On Mission: Your Journey to Authentic Leadership

Become a mission-focused, people-centric leader

On Mission serves as a resource for personal leadership development, crafted by Sean Georges and John Buford, two former marine officers with a combined 80 years of leadership experience in military, business, nonprofit, and education. This book is for those who aspire to lead authentically across the spectrum of their lives by taking responsibility for and committing to their unique learning journey.

Using a simple but powerful servant leadership model with a focus on mission, the authors share practical, fundamental, and timeless leadership concepts designed to help readers understand what it means to lead in an authentic way. The book is intended to be transformational and personal in nature, written to change the way aspiring leaders understand and approach leading across the spectrum of their own lives and help them answer the key question, "What is my best and highest role, in support of my teammates, in alignment with our mission?" The authors provide readers with the tools and perspective needed to navigate and shape their own unique developmental journey.

ISBN-13: 9781626349414

Media Type: Hardcover

Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group Press

Publication Date: 08-02-2022

Pages: 288

Product Dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

John Buford, PhD served as a Marine Corps Officer for over 20 years, conducting operations overseas and teaching at officer training schools. After retiring from the Marines, John earned a doctoral degree in education, performance improvement specialization and became a certified wilderness medicine instructor, college professor, and outdoor educator. He is a certified leadership coach, professional wilderness guide, whitewater kayak/canoe and sea kayak instructor, human performance consultant, and board member of several non-profit organizations. Sean Georges, JD, LLM is a Naval Academy graduate who served in the Marine Corps for 13 years, the bulk of them as a military lawyer. He earned a law degree from the University of Illinois and an advanced law degree from the Judge Advocate General's School at the University of Virginia. For the past 22 years, he has served as the senior vice president of human resources and general counsel for a publicly traded retailer with 380 stores and over 5,000 employees. Sean serves on a variety of non-profit boards and recently presented his perspectives on leadership in a TEDx Talk, "The Essence of Authentic Leadership," which has been viewed on YouTube nearly 30,000 times. He is a leadership coach and mentor and a frequent public speaker on leadership.

Table of Contents

Preface: Our Journey xi

Introduction: Deepening Channels 1

Part 1 Groundwork

Chapter 1 You Are Now Being Called to Lead 9

Chapter 2 What Brings You Here? 23

Chapter 3 It May Not Be Your Fault 40

Chapter 4 It Starts with Your Commitment 51

Part 2 Orientation

Chapter 5 Laying a Solid Foundation 63

Chapter 6 Leading as a Servant 70

Chapter 7 How Leadership Really Works 87

Chapter 8 What Leadership Is Not 97

Part 3 Becoming an Authentic Leader

Chapter 9 Write Your Story 111

Chapter 10 Learn About Leadership 121

Chapter 11 Learn How to Lead 127

Chapter 12 Practice Leadership 135

Chapter 13 The Learning Process 142

Part 4 Essential Leadership Concepts

Chapter 14 Mission: Leadership's Top Line 149

Chapter 15 People: Relationships Matter 158

Chapter 16 Self: The Leader's Heart and Soul 177

Part 5 The Context for Your Leadership

Chapter 17 The Team: Where Leaders Operate 201

Chapter 18 Orient Your Team 210

Chapter 19 Sustain Your Team 218

Chapter 20 Team Operations 229

Chapter 21 Team Culture 236

Part 6 The Way Ahead

Chapter 22 What Now? 247

Acknowledgments 263

About the Authors 265

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