Books by G. Damon Wells
Right Leader, Wrong Arena
Leadership science explains only 23% of why leaders succeed or fail. This book reveals the missing 77%: the multiplicative collision between your psychological wiring and the environmental forces surrounding you, showing why identical capabilities produce excellence in one arena and struggle in another.
The 12 Ordeals of Leadership
A practical guide for new leaders that frames leadership growth as twelve unavoidable ordeals—by fire, water, and combat—teaching you how to navigate uncertainty, decisions, failure, burnout, empathy, trust, communication, ethics, politics, conflict, delegation, and balance.
The Leadership Incompetence Index
A field guide to diagnosing bad leadership early by identifying root causes, spotting red flags, and applying clear remedies across eleven common types of incompetent leaders.
You Don't Know Sh*t About Leadership
A blunt, science-backed leadership book that explains why most leaders fail (and why organizations keep promoting them anyway), then gives you the Ballistic Leadership Framework to build trust, cohesion, excellence, and purpose under real-world pressure.
Viking Leadership
Drawing on archaeological discoveries, medieval sagas, and historical records, this groundbreaking book uncovers the leadership principles that enabled Norse chieftains, kings, and captains to guide small communities into global forces stretching from North America to the Middle East.
Coming Soon
Viking Leadership: Berserker Edition
For fans of the original. This one is a little edgier!
Current Project: Close the Loop
The goal is to link evolutionary biology, neuroscience, game theory, and cybernetics into a single framework for understanding leadership. The argument: leadership is a system function. It's a series of complicated feedback loops. I'm using Sam Bankman-Fried, Frans de Waal's chimpanzees, and the Boeing 737 MAX disasters to build the case.