Building or Diminishing

What if the most important leadership question you could ask, dozens of times a day, was simply this: am I building or diminishing? In Building or Diminishing, Doug Crandall argues that leadership is never neutral. With our words and our actions, we leave people feeling more confident, capable, and valued, or less so.

Building or Diminishing is for leaders at every level-the executive who pushes too hard and the store manager who needs to raise the bar. Drawing on stories from West Point, the 1980 Miracle on Ice, a hospital CMO facing the toughest conversations, a fantasy baseball camp, and his own unflinching personal reckoning, Doug Crandall shows that the difference between leaders who build and those who diminish comes down to two things: what we expect of others and how our communication lands.

"This wonderful book will change the way you think about leadership, and people, if you let it." -Dr. Jennifer Aaker, Stanford University