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How leaders can turn their team's individual differences into deeper trust, greater creativity, and winning results.
Look around your team. You see people with different communication styles, perspectives, cultural norms, and capabilities. These differences are expressed in all kinds of ways—a casual gesture in a meeting, a colleague's opinion on a current event, an intense work style—and can often lead to friction, even conflict. You try to manage around them, but what if these differences are the key to your team's success?
In All the Difference, bestselling author and head of the Simmons University Institute for Inclusive Leadership Susan MacKenty Brady, business negotiation expert Stuart D. Kliman, and retired US Army Lieutenant General Leslie C. Smith argue that leaders must shift their view: difference is not just noise to tolerate—it's the raw material for creating value. When difference isn't understood or acknowledged, it breeds disconnection, saps performance, and undermines your team's potential. What's needed is a leadership strategy for turning human difference into your organization's greatest strength.
Based on current research, with examples from frontline leaders and insights from their own experience, the authors provide a framework of six "target actions" that will help you leverage your best self as a leader, honor multiple perspectives, and turn difference into strength on your team. They also identify the hidden "landmines" that often create havoc for leaders trying to navigate difference using yesterday's assumptions.
Our teams have never been more complex, and the challenge of leading them has never been more urgent. All the Difference is an indispensable guide for transforming your team and creating a thriving organization in a world full of difference.
Advance Praise for All the Difference:
"What sets All the Difference apart is its unflinching honesty about why managing difference is so hard. This is leadership wisdom forged in radically different contexts—from boardrooms to battlefields—distilled into a framework that's as practical as it is transformative. If you're serious about unlocking the full capability of your team, consider this book your guide." — Kevin B. Churchwell, MD, President and CEO, Boston Children's Hospital
"All the Difference offers leaders a clear and actionable road map for navigating the complexity of today's teams. Susan MacKenty Brady, Stuart D. Kliman, and Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Leslie C. Smith show, with clarity and heart, how to turn difference into an engine for trust, creativity, and results. This book is essential reading for anyone leading in today's world." — Dorie Clark, Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author, The Long Game
"Leadership gets hardest when different perspectives collide under daily pressure. All the Difference offers a practical, human approach to building trust, working through tension, and turning difference into better decisions and stronger results." — Patrick Gilligan, President and CEO, Point32Health
"Strategy fails or succeeds based on how leaders handle difference. Left unmanaged, difference derails execution. Harnessed well, it fuels innovation, commitment, and results. This book makes clear why leading through difference is the most critical leadership capability of our time—and how to build it." — Bruce Patton, cofounder and Distinguished Fellow, Harvard Negotiation Project; coauthor, perennial New York Times bestsellers Getting to YES and Difficult Conversations
"Leading in a rapidly changing world requires unleashing the potential of every team member. And what makes one team member different is also what makes that person valuable. All the Difference is a must-read for leaders seeking to forge a collective superpower from the differing strengths of individuals, teams, and organizations." — Sanyin Siang, Executive Director, Coach K Center on Leadership and Ethics, Fuqua School of Business, Duke University; Thinkers50 Coaching Legend
"All the Difference reframes difference as a source of value rather than risk. With clarity and practical insight, the authors show how leaders can turn everyday tension into trust, stronger performance, and long-term value creation. A timely guide for executives navigating complex environments." — Stephen H. Wise, Partner and Co-head, Americas Corporate Private Equity, Carlyle
Susan MacKenty Brady is a global leadership expert, speaker, and CEO of the Simmons University Institute for Inclusive Leadership. She advises organizations worldwide on cultivating high-performing, human-centered cultures and is the coauthor of the USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestseller Arrive and Thrive.
Stuart D. Kliman is a founder and Partner Emeritus at Vantage Partners, a midsize consulting and training organization headquartered in Boston. He is an expert in behavioral change management and collaboration, an alumnus of the Harvard Negotiation Project, and the Head of Business Development at PrescriberPoint.
Leslie C. Smith is a retired US Army lieutenant general and former Inspector General. He currently serves as Vice President for Leadership, Education, and Programs at the Association of the United States Army. In addition, he is a visiting professor of leadership at Georgia Southern University and CEO of the LV Smith Corporate Group.