AUTHOR OF
You Can't Know It All
My book, published in June 2019 by Harper Business, presents the coaching model I have developed to address the challenges of transitioning into new leadership roles and how to combine expertise with growing responsibilities.
Find out where to buy the book now at Harper Business
About the Book
Think for a moment about what gives you a sense of worth and why your company values you. If you are like most leaders, your sense of worth comes from what they know and can do as a result of that knowledge. Your expertise defines a large part of your identity. However, when your organization asks you to lead an area that’s not part of your expertise and there is no time to develop expertise, everything about your leadership is called into question:
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What value are you bringing now?
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How do you get anything done when you can’t do it yourself?
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Why should people listen to you, follow you and trust you?
This book is a how to guide to for each of those questions.
Reviews
“This is an incredibly important topic and one we don’t pay sufficient attention to. Making the transition from expert to non-expert is often the point at which high-potential careers falter, and we -- the individuals and organizations -- often don’t know why. This book helps us all understand the issues and how to overcome them, to the benefit of everyone.”
— Liz Wallace, former head of talent at Vodafone Emerging Markets
“Dr. Wanda Wallace has packed You Can’t Know It All with practical tools distilled from a command of the research and refined in her coaching work with hundreds of leaders around the world. You Can’t Know It All fills a critical gap for those who aspire to lead and inspire on the big stage.”
— Rob Kaiser, president of Kaiser Learning Solutions; writer, researcher and consultant
“This book is a must-have for careerists looking to advance in today’s global and complex business environment. From adopting the right mind-set to developing key skills, Wanda provides individual contributors and experts proven insights and tools to transition into valued leaders within their respective organizations.”
— Cindy Pace, global head of diversity and inclusion of MetLife
Speaking Topics
Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone
Understanding the challenges of blending expert and spanning leadership, which is essentially the player/coach challenge that women (and men) struggle to balance in today’s knowledge intense world. Reaching a leadership position requires taking career risks that move you out of your comfort zone. Success involves seeing how to add value, get work done and navigate relationships when you are not leading from a base of expertise.
Being the Player and the Coach
In most organizations today, no one has the luxury of purely managing – most are managing/coaching while they are doing, executing and being a player. The two roles require distinctly different sets of behaviors. Players do a great job usually on teaching the technical aspect of an area but they struggle with the nontechnical side. This session is about how to switch between the two and how to grow your capability to lead outside your domain of expertise.
Find more expert publications and resources at Leadership Forum.
