Looking Down on Leaders: A Bird’s Eye View of Business and Bosses

The new C-Suite Bible IF you're looking for leadership learning...the light-hearted way, IF you've read enough earnest business books and guru formulae for success, then this easy-read C-Suite Bible is for you 'Looking down on Leaders' is a jargon-free collection of 'pick-up, put-down' short stories, combining serious messages and advice with a touch of humour. The author draws on his own senior executive and coaching experiences to guide and entertain his fellow pilgrims on their tortuous leadership journeys around the globe. Fresh new 'bird's eye' views on organizations are showcased, through the lens of Iain Martin's alter ego, the wise MacMentor, in chapters such as 'The Upside-down Organisation Chart and Wobbly Bottoms'. In stories like 'Burger Bradley's Foreign Adventure' and 'Cancel the Meeting - I forgot my Wedding', Martin narrates stranger-than-fiction events from his long and winding travels along his own multinational career path. This is no standard leadership textbook or coaching manual. It's true 'learning by laughing' in a host of colorful tales united by the vital roles that Vision and Influencing play in today's complicated business world. In each story, Martin draws on his long experiences as businessman and leadership coach in Europe, USA and Asia.

Iain Martin has sat in the CEO Hot Seat! He’s been there and done it. He’s laughed and he’s cried...and now he’s written The Book about it. In his forty five years of global business as people-leader, chief executive and C-Suite coach, Martin has enjoyed some hilarious experiences and some where the truth really was stranger than fiction. Now, he’s bundled it all together in a book designed for ’learning by laughing’, aimed at busy fellow travelers on the road to business excellence. In ’Looking Down on Leaders - a bird’s eye view of business and bosses’ Martin captures the essence of global management in the same humorous, informative style that he has brought to his roles of chief executive and coach to senior business people. A writer of offbeat leadership articles, like ’Laughing Out Loud for Leadership’ and ’Bigger Bombs and Leadership in the Global ’Hollow Cube’’, Martin is a regular conference speaker in Europe, USA and Asia. A political economist and accountant by training, Martin rose through the ranks of business development and financial management to be controller, CFO, non-executive director, and CEO in large US, European, and Asian corporations, all before age forty-five. He left China in early 1998 to found his high-end coaching firm in Switzerland and, in 2011, established a sister company in Singapore. He now leads a team of coaches based in three continents. Iain Martin lives with his long-suffering Swiss partner in Zurich and commutes regularly between Switzerland, USA and Asia. He skis (badly, but enthusiastically) in the Swiss Alps, plays at tennis and is a compulsive reader of everything from serious business books to the back of the breakfast cornflake packet. He is an active member of the exclusive GlobalScots organization, personally appointed by the First Minister as Ambassadors for Scotland.