What makes someone influential inside an organisation? What are the mindsets and practices that differentiate the most impactful players from others on a team? How do contributors influence their leaders and build organisational support for their ideas and initiatives without having positional authority? Are these skills learnable? This was the challenge author Liz Wiseman set her self and answered in her book Impact Players (2021, Harper Business).
Impact players are defined as “players who make a significant contribution individually but who also have an enormously positive effect on the entire team.
Previously a highly successful corporate executive, now a management researcher, Wiseman is considered one of the world’s top management thinkers. She undertook an extensive research project identifying impact players, and then spoke with them, their managers, and their teams, to find out what are the characteristics that make them impact players.
The result is a book full of tools that will help you develop leadership at all levels, increase employee engagement, and develop the mindsets that bring out the best in people and organisations. It is hard to argue with such a well-researched approach and presented book, that is very well written and easy to follow. It carefully identifies what it is that makes high impact players, and then explains how to use these to develop yourself and/or your teams.
This book will appeal to all leadership forms, both new and established, as well as parents and teachers. It is highly recommended.