The C(2) Factor for Leadership: How the Alchemy of Curiosity and Courage Helps Leaders Become Champions and Lead Meaningful Lives

Packed with nuggets of wisdom from the experiences of champion-level leaders across industries, Dr. Irving demonstrates how champion leaders engage their curiosity and courage to learn from the past, enhance the present and anticipate the future.

—Marshall Goldsmith, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Triggers, Mojo, and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There and Thinkers 50 #1 Executive Coach

Curiosity and courage are unstoppable forces. In this insightful book, Joanne Irving deftly shows how to enlist them to become a leader fit for the future.

—Daniel H. Pink, #1 New York Times bestselling author of WHEN and DRIVE

The cover graphic is a trailer for this profound book. The magical power of leadership is the effective blend of the courage of a lion with the curiosity of a cat. This myth-busting book will alter your leadership perspectives and practices by providing cutting edge substance, compelling examples, and insightful tools.

—Chip R. Bell, author of Inside Your Customer’s Imagination

All we know with absolute certainty is that we live in complex, uncertain, and rapidly changing times. Despite our best attempts to predict the future, we are often caught off-guard and surprised when it arrives. Whether a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, global economic shifts, political upheaval, or technological evolution, as senior leaders we must navigate these tumultuous times and make tough decisions to guide our organizations to success.

Champion leaders want to be truly exceptional regardless of the maelstrom of change they are experiencing. Not only do they want their organizations to succeed, but they also want to live fulfilling lives. They want the same for those in their organizations and personal lives as well.

How do we effectively lead in times of constant, often dramatic change? And, equally important, how do we simultaneously create a satisfying, meaningful life?

The C² Factor – the synergistic application of curiosity and courage – offers a path to both. This book reveals that when leaders manifest both traits, they embrace the professional and personal opportunities the future brings. When the landscape is shifting beneath our feet the C² Factor enables us to lead more effectively and helps us cultivate more fulfilling personal lives.

While other books have looked at curiosity and courage separately, The C² Factor for Leadership examines how, when combined, profound curiosity and relentless courage lead to remarkable outcomes. One enhances the other in a powerful alchemy that improves our outcomes, how we show up as leaders in our organizations and as human beings in our personal lives. Beginning with ourselves and expanding to our relationships, our teams, our organizations, and to the world, this book demonstrates how the C² Factor can be applied for superior results.To be a truly exceptional leader, to live a satisfying life, we must have profound curiosity and relentless courage. We must exercise the C² Factor. Without it, we run the risk of being leaders who are robotic, academic, or reckless. With the C² Factor, we can be champions.

Joanne Irving, PhD, specializes in working with owners and CEOs of mid-size companies and senior executives at large organizations. She has worked in the Washington D.C. area and across the United States for over three decades, helping influential and accomplished leaders improve professional and business outcomes, organizational performance, and the quality of life for themselves and those around them.

Because of her finely-honed understanding of individuals’ motivations, emotions, and behaviors as well as team dynamics and organizational contexts, Dr. Irving has helped leaders in a wide range of organizations through challenges that are pivotal to their businesses and themselves.

When asked to reflect on her decades of work and over 3000 clients, Joanne identified the leaders who were most transformative, most able to seize opportunities, and most caring and wise, and realized that they all had two qualities in common – they are exceptionally curious and courageous. With leaders at Washington based institutions such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Federal Defense Department, and the White House, Fortune 100 companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, Pfizer, and a variety of non-profit associations across sectors such as AARP, HRC and the Zuckerman Institute at Columbia University, Joanne concluded that these qualities were applicable in a wide variety of leadership contexts.

Joanne graduated summa cum laude from Tufts University; received her PhD in psychology from the University of Maryland; and conducted her internship at Johns Hopkins University Hospital.