Three books: the person, the leader and the business
There is a book each for the person, the leader and the business. Each explains the mechanism, works an example in real pounds, sets out the traps, and includes scored self-assessments to fill in. All three are paperbacks on Amazon.
You 2.0
The Founder’s Personal Operating System
In a business under fifty people, the founder’s energy sets the pace and their standards become the ceiling. This book treats the founder as the part of the business with the most leverage.
- Twenty-four chapters on principles, values, beliefs, standards, attention, habits, energy and people skills
- Six scored self-assessment instruments, so you start where you are weakest rather than where you are interested
- A closing chapter that assembles the lot into a one-page personal operating system
Pairs with Personal Coaching and the You 2.0 workshop.
Leadership 2.0
The Founder’s Leadership Operating System
Owners often become leaders without any training, and the instincts that built the business can get in the way. Past a certain point, working harder produces a fuller diary and a flatter business.
- Eighteen chapters on direction people can steer by without you, decisions put at the right level, and delegation that transfers outcomes rather than errands
- Accountability that holds, and the conversations you have been avoiding
- A version of the role you could still be doing in ten years
Pairs with Leadership Coaching and the Leadership 2.0 workshop.
Business 2.0
The Business Operating System That Runs Without You
This book covers the business itself: strategy, numbers, customers, delivery, systems and team, built so the firm performs without consuming its owner.
- Seventeen chapters, each with the mechanism, a worked example in real figures, and the traps that cap owner-managed firms
- Thirteen self-diagnostic tools you run on your own numbers
- The 90-day Business Performance Plan, and the rhythm that keeps it going: the weekly meeting, the scoreboard, the quarterly review
Pairs with Business Coaching and the Business 2.0 workshop.
How the books, the workshops and the coaching fit together
The books, workshops and coaching use the same material with different amounts of help. The book explains a mechanism and gives you five things to do this week, and acting on them is left to you. The workshop makes you apply it in the room: twenty minutes of teaching, forty working on your own figures, and something written by the end of the session. The coaching programme adds somebody expecting an answer on what you committed to last time, which is what keeps it going through a bad quarter.
You may need only one of the three. If you read widely and act on what you read, buy the book. If you already have a shelf of business books and the habits have not changed, start with the workshop or a discovery call.
What is inside them?
Every chapter follows the same format: the mechanism in plain words, covering what causes what and why the obvious fix often makes it worse; a worked example in real pounds; the traps, meaning the common ways the thing goes wrong in a firm of eight people; and five things to do this week.
The scored instruments make you put a number on your own position and compare it against your own average. Several of them exist as free interactive tools, which do the arithmetic for you and print a result you can keep.
Who are they written for?
Owner-managers, with the worked examples pitched at firms of two to fifty staff. Half the content turns on decisions only an owner can take, so ownership is the assumption throughout. They are also written for owners who want the business to be better rather than larger, and they take whatever size you want the firm to be as a given.
To see how the method fits together, the Performance on Purpose page explains the quadrant and the three freedoms the whole thing is built on, and the resources library carries the guides and thinking models for free.
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Frequently asked questions
Do I need to read the books to be coached?
No. The coaching works from where you are. What the books do is save session time: if you have already scored yourself on the instruments and know which chapter describes your problem, the first conversation starts at the work instead of the background. Read the one that matches the area you know is weakest, or run one of the free tools first and let the result point you at a chapter.
Which of the three should I start with?
Whichever describes the thing currently costing you most. The order they are written in — person, leader, business — is the order the problems often have to be fixed in, because a business cannot be systematised by an owner with no attention left and a team nobody is holding to account. If the business is the constraint and you are fine, start with Business 2.0 and ignore the sequence. If you are not sure, the free tools point at the area currently costing you most.
Are they the same content as the workshops?
They use the same material differently. A book explains a mechanism and hands you five things to do this week; you decide whether to do them. The workshop takes the same mechanism, spends twenty minutes on it and then forty applying it to your own figures in the room, with everyone else’s questions in the mix and something written by the end of the session. Reading the book first means you spend none of the workshop catching up.
Why are they self-published?
They are working books: worked examples in real pounds, scored self-assessments, and tools meant to be written in. Publishing them independently keeps the price low, keeps the content specific to owner-managed British firms, and means a correction reaches the next printing in days rather than waiting for a new edition.
Can I buy them in bulk for my team?
Yes. Amazon handles quantity orders directly, and there is nothing to arrange with us. If you are running the in-house version of a workshop, copies for everyone attending are included in the fee rather than charged separately, so there is no need to order them as well — say on the call that you want the in-house version and they arrive with everything else. For a team reading one together, a chapter a fortnight with a short discussion works better than handing out nine copies at once.
Is there an ebook or an audio version?
Paperback only at the moment. The books carry scored instruments, tables and one-page plans designed to be filled in, which work best on paper. If a digital edition appears it will be the one where that matters least. In the meantime the interactive versions of several of the instruments are free, and they do the scoring for you.