Better Leadership Strategies

Seth Godin has written more than two dozen books, including 2024’s This Is Strategy: Make Better Plans. The book has an intentionally loose structure, with no page numbers or chapters.

“There’s no basic chapter structure because, if I’m going to spend the first whole part of the book talking about systems, how can I talk about games? I haven’t talked about games yet,” said Godin on a 2025 episode of ATD’s Accidental Trainer podcast. “And what I found as I was writing it is, [systems and games are] so interwoven. It’s not even worth trying.”

Much like his impending keynote at ATD25, This Is Strategy shares Godin’s insights through a series of reflections and observations that challenge readers’ approach to making decisions and solving problems.

A pioneer in online education and a member of the Direct Marketing Hall of Fame and the AMA Marketing Hall of Fame, Godin has held such titles as founder and CEO of Squidoo.com and vice president of direct marketing at Yahoo! after he sold the company his 1990s online startup Yoyodyne.

His lengthy resume also includes founding altMBA, a workshop for leaders. He posts on his popular marketing blog, Seth’s Blog, every day; he reached his 10,000th post on April 8, 2025.

“We need managers to make the world work. Leadership is optional. Leadership is seeing something that hasn’t happened yet, painting a picture, and encouraging people to go with you,” Godin said on Accidental Trainer. “It’s voluntary. So, a key part of training is, yes, to teach people how to be a manager. But the real win is when we encourage and teach people how to be a leader.”

Godin will close out ATD25 with his keynote on Wednesday, May 21 at 11 a.m. ET. Considering how prolific he is in the learning space, Godin’s address will be a goldmine of advice for in-person and virtual attendees.

Read more about ATD25 at conferencedaily.td.org.