You aspire to lead with greater impact. The problem is you€re busy executing on today€s demands. You know you have to carve out time from your day job to build your leadership skills, but it€s easy to let immediate problems and old mind-sets get in the way. Herminia Ibarra-an expert on professional leadership and development and a renowned professor at INSEAD, a leading international business school-shows how managers and executives at all levels can step up to leadership by making small but crucial changes in their jobs, their networks, and themselves. In Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader, she offers advice to help you:

• Redefine your job in order to make more strategic contributions
• Diversify your network so that you connect to, and learn from, a bigger range of stakeholders
• Become more playful with your self-concept, allowing your familiar-and possibly outdated-leadership style to evolve

Ibarra turns the usual “think first and then act€ philosophy on its head by arguing that doing these three things will help you learn through action and will increase what she calls your outsight-the valuable external perspective you gain from direct experiences and experimentation. As opposed to insight, outsight will then help change the way you think as a leader: about what kind of work is important; how you should invest your time; why and which relationships matter in informing and supporting your leadership; and, ultimately, who you want to become.

Packed with self-assessments and practical advice to help define your most pressing leadership challenges, this book will help you devise a plan of action to become a better leader and move your career to the next level. It€s time to learn by doing.