My Daily Leadership: A Powerful Roadmap for Leadership Success
Antonio Garrido
Post Hill Press (August 2022)

Here’s a “boot camp” manual for those who aspire to become a high-impact leader

Whatever their size and nature may be, all organizations need effective leadership at every level and in every area of their enterprise. This year, organizations in the U.S. will spend more than $60 billion on leadership development and much (if not most) of this investment will be wasted if those involved are unwilling or unable to assume ownership of that process.

In this book, Antonio Garrido offers a practical, cohesive, and cost-effective program by which almost anyone can become a high-impact leader if — and it’s a HUGE “if” — they make a total commitment to completing the process with a best effort. He identifies the WHATs and explains HOW to achieve each.

I usually offer two suggestions to those who are about to read a book such as this: highlight key passages, and, keep a lined notebook near at hand so that you can record your comments, questions, and page references as well as complete various exercises that are included in the given book.

Garrido is a staunch advocate of “leadership journaling”: Obtain a substantial journal in which you document the daily progress of your “journey” from the Introduction (Pages 9-16) to his Postscript (Pages 469-473). Alas, there is no Index. That means keeping an accurate pagination of journey milestones and benchmarks such as the four lists to be completed in Chapter 1 (Pages 99-101) and the “Top 5 Gratitudes” on Page 102).  Think of your journal as a companion as you (literally) work your way through the information, insights, counsel, and exercises that Garrido provides.

As is also true of almost all other human initiatives, the value of what you get out of your leadership journaling will be almost totally dependent on how much time and energy you invest in it. There are no shortcuts, secrets, etc. It is not enough to work hard; you must work SMART.  It is not enough to hope to become a high-impact leader. Henry Ford once observed, “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re probably right” whereas his friend Thomas Edison once said, “Vision without execution is hallucination.”

Find a mirror and ask yourself: “Do I what to be a great leader or do I HAVE TO BE a great leader?” The longer it takes for you to answer that question, the less likely that you will succeed.