With less than two weeks until the release of my book with co-author Joel Bennett, Your Best Self at Work, it occurred to me that we didn’t do a Dedication page. Our editor never brought it up, and she probably would have said we didn’t need one.

I know this because we had a similar conversation about having someone write a Foreword. She said, “Nobody reads those anyway. It’s only important to you as an author. People just want to start reading the book.”

Yes, we had that kind of an editor. Straight shooting. Tough love. Take no prisoners. (And thank you, Sandy, for all the ways you made this book better than it was before we met you!)

But if we HAD written a Dedication, it wouldn’t have been to family or friends or colleagues, although we did thank all of those people and more in the Acknowledgments at the back of the book. (I sure hope everyone keeps reading until the end.)

We would have dedicated the book to those we had in mind as we wrote it — dedicated “to those who aspire to be better leaders and influencers.” Who’s included in that group?

• Those working to earn their first management position (as well as those who lost their positions during the pandemic and are working their way back);
• People who are in their first position as a manager who faced the hard times of the past year or so and kept going, hoping and praying for things to get better;
• Leaders at any level who try to learn from their successes and their failures, and who always aim to get better;
• Those who aren’t in a formal management role but realize that leadership in a team is shared, and who want to be stronger influencers within their team;
• People who appreciate that success comes from a blend of personal strengths, emotional intelligence, and resilience, especially in challenging times; and
• All those people who know they must first lead themselves in order to be able to lead others.

I believe our friend Marshall Goldsmith said it best. We were fortunate to have a connection with Marshall, who is the #1 Executive Coach and #1

Leadership Thinker according to Thinkers 50, and New York Times #1 best-selling author of Triggers, Mojo, and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There. After reviewing our manuscript, he gave this endorsement: “The best way to lead better is to be better! Learn to lead your teams effectively and to their full potential. Required reading for every manager!”

We hope you agree and learn to be a better leader from the ideas in our book. Because you see, it’s dedicated to you.

(If you’re interested in learning more about Your Best Self at Work: Aligning Strengths, Emotional Intelligence, and Resilience, please look for the offer of a free excerpt on this webpage.)