ISBN 978-1-326-37809-7
Book, 769 Pages
Print Book: US Trade (6 x 9 in / 152 x 229 mm), Standard Color, 80# White, Coated, Paperback Perfect Bound, Matte Cover
For engineers and emerging leaders ready to step into their impact, and for ANYONE who wants to lead with heart, clarity, and courage.
Making the leap from expert contributor to influential leader can feel like navigating a labyrinth of unknowns, until now.
The Leadership Leap is your ultimate guide to stepping into leadership and scaling your impact — with clarity, confidence, and courage.
Written by Sarah Gruneisen, a leadership coach, former Head of Engineering, and software developer with over 20 years in tech and 15+ years in leadership, this book speaks directly to engineers and technical professionals, but its depth, warmth, and honesty make it a powerful guide for anyone ready to lead with intention.
Inside this 750+ page journey, you’ll find:
✅ Deeply practical, personal, and transformative leadership insight
🐉 Dragon-themed metaphors to help you face fear, lead with courage, and unlock your impact
🌀 20+ hand-drawn mazes, symbolizing real-world leadership dilemmas engineers face
✍️ 30+ Dragon Exercises to reflect, grow, and act with integrity
🎨 Fully illustrated by Sarah, including dragons, frameworks, and visual tools
🧭 Tactical tools and frameworks: values mapping, psychological safety, empathy types, feedback blueprints, systems thinking
🧠 Topics engineers and humans alike care about: team performance, trust, burnout, diversity, feedback, emotional intelligence, ethical leadership, and more
💬 Written in Sarah’s voice: grounded, honest, sometimes playful, always deeply human
🛠️ Created by a fellow engineer, not a ghostwriter, not a corporate manual
👩💻 Blends technical leadership, agile values, and creative clarity
The story behind Sarah's book:
https://www.avagasso.com/post/the-book-i-d-been-writing-since-i-was-a-teenager-isn-t-the-one-i-published-first
This isn’t just a leadership manual.
It’s a trusted companion, for navigating challenges, building healthy teams, and becoming the kind of leader who inspires real change.
Whether you're:
Managing your first engineering team
Leading a cross-functional project
Coaching others through uncertainty
Or simply ready to lead with more clarity, purpose, and power...
The Leadership Leap will help you:
🔥 Build trust and seed collaboration
💎 Communicate with clarity and empathy
🐉 Transform challenges into growth opportunities
Ready to embrace the leader — and impact — within?
It’s time to leap — without crash landings.
💚 Perfect for engineers, first-time managers, and anyone ready to lead with heart, courage, and authenticity.
Reviews
I met Sarah at a point where I had hit the greatest plateau. One so big it felt this is what the rest of my life is going to look like. I wasn't sure if I had what it takes to lead and personal leadership wasn't even on my radar. Sarah's work gave me a way forward and the space she created in those classes made it possible to learn and practice without BS. This book reminds of the classes and I can forever walk with the lessons.
I love this book! Having attended Sarah’s truly life-changing Leadership Landing Program, it feels like I now get to keep her wisdom by my side. Sometimes I open to a chapter for a quick reminder, other times I settle in to read cover to cover. Every page carries Sarah’s trademark heart and insight. Inspiring, practical, and full of love — I’m all in, and you will be too.
Have you ever read a book that made you feel truly seen?
Or change the way you think?
I’m reading the book by Sarah Gruneisen 🐉 , and I’m blown away by the love and expertise she poured into it.
I felt seen from the first words.
Inspired to challenge my inner status quo, lean into discomfort, and find my voice.
Because it matters not just for me - it affects everyone around me.
Our influence is greater than we think.
Sarah invites us to understand ourselves as leaders, uncover limiting beliefs, and lead from our core with courage.
“Leadership isn’t just a set of skills, it’s an unrelenting mirror. It reflects your strengths, yes, but also your blind spots, biases and insecurities.”
She shares real stories of being a woman in tech, a mom, and stepping into leadership - the struggles, turning points, and lessons learned through trial and error.
It’s a vivid and honest guide to navigating the messy transition from engineering to management.
Faaaar from easy!
So many people shared the same thing with me - you feel confident about coding, getting specific results and measuring your progress in a specific way.
But things become messy when you get into management.
You start working with people a lot, the path is vague and it’s not easy to measure your real influence and contribution.
How to empower others to do their best work?
Every chapter invites to reflect, reframe, and take action.
Loove it and keep reading (also to understand my techies better)
❓ I'm curious which book has ever made you feel truly seen or changed the way you think?
After a deeply personal exploration phase I leaped into the void of the unknown,
took on a new role and challenged myself on multiple levels. As I continue to navigate this unfamiliar landscape, The Leadership Leap has become a powerful companion. It helps me reflect on the steps I’ve taken since Sarah’s leadership program and offers guidance when I stumble or face unexpected challenges.
Besides offering guidance down a treacherous path, Sarah's words convey a strong and powerful message as to why it is important to find your purpose, lead from your core and be courageous about it. The call for action is loud and clear. We have more power to act or voice concerns than we give ourselves credit for.
The book has been written with great care and contains a lot of wisdom. I love the formatting and how it's tailored to specific personality types and characteristics, it makes me delve deeper and helps me to explore, understand and grow into my own leadership style every time I turn a page. I feel this is my "go to", my very own philosophical and practical treasure trove! I actually believe that I might be able to avoid a terrible crashlanding with this book as my guide.