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How Leaders Learn
book

How Leaders Learn

by David Novak, Lari Bishop
June 2024
Beginner
288 pages
5h 55m
English
Harvard Business Review Press
Audiobook available
Content preview from How Leaders Learn

Chapter 18 Everyone Else Is Taken

Learn by being yourself—your best self

Back in the nineties, as I was moving up the ranks in PepsiCo, Montblanc fountain pens were a status symbol for leaders, like a badge in the breast pocket of executives. I got one to feel part of the club, especially because I didn’t have some of the other badges my colleagues had, like an MBA or an Ivy League education. A few weeks later, I tucked it into my shirt pocket without the cap on. Black ink spread out into a giant stain, ruining my shirt. I hurled the pen across the room in anger and broke it.

I never bought another. I took that moment as a sign, a reminder that I wasn’t a fountain pen kind of guy. It just wasn’t me.

You may know the quote often attributed ...

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9781647827557