Update on my new book, Persuadable

Phew! What a couple of days it’s been.

On January 26th my new book, Persuadable: How Great Leaders Change Their Minds to Change the World,  went on sale, and hours later it made #1 new release in business decision making, and climbed all the way to #377 on Amazon in all of books!

I had a lot of help ...

My appearance on The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC was a huge hit. Check out our conversation titled, How to Win Friends By Letting Them Influence You.

The inimitable Seth Godin posted this incredible endorsement on his blog:

““Today’s the day that bestselling author Al Pittampalli’s book, Persuadable, launches. His new book is a big deal, a research-based, practical guide to help us understand that people who change their minds are actually the most likely to change the world. A must read. Al keeps challenging our perceptions and helping us make a difference with our work.””
— Seth

And the two articles that I wrote, one for Fast Company called Why Entrepreneurs Should Practice Defensive Pessimism  and the other for Quartz called How Changing your Mind Makes You a Better Leader have been shared hundreds and hundreds of times.

By the way, here’s my favorite five-star review from one of Amazon’s Hall of Fame (Top 500) reviewers, Bob Morris.

If you haven’t already bought my book, Persuadable, I hope you will.  Thanks so much for your continued support. Looking forward to updating you again soon.

My new book is on sale today

Today, I’m proud to announce the release of my new book, Persuadable: How Great Leaders Change Their Minds to Change the World. 

Our culture teaches us that changing your mind is a weakness. But after three years of exhaustive research, studying the greatest leaders of our time, I've learned something entirely surprising:

In a world that is more complex and turbulent than ever, the genuine willingness to change your mind in the face of evidence is now the ultimate competitive advantage.

Here’s the book trailer:

Here's some advance praise for the book:

“The benefits of persuadability have long been underappreciated. No more, not after this compelling and well-informed account of when and how to change our minds most productively.”
— Robert B. Cialdini, author of INFLUENCE
“In a complex decision-making environment, staying the course can often mean marching toward oblivion. That’s why PERSUADABLE is so refreshing. This terrific book is full of captivating stories and convincing research about the value of changing your mind, along with lessons that help you become a more effective leader.”
— Daniel H. Pink, author of TO SELL IS HUMAN and DRIVE
“Pittampalli offers a crucial but counter-intuitive insight — that being persuadable makes you more powerful — and lays out why this is so and how to get there. In a different mood, I would tell you that it’s the best business book you’ll ever read.”
— Douglas Stone, coauthor of Difficult Conversations and Thanks for the Feedback

And here are some quotes from the book that encapsulate some of the core themes. Can you do me a favor and share your favorite one on social media?

The face of leadership is changing, and now, a proactive willingness to change your mind is what's required for success. This book will give you the roadmap. 

I'm more proud of this project than anything I've ever done. Give it a chance and I'm confident you won't regret it. Get your copy of Persuadable today:

Amazon
Apple
B&N
HarperCollins
Indiebound 

Episode 04: Can Feeling Less Powerful Make you a Better Leader?

Adam Galinky is the Vikram S. Pandit Professor of Business and Chair of the Management Division at Columbia Business School and one of the world’s foremost experts on how power affects leadership.

In this conversation Galinsky will tell us why feeling powerful isn’t always beneficial: it diminishes our ability to take perspectives, a critical leadership skill. Listen to this episode to learn specific tools for feeling more powerful, and more importantly, tips on knowing when to use them.  

Episode 03: How to Improve Performance By Asking for Brutally Honest Feedback - Scott Miller

Scott Miller is the founder of the International Center for Clinical Excellence. Scott and his team study an important question: what makes the best therapists so exceptional? In this conversation, we’ll learn the answer: a proactive willingness to seek out brutally honest feedback. But for therapists – and every kind of leader --  seeking out feedback takes a particular mindset and a rarely developed set of skills. Listen to this episode to learn exactly what those skills are. 

 


Episode 02: Why leaders should argue more -- Hugo Mercier

Hugo Mercier is a researcher at the 'Cognitive Science Center' of Neuchâtel University. He is the co-author of the influential paper: Why do humans reason? Arguments for an argumentative theory.

Arguing gets a bad wrap these days, but in this conversation, Hugo explains why it’s one of the most powerful tools leaders have for making better decisions. He does this by revealing the true reasons why human beings began arguing to begin with. Listen to this episode and you’ll never look at arguing the same way again. 

Episode 01: How to make better predictions with Philip Tetlock

Philip Tetlock is the Annenberg University Professor at the University of Pennsylvania and quite frankly one of the world’s most highly regarded social scientists. His groundbreaking research on expert prediction has changed the way the world view experts.

His new book is called Superforecasting, all about a few elite individuals who outperform others when making predictions. In this conversation, Philip shares the secrets that make these superforecasters so deadly accurate, so that you can do so too. If you want to be right more often, in business or in life, you need to listen to this show.