Grappling: Leaders Striving to Improve

Arm Wrestling with Myself features Jim Kaplan, whose family was struck by tragedy. Jim must come to grips with its effect and shares his thoughts about how to structure the future he wants at work and at home.

A senior manager who specializes in putting out business fires is combustible when he shouldn’t be. Can he change enough to save his relationship with the love of his life? Can he stop fighting the need to reform?

In GRAPPLING, leadership consultant Robert Kaplan brings real people’s inner battles to life through eight powerful, fictionalized case stories. Each one reveals how hard—and how human—the work of personal change truly is.

Gideon has spent his life doing things the right way—the disciplined way. He’s built a career on relentless standards, moral rigor, and unyielding ambition. But as judgment day arrives, the cracks begin to show. An explosive confrontation with a fed-up colleague, a shocking admission from his wife, and memories of a distant son collide in Gideon’s tightly controlled world. When the decision doesn’t go his way, he is forced to sit with a kind of failure he’s never known, not just at work, but in his marriage, his faith, and his sense of self.

Philip Konig had been recruited personally by the megabank’s CEO, Martin Middleton. His mandate: to fix investment banking. But much more that, Philip was brought in to be the heir apparent to replace Middleton. There were rumblings about Philip, to which Middleton turned a deaf ear, but the corporate head of HR, Frank Brescia, did not.

Veri Archer, an operating executive in her mid-forties, is recruited to be CEO of a high-tech start-up, replacing the founder-CEO, Sanjay Cherry. He stays on as CTO. For Veri, it becomes a rite of passage twice over. Behind the scenes, the transition of power is anything but smooth. Sanjay, a brilliant but beleaguered visionary, is forced to face the harsh truth that innovation alone isn’t enough to lead. Neal Armbruster—venture capitalist, mentor, and the man behind the curtain—must navigate the delicate politics of replacing a founder without fracturing a friendship.

Maxine Cooper is tasked with leading her company headfirst into the introduction of cutting-age technology. At work, she’s all business and no play, but despite her success, struggles to keep her life in balance. Maxine cannot quite shake the feeling of being stuck in her profession, and the quiet voice in the back of her mind asking her for more.

Sam is a business turnaround artist. And, he has the mentality to match, a deeply ingrained pattern that plays out in all aspects of his life. Nothing about Sam Calastri is easy. Gruff, intimidating, and deeply private, he’s built a career on dominance and grit, not self-reflection. New hire Sally Cain, armed with curiosity, experience, and just enough personal baggage of her own, must find a way to meet him in the middle in their corporate world.