Commonsense Leadership No Nonsense Rules for Improving Your Mental Game and Increasing Your Team's Performance

Commonsense Leadership is the playbook for leaders who want to win. From rallying the team to hitting it out of the park, every leader needs to understand the mental game. It's what separates winners from survivors, and champions from second place—it's what gives your team the edge, and the strength to forge ahead through adversity. This book shows you how to boost performance with tips and advice gathered over 45 years of working with major corporations and world-class athletes. Whether your team battles on the field or in the boardroom, the mental component is a critical factor in determining outcomes—and left neglected, can become the number-one driving force behind failure.

A winning team must be highly skilled, but they must also be resilient, motivated, attentive, and ready to charge the field. Skills can be taught, but the mental factor comes from the environment and the leadership. This book shows you how to boost performance, with real-world solutions for instilling that razor-sharp mental edge.

• Emerge from setbacks stronger and more agile
• Learn to thrive on stress and play on the emotional edge
• Build a culture and environment that fosters motivation
• Adopt practical strategies for leading your team to win

When equal opponents are matched, winning ultimately comes down to mindset. Although sports analogies are ubiquitous in corporate leadership, the mental development aspect is too often ignored—but those who play the mental game and play it well have an unmistakable edge. Commonsense Leadership reveals the secrets to motivation and performance, with practical techniques for building a winning team.

JACK H. LLEWELLYN, PHD, is a world-renowned sports psychology consultant, speaker, corporate coach, and founder and president of the Atlanta- based Center for Winning Performance. He helps clients assess their abilities and focus on the best processes to reach goals, thrive on stress, and recover quickly from adversity in order to become top performers. He is the author of Psychology of Coaching, Let 'Em Play, Coming in First, Winning Sure Beats Losing, Tools For Life's Spiritual Journey, and Get the Mud Out of the Water.

Foreword xi

Preface xiii

1 Let Common Sense Be Your Guide to Leading 1

2 Recognizing Your Assets and Liabilities 15

3 Personality and Leadership 31

4 Goals and Leadership 47

5 Expectations and Leadership 61

6 Teamwork 77

7 Creating a Positive Work Environment 93

8 Leading Your Team from Habitual to Perceptual Behaviors 107

9 Teach Your Team to Visualize 121

10 Motivate the Environment, Not the Team 135

11 Lead by Thriving on Stress 147

12 Teach Your Team to Play on the Emotional Edge 163

13 Recover More Quickly from Adversity and Win 177

14 Help Your Team to Achieve Balance 189

15 Summary for Leaders: Winning versus Surviving 203

Index 215

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