7 Rivers Leadership: Building Men Worth Trusting- At Home and At Work
You don’t become a different man when you walk through your front door.
The same leadership that builds trust at work should build trust at home. Our upcoming book; 7 Rivers Leadership: Building Men who are Worth Trusting-at Work and at Home is a practical framework for men who want to lead with greater influence, consistency, and character wherever they are.
Same Man
Same Leader
Both Places
A title is given but Leadership has to be earned.
Leadership isn't a position; it is influence. And influence follows you home.
We need ONE leadership life.
Men are often taught how to manage employees, projects, budgets, schedules, and results. But nobody hands us a leadership manual for the people who know us best.
We can be patient with an employee and impatient with a child.
Clear with a team and distant with a spouse. Respected at work while becoming disconnected at home.
The problem isn't that we need two leadership systems.
How deep are your rivers at work—and at home?
Most leadership assessments measure what happens inside the organization.
This book asks a harder question:
Would the people at home score your leadership the same way?
Leadership is more like Paddling than Drifting.
Every river has a current. If you stop paddling, you don't stay where you are—you drift.
Leadership works the same way. Relationships drift. Communication drifts. Character can drift. Families drift. Organizations drift.
The answer isn't usually a dramatic overhaul.
Sometimes you simply need to adjust the paddle.
One Leadership Life.
Seven Rivers.
1 · Start within
Mindset
Prepare your thinking before you choose your methods.
2 · Value people
People
See the value in every person and help them contribute.
3 · Influence well
Influence
Lead through the choices and actions that affect others.
4 · Take Responsibility
Ownership
Own your part, your response, and the outcomes you can shape.
5 · See what’s ahead
Vision
Give people direction they can understand and act on.
6 · Keep developing
Growth
Build the skills and habits that make tomorrow better.
7 · Lead with integrity
Character
Earn trust through consistent choices, especially when it’s hard.
This book is for the man who…
carries significant responsibility at work.
has become a manager but wants to become a leader.
loves his family but sometimes gives them what's left of him.
knows success shouldn't require sacrificing the people closest to him.
has made mistakes and wants to lead differently going forward.
wants practical tools rather than another leadership theory.
wants his character at home to match his reputation at work.
I didn't write this book because I got leadership right.
I spent years studying leadership at work before realizing the hardest leadership laboratory I would ever enter was my own front door.
From the Army to Sales Management to Entrepreneurship to Marriage and Fatherhood, I have lived the successes and failures and hard lessons that shaped 7 Rivers Leadership: Building Men Worth Leading-at Work and at Home.
By the end of 7 Rivers Leadership, you'll be able to:
recognize where you're managing people instead of leading them.
identify the leadership behaviors that change between work and home.
understand which of your Seven Rivers is becoming shallow.
communicate with greater clarity and intention.
take ownership without falling into blame or defensiveness.
create a vision for the man and leader you want to become.
make small course corrections before they become major problems.
build trust through consistent character.
What readers are Saying.
Foreword by Coming Soon
Foreword by
Coming Soon
Author:
Surprise
"7 Rivers Leadership is a very insightful book with not only great content but written in a way that is easy to understand. Using the comparison to rivers helps the reader better relate to the otherwise complex concepts of leadership. An example would be when John talks about how a manager simply narrows the river after a failure, almost like a dam, cutting off the flow and ability for growth. While a leader instead widens the banks to prepare for the next flood (issue) and continues to grow and widen their knowledge."
Charlie Martell - Quality Assurance Manager
Berry Converter
7 Rivers Leadership is a very insightful book with not only great content but written in a way that is easy to understand. Using the comparison to rivers helps the reader better relate to the otherwise complex concepts of leadership. An example would be when John talks about how a manager simply narrows the river after a failure, almost like a dam, cutting off the flow and ability for growth. While a leader instead widens the banks to prepare for the next flood (issue) and continues to grow and widen their knowledge."
Natasha Bennett - Regional Manager
Maid Pro
Get a FREE Resource
How Deep are Your Rivers
Take the FREE 7 Rivers Leadership Self-Assessment and See Where Your Leadership is Strongest- and Where it May be Running Shallow.
Bring 7 Rivers Leadership To Your Organization.
Don't just read the framework. Build it into your culture.
Keynotes
Leadership workshops
Manager development
Roundtables
Culture Health Scorecard
Executive/team coaching
Books for Your Entire Team
Use 7 Rivers Leadership as the foundation for manager development, leadership retreats, executive teams, men's groups, or company-wide leadership conversations.
10+ copies
25+ copies + virtual discussion
50+ copies + leadership workshop
100+ copies + customized organizational experience
The people at work know your leadership.
The people at home know you.
Become a man worth trusting in both places.
7 Rivers Leadership
Building Men Worth Trusting—At Work and at Home
John & Wendy Deering are independent certified members and are not employees of the Maxwell Leadership Certified Team. We are not in partnership with John Maxwell or the Maxwell Leadership Certified Team. We are members (coach, speaker, trainer, or facilitator), not an employee (e.g., “works at” = employee = not an approved affiliation).
2026 Deering Consulting. All Rights Reserved .
Sioux Falls, SD & Eau Claire, WI
7 Rivers Leadership TM is proprietary intellectual property owned by Deering Consulting. Reproduction, distribution, certification, training delivery, or deriviative works are prohibited without written permission.