Centerville grad Hawk lands leadership book contract

Ryan Hawk in a 2015 photo. LISA POWELL / STAFF

Ryan Hawk in a 2015 photo. LISA POWELL / STAFF

A Centerville graduate and Washington Twp. resident has landed a contract to publish a book on leadership.

McGraw-Hill Professional recently announced it has acquired the rights to podcast host Ryan Hawk’s upcoming book, to be published in 2020.

Hawk hosts the “Learning Leader Show” podcast, and he leads the leadership advisory practice of Brixey & Meyer.

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The book will “teach readers how to make the leap from high-performing individual contributor to becoming an excellent manager and leader.”

“His book will draw from his experiences as a corporate executive, front-line manager, and college and professional football quarterback, as he shares wisdom distilled from his interviews with more than 300 of the world’s greatest leaders on The Learning Leader Show,” the publisher said in an announcement.

In the podcast, Hawk interviews business leaders, professional athletes, special forces veterans, authors, scientists and others.

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The podcast was born of a desire to create a development program that could help not only himself but others, Hawk told the Dayton Daily News in 2017.

“I started it out of my own curiosity, to seek out mentors, thought leaders, people who I thought could help me develop as a leader much quicker,” said Hawk, a veteran of LexisNexis as well as older brother of NFL linebacker and Super Bowl winner A.J. Hawk.

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Casey Ebro, executive editor at McGraw-Hill Professional, who acquired the book, added, “Ryan addresses a perennial pain point. First-time managers who were promoted to their positions because they were top performers are often completely unprepared for the myriad of unexpected challenges they face in their new roles. This book promises to help new leaders make that transition successfully.”

The deal was brokered by literary agent, Jim Levine, of the Levine, Greenberg, Rostan Literary agency.

The book is scheduled to be published in January 2020.

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