Any of us may be called to lead, for a short time or a longer one, in a large or small group, and almost all of us are capable.

I wrote this book with leaders of all kinds of organizations in mind, not just CEOs of corporations, but rather anyone who finds themselves in a position of leadership. This includes department heads, scout leaders, heads of not-for-profits, work group leaders, church leaders, school principals—literally anyone who finds themselves in a position of leadership, for whatever time frame, at whatever stage of an organization’s development.

This book’s basic principles apply to leaders across a wide variety of organization types and sizes. Silicon Valley Bank was a startup when I joined it in 1990. It had about 1,200 people in total when I passed my CEO baton on to my successor, Greg Becker, ten years later; today, under Greg’s leadership, it is one of the largest banks in the US and one of only a handful with a global orientation. And yet, I believe that the stories and principles elucidated in the book apply to every part of this journey, from startup to global bank.