Nonfiction Book Award Status: Bronze
Synopsis
Kevin Hancock is the CEO of one of America’s oldest family businesses. In 2010, he was diagnosed with a rare voice disorder that made speaking difficult. In 2012, Kevin began traveling from his home in Maine to the remote Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. There, he encountered an entire community that did not feel fully heard. These two transformational events combined to help the author realize that there are lots of ways to lose your voice in this world and that leaders historically have often done more to restrict the voices of others than to liberate them. This epiphany set Kevin on a journey stretching from the Arizona desert to Kiev, Ukraine on a quest to find a new set of leadership principles designed to disperse and localize power rather than collect it. The new goal: create a socially transformative work culture for the 21st Century in which employee engagement soars because everyone feels authentically heard.
Author Bio:
KEVIN HANCOCK is an award-winning author, speaker, and CEO. Established in 1848, Hancock Lumber Company operates ten retail stores, 3 sawmills and a truss plant. The company also grows trees on 12,000 acres of timberland in Southern Maine and is led by its 550 employees.
Hancock Lumber is a six-time recipient of the ‘Best Places to Work in Maine’ award. The company is also a recipient of the Maine Family Business of the Year Award, the Governor’s Award for Business Excellence, the MITC ‘Exporter of the Year’ award, and the Pro-Sales national dealer of the year.
Kevin is a past chairman of the National Lumber and Building Materials Dealers Association. Kevin is also a recipient of the Ed Muskie ‘Access to Justice’ Award, the Habitat For Humanity ‘Spirit of Humanity’ Award, the Boy Scouts of America ‘Distinguished Citizen’ Award, and Timber Processing Magazine’s ‘Man of the Year’ Award.
Kevin’s first book, Not For Sale: Finding Center in the Land of Crazy Horse won three national book awards. His second book, The Seventh Power –One CEO’s Journey into the Business of Shared Leadership released February25, 2020 and is distributed by Simon & Schuster.
Kevin is a frequent visitor to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota and an advocate of strengthening the voices of all individuals—within a company or a community —through listening, empowering, and shared leadership.
Kevin is a graduate of Lake Region High School and Bowdoin College. He lives in Maine with his wife Alison.
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