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The Power of Goal ZERO: A Practical Leadership Guide for Achieving Superior Performance


Sam Smolik has written the ideal book for leaders to maximize their personal effectiveness, improve organizational efficiency, and motivate people. The principles enable rapid transformation in any organization. Through personal stories and experiences, a proven roadmap is provided for demonstrating strong leadership, creating a culture of excellence, implementing organizational change, developing effective management systems, and achieving superior performance. In today's competitive environment, individuals and organizations must be best-in-class to compete and win.

Smolik's book describes a practical way to be a results-focused leader and drive safety, reliability, and quality improvement. The Power of Goal ZERO provides techniques for each of the following elements necessary for achieving Operational Excellence: Operational Excellence = Leadership + People + Culture + Systems + Assets. The book summarizes best practices in a manner that readers can easily understand and implement. A clear roadmap is provided for how to design, utilize, and maintain a good management system that will increase an organization's performance and productivity. Simplicity is a prevailing theme; it doesn’t have to be complicated.

Sam Smolik

Sam Smolik authored "The Power of Goal ZERO" to share the performance improvement concepts that he and his colleagues developed and perfected. His focus is on leadership, people development, operational excellence, management systems, ESG, sustainable development, and achieving superior performance in organizations. Sam retired as Senior Vice President, Americas Manufacturing for LyondellBasell Industries in 2017. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for various companies and non-profit organizations. He previously served as Global Vice President for Environment, Health, and Safety for LyondellBasell, Royal Dutch Shell, and The Dow Chemical Company. Sam Smolik graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin. He and his wife, Stephanie, live in Houston, Texas.