.

 

For twenty-three years, Steven has taught courses on leadership and organizational effectiveness in the University of San Francisco’s Department of Organizational Behavior and Leadership.

 

He graduated magna cum laude from the State University of New York at Buffalo, received an MSW from Tulane University, and holds a PhD from the Professional School of Psychology, San Francisco, CA.

 

For Steven, “getting leadership right” means acting as an Advantage-Maker.