<p>Any of us may be called to lead for a short time or a longer one in a large or small group and almost all of us are capable.</p><p>I wrote this book with leaders of all kinds of organizations in mind not just CEOs of corporations but rather anyone who finds themselves in a position of leadership. This includes department heads scout leaders heads of not-for-profits work group leaders church leaders school principals—literally anyone who finds themselves in a position of leadership for whatever time frame at whatever stage of an organization’s development.</p><p>This book’s basic principles apply to leaders across a wide variety of organization types and sizes. Silicon Valley Bank was a startup when I joined it in 1990. It had about 1200 people in total when I passed my CEO baton on to my successor Greg Becker ten years later; today under Greg’s leadership it is one of the largest banks in the US and one of only a handful with a global orientation. And yet I believe that the stories and principles elucidated in the book apply to every part of this journey from startup to global bank.</p>