Everyday People, Extraordinary Leadership

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ONE OF THE undeniable truths about leading is you can't do it alone. This is equally true about writing. One of the great joys of creating a book is the opportunity to work with scores of talented, dedicated, and inspiring people. We are profoundly grateful to all who've been on this journey with us.

Foremost, we send our appreciation and admiration to the thousands of leaders without titles we've met over the years. You inspire us. You are living proof that leadership is within every person who takes the initiative to make something extraordinary happen, puts in the hard work and dedication to make a difference, and remains open to learning from the experiences. A very special thank you to all those leaders who allowed us to share their stories and reflections. The lessons from your experiences are the heartbeat of this book.

Another special shout-out of appreciation to Valarie Willis, who originally urged us to write a book focusing on the amazing people who make a difference without the benefit of title or position. Without Valarie's nudge, it's unlikely we would have started this project.

Working with us for over three decades of writing has been our uber talented developmental editor, Leslie Stephen. As always, we are indebted to her for generously and graciously applying her remarkable talents throughout the project. We also want to acknowledge our accomplished story editor, Nana Twumasi, for assisting us in developing many examples from the raw material ...