---

Have you ever been led by someone who cared for you like family, and dared you to achieve more than you ever thought possible for yourself, your organization, and even society?

Award-winning author of Hostage at the Table, George Kohlrieser, along with his co-authors Susan Goldsworthy and Duncan Coombe, explain how becoming a secure base leader releases extraordinary potential in others.

Part of the Warren Bennis leadership series Care to Dare shows you how to become a Secure Base Leader so that you release your followers from the fears that get in the way of their performance. It shows you how you can unleash astonishing potential by building the trust, delivering the change, and inspiring the focus that underpins sustainable high performance.

From extensive interviews with executives from all over the world, as well as from surveys with more than a thousand executives, the book reveals the nine characteristics that Secure Base Leaders display on a daily basis. The research shows that a primary difference between a successful leader and a failed leader is the presence or absence of secure bases in his or her life.

Care to Dare will take you on a journey where you will discover your own secure bases, past and present, and determine how you can be a secure base for other people in your life at work and at home.

---

Preface xiii

Acknowledgments xxiii

Part I 1

1 Your Leadership Opportunity 3

2 Secure Base Leadership in Action 31

Part II 51

3 Build Trust through the Bonding Cycle 53
4 Deliver Change: Embracing Loss through Grief 81

5 Focus: Bringing Forward the Power of the Mind´s Eye 111

6 Achievement: Playing to Win 141

Part III 169

7 Strengthen your own Secure Bases 171

8 Become a Secure Base for Others 197

9 Transform Your Organization into a Secure Base 229

10 Humanize Your Leadership and your Organization 257

About the Research 279

Notes 287

Index 299

---

´Care to Dare is recommended to those who are interested in developing as leaders, especially in terms of their soft skills. If nothing else, it´s worth reading for the fact it dares to champion the increasingly overlooked idea that leaders can be nice people too.´ (Edge Magazine, 10th July 2012)
´A readable compendium of psychological theories of human motivation, inspirational stories and self-development tips.´ (HR, August 2012)
´Offers and innovative and thought provoking interpretation of a well-established theme.´ (Engineering & Technology Magazine, September 2012)
´The book´s ideas are clearly expressed and greatly enhanced by numerous examples and anecdotes drawn from the authors´ experiences.´ (Times Higher Education Supplement, August 30th 2012)
´An unusual take on leadership that works well.´ (Management Today, October 2012)

---