Contact - by Graham Stickland (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

"I've known Graham for years and been a repeat client of Contact Consulting in a number of different roles in the luxury industry. I never found anyone with a better understanding of group dynamics, motivation and leadership. The impact he has made on the teams that have worked with him is profound. His long-awaited book will bring you the self-awareness to simply and humbly ask what you could do better."

--Christopher Zanardi-Landi, Executive Vice-President, Louis Vuitton 2012-2017

Contact is a modern field guide for managers who lead in the Employee-Centric Era. Drawing on decades of global work, Graham Stickland shows how today's best managers stop over-controlling and start enabling-creating environments where people feel safe, trusted, and motivated to do their best work. Through vivid stories and practical moves, he translates big ideas into everyday habits: let go so others can step up, design opportunity (not threat) environments, run better conversations, coach with simple loops, align teams around purpose, and build healthy cultures that perform without burnout.

Organised in four parts (It Really Is All About Others; Connect and Build Strong Relationships, Team Up, Level Up; and Simplify, Don't Complexify), the book replaces command-and-control with repeatable rhythms any manager can use. Each chapter ends with "Making Contact" reflection questions and tips that will make you an effective manager everyday.

Inside you'll learn how to:

• Shift from expert-doer to enabling manager who multiplies others
• Turn meetings into high-trust, high-candor conversations
• Use a two-question coaching loop that builds ownership
• Pace change to your team's true capacity, not wishful timelines
• Run listening tours and public commitments that align execution
• Replace rational bias with momentum-based sequencing-start where the energy is
• Build happy people, healthy culture with clear norms, feedback, and care

Whether you lead a store, a startup, or a global division or function, Contact gives you the questions, practices, and proof points to turn everyday interactions into lasting results.

Review Quotes

"I've known Graham for years and been a repeat client of Contact Consulting in a number of different roles in the luxury industry. I never found anyone with a better understanding of group dynamics, motivation and leadership."

--Christopher Zanardi-Landi, Executive Vice-President, Louis Vuitton 2012-2017

"Great management is built on great conversations and inside-out awareness. I love that Contact shows you how to do both!"

--Maureen Lippe, Media Powerhouse/Entrepreneur, former Vogue and Harper's Bazaar Editor, and author of Radical Reinvention

"Stickland replaces control with connection, offering practical strategies-clear agreements, courageous conversations, and outcome-focused autonomy-that lift performance across cultures and time zones."

--Brendan Hall, International Keynote Speaker, author of Team Spirit, and winning captain, Clipper Round the World Yacht Race 2009-2010

"In Contact, Stickland integrates leadership and management into one teachable craft, focused on enabling others rather than rescuing them."

--Tom Ravert, Managing Director, American Standard Capital, author of The Rudiments of Real Estate series

"Stickland makes it clear, today's talent chooses you just as much, if not more, than you choose them."

--Chris Olshan, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The Luxury Council

"Contact is the field guide leaders need for the Employee-Centric Era."

--Amber M. Brookman, former CEO of Brookwood Companies, and author of Nobody's Girl: Mother, Model, CEO On My Own Terms

"Contact is the essential handbook for modern leaders who want to build a high-performance culture rooted in trust and engagement. It strips away the noise to remind us of a simple truth: performance begins with human connection."

--Clare Wright, Chief People Officer

"This book makes the environment the hero. Happy people, healthy culture!"

--Alan Way, Executive Director, Private Clients, LOUIS XIII Americas, Remy Cointreau Group

"Contact is designed to provoke reflection and action. Connect and make Contact your motivational guide right now!"

--Cheryl B. King, finance and empowerment strategist, and author of Your Worth: Portfolio of a Life Well-Lived

"This book makes connection the manager's daily craft. Contact is expertly written for today's talent market."

--Elliott W. Wislar, CEO, Clearbrook, and Author of Voyage to Victory: Stories and Strategies for Resilience, Risk and Reward

"Stickland proves that when you design for trust, cross-cultural teams deliver their best work everywhere."

--Lina Clavijo, global culture shaper and facilitator, author of Christmas Cactus: Stories of Eccentricity and Family Lore for Ancestral Healing

"Contact brings management back to what matters: meaningful human connection that scales. Managers who master this will retain talent others lose."

--Sona Jepsen, author of Pink Dragon: Breathe Fire Into Your Life and Leadership

"Contact shows how integrity and relationship-building turn authority into trust and trust into results."

--Roger Carlton, Former City Manager of Miami Beach