Why Should the Boss Listen to You?: The Seven Disciplines of the Trusted Strategic Advisor

Introduction: Leaders and Their Advisors

This book had its genesis several years ago on a bitterly cold winter day. Late on a Friday afternoon, I received a call from the president of a huge aluminum processing company. He was in the middle of labor talks, and things were going badly. In addition, he had just learned from his manager of health and safety that the Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC) had publicly announced that day in Washington that his plant was a national target for reduction of excessive aluminum oxide emissions. (Aluminum oxide, at that time, was on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's list of toxic substances. It has since been delisted.)

On top of this, the union and the NRDC had apparently formed a team to bring ...