Step Up: Lead in Six Moments that Matter

If you think that emotional intelligence is about being nice or avoiding conflict and you see yourself as a leader, you’d better get this book. Step Up introduces you to the nitty-gritty of emotionally intelligent leadership. You’ll find examples and suggestions on how to handle negative emotions and arm yourself for those make-or-break leadership moments.

As Evans and Foster so wisely point out in Step Up, most often leadership is in the moment. Drawing on their considerable experience, Evans and Foster identify six critical opportunities to lead, and they offer practical and tangible ideas about how anyone can ‘step up’ and take ownership of these moments. This book artfully unravels many of the complexities and demystifies the actions needed to make something positive happen. Step Up is a valuable addition to the library of all leaders who want to make their teams and organizations more effective.

Evans and Foster point out that leadership is something we all do, even if we didn’t understand our role as leaders before. With examples from widely-known leaders and case studies from their consulting practice, Step Up shows how to manage and listen to our anger and anxiety, improving our mental models and creating emotional safety around us. This lively, accurate, and practical book will inspire readers.

Innovation requires decisiveness and tough discussions where assumptions and ideas are explored and challenged. In Step Up, Evans and Foster give a roadmap to help any organization gain a competitive edge by igniting leadership at every level of the organization.

Evans and Foster provide a catalyst for reflection as well as resources and tools for practice. I look forward to sharing Step Up with the leaders I work with as an internal executive coach. I know this will make a difference for them and the teams they lead.

At the FBI, we realized that the most successful agents consistently demonstrated specific behaviors for building trust and credibility in the field. Evans and Foster do a great job of explaining the skills and competencies required for successful leadership. This is an easy-to-follow guide for generating leadership in both public and private sector organizations.