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Safe to Great: The New Psychology of Leadership
How do today’s leaders shift from playing it safe to playing for great?
In a volatile and complex world roiled by a climate crisis, global pandemics, and disruptive technologies like AI, hyper-individualized leadership models no longer make sense. To seize emerging opportunities and achieve sustainable growth, leaders must recognize that a team’s success flows from the intelligence, achievements, and growth of the entire collective.
In Safe to Great , Skip Bowman proposes a leadership sea change that puts purpose before profit, and the team before the individual. He draws on the concept of psychological safety as the key to unlocking an organization’s growth mindset, and unites theory and practice in principles that will help leaders shape innovative workplaces that thrive on experimentation.
Grounded in more than 25 years of experience working with global organizations, Safe to Great is designed for leaders who want to bring more hope and critical thinking to how they manage. Bowman makes a compelling appeal for a new standard of leadership that moves people and organizations from a place of relative comfort and little risk to a space of daring curiosity, engagement, and collaboration.
In a volatile and complex world roiled by a climate crisis, global pandemics, and disruptive technologies like AI, hyper-individualized leadership models no longer make sense. To seize emerging opportunities and achieve sustainable growth, leaders must recognize that a team’s success flows from the intelligence, achievements, and growth of the entire collective.
In Safe to Great , Skip Bowman proposes a leadership sea change that puts purpose before profit, and the team before the individual. He draws on the concept of psychological safety as the key to unlocking an organization’s growth mindset, and unites theory and practice in principles that will help leaders shape innovative workplaces that thrive on experimentation.
Grounded in more than 25 years of experience working with global organizations, Safe to Great is designed for leaders who want to bring more hope and critical thinking to how they manage. Bowman makes a compelling appeal for a new standard of leadership that moves people and organizations from a place of relative comfort and little risk to a space of daring curiosity, engagement, and collaboration.
- GenresPsychology
160 pages, Hardcover
Published September 26, 2023
7 people are currently reading
16 people want to read
About the author
Skip Bowman
1 book1 followerSkip Bowman is an author, consultant and keynote speaker focusing on how to transform organizations to the green economy with a growth mindset and psychological safety.
Australian-born and Europe-based, he has worked with global organizations for over 25 years developing unique programs and approaches that are captured in his recently released Safe2Great concept.
“People first” is Skip’s mantra for success in business, leadership, and change. Only when people feel valued and respected can you fully realize the potential of a purpose-based organization.
The future of leadership is green and digital. And there is a need to reimagine and reengineer how we lead and organize to meet the challenges of the mid-21st century.
He has spent the last 8 years studying the connections between mindset and effectiveness. This has led to the development of the Safe2Great concept and assessment tools.
This is the first-time the concepts Growth Mindset and Psychological Safety have been integrated into one approach to leadership and organisational development.
Skip’s approach to consulting and coaching is both inspirational and challenging.
There is both a Bright and Dark side to leaders and corporate cultures that must be embraced in any truly transformational approach to growth.
He argues that we need principles for leading and organizing that are effective, morally right and save the planet. These must lead to a vision of prosperity-for-many rather than profit-for-the-few as the goal of all responsible businesses.
Globally savvy, Skip has regular consulting and keynote commitments in Europe, North America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
He uses two working languages (Danish & English). He grew up in Perth, Australia and has spent most the last 25 years working in Switzerland, England, France, and Denmark.
After studying Finance in Australia, he attained his M.A. in Psychology and Languages in Copenhagen. Skip has a Master in Organizational Psychology (Denmark) and completed additional training in cross-cultural management, group dynamics, coaching, and cultural change.
His book ”Safe to Great - The New Psychology of Leadership” will be published in the US in September 2023 and outlines his new psychology for leadership and an integrated process for implementing a Growth Mindset based on Psychological safety in organisations.
Australian-born and Europe-based, he has worked with global organizations for over 25 years developing unique programs and approaches that are captured in his recently released Safe2Great concept.
“People first” is Skip’s mantra for success in business, leadership, and change. Only when people feel valued and respected can you fully realize the potential of a purpose-based organization.
The future of leadership is green and digital. And there is a need to reimagine and reengineer how we lead and organize to meet the challenges of the mid-21st century.
He has spent the last 8 years studying the connections between mindset and effectiveness. This has led to the development of the Safe2Great concept and assessment tools.
This is the first-time the concepts Growth Mindset and Psychological Safety have been integrated into one approach to leadership and organisational development.
Skip’s approach to consulting and coaching is both inspirational and challenging.
There is both a Bright and Dark side to leaders and corporate cultures that must be embraced in any truly transformational approach to growth.
He argues that we need principles for leading and organizing that are effective, morally right and save the planet. These must lead to a vision of prosperity-for-many rather than profit-for-the-few as the goal of all responsible businesses.
Globally savvy, Skip has regular consulting and keynote commitments in Europe, North America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
He uses two working languages (Danish & English). He grew up in Perth, Australia and has spent most the last 25 years working in Switzerland, England, France, and Denmark.
After studying Finance in Australia, he attained his M.A. in Psychology and Languages in Copenhagen. Skip has a Master in Organizational Psychology (Denmark) and completed additional training in cross-cultural management, group dynamics, coaching, and cultural change.
His book ”Safe to Great - The New Psychology of Leadership” will be published in the US in September 2023 and outlines his new psychology for leadership and an integrated process for implementing a Growth Mindset based on Psychological safety in organisations.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 23, 2025
I listened to this book on audio and it was a difficult listen- the author narrates and his narration was not clear, with a lack of clear enunciation which did make the book difficult to follow at times. The key principles of the book talk about the benefits of growth mindset leadership versus a more controlling leadership style. He talks of the importance of psychological safety and introduces the concept of the hippo (autocratic/aggressive), snail (people pleaser, avoids conflict), clam (cynical/undermining) and dolphin (growth mindset). The concepts are all logical and there are some good reminders in her of the theory but very little of the “how” is discussed, so I personally found the book of very limited use.
September 8, 2025
Forgot to record earlier in the year
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews