Choosing Leaders And Choosing To Lead

Some of the worst selection practices to be found anywhere can be found at the top of organisations. Even when senior selection is not egregiously bad, rarely is it as good as it could be. Front-line staff and middle managers are selected with much more rigour today than 30 years ago - but not the chairmen, chief executives and chief officers who lead them. So says Douglas Board in Choosing Leaders and Choosing to Lead. Dr Board draws on his extensive experience in executive search and in leadership, coupled with his own academic research embracing the sociology and psychology of scholars such as Pierre Bourdieu and Karl Weick to offer ground-breaking insight into the value and limitations of established selection practice. This book illuminates ways in which senior roles differ from other positions and will help those charged with selecting individuals for senior positions, as well as potential candidates, those concerned with regulating selection policy, and researchers. Examining the classic mix of competency frameworks and selection tools such as psychological and skills assessments, simulations, reference-checking and interviews, the author concludes that senior selection choices are holding back organisations and individual careers, with implications for diversity, effectiveness, and social justice. He contends that while complacent, self-regarding elites will always need vigilant challenge, the scientific approach to selection has weaknesses as well as strengths. Those weaknesses become more pronounced at senior levels, posing particular questions about, amongst other things, the role of intuition and politics.

A crucial component of leadership is the element of choice. Regardless of how much a person studies leadership, it is essential that he or she makes a conscious choice to accept the leadership role. This book defines leadership, gives examples of research in the field and explains how this knowledge can be used, describes leadership-development programs and surveys, and considers the literature of leadership. Chapters 1 through 4 define leadership and describe ways in which it might be exercised. Chapters 5 and 6 highlight research methods used to demonstrate the impact of improved leadership. The seventh and eighth chapters describe a leadership-development program at a well-known training center, with a focus on the tests and materials completed by participants before arrival and the actual program activities. Various programs in the education and training of leaders and managers are described in chapter 9. The ways in which experience develops and modifies leaders' behaviors are reviewed in the 10th chapter. Chapter 11 examines the uses of survey methods to assess the mood of group members and inform leaders of the effectiveness of their communication programs. Studies of the use of power and position and the outcomes of such use are reviewed in the 12th chapter. Chapter 13 summarizes literature on leadership and cultural differences, and chapter 14 highlights how reported studies can help leaders work better with followers and organizations to achieve objectives. A total of 127 propositions offered throughout the book are summarized in the final chapter. Chapter notes, 8 tables, 6 figures, and an index are included. The appendix contains a list of questions for self-review. (Contains 212 references.) (LMI)

Finding the Best and Brightest proposes an approach to choosing leaders based on a set of criteria designed to align individual qualities with organizational or institutional goals. Peg Thoms challenges the popular trend in theory and practice toward transformational or visionary leadership, arguing instead that leadership must be developed in context; many organizations, for example, don't need visionaries as much as they need operational leaders, who get things done by focusing on present-day tasks, such as designing superior products and delivering exceptional customer service. This book provides guidance for how to recruit, select, and retain the right people for leadership positions at any level of the organization. Drawing from research conducted in the private, public, and non-profit sectors, Thoms features powerful examples of effective and ineffective leadership in a variety of situations, and sheds light on the complex relationships between leaders and those who follow them. We all choose our leaders. We hire them to run our companies. We vote them into office. We appoint them to committees. We decide to work for, serve, and follow them. In fact, all leadership is relative; by taking direction or orders, going to bat or war, marching behind, listening, and agreeing, we are choosing to allow another individual to lead us. Whether the stage is a corporation, a country, a club, a school, or any other organization, effective leaders matter. Yet despite such high-profile examples of leadership disasters—from the California recall of Gray Davis to the fall of such business titans as Ken Lay and Sam Waksal—we continue to choose, hire, and elect poor leaders. Finding the Best and Brightest explores this phenomenon in business, politics, and other sectors of society, and proposes an antidote—an approach to choosing leaders based on a set of criteria designed to align individual qualities with organizational or institutional goals. Peg Thoms challenges the popular trend toward transformational leadership, which focuses on identifying universal characteristics, arguing instead that leadership must be developed in context. Many organizations, for example, need operational leaders who can focus on present-day tasks, such as designing superior products and delivering exceptional customer service, and not inspirational or visionary leaders, whose otherwise admirable qualities might be ill-suited to the challenges at hand. Outlining six typical leadership search scenarios—from school principal to hospital CEO—Thoms shows readers how to identify the traits and behaviors that are most essential for the position and how to structure interviews and other search techniques to elicit the most informative responses and home in on the best candidates. She also reminds us that many organizations fail not because they can't find good leaders but because they can't keep them, and offers strategies to promote leadership development. Whether you are an executive giving the nod to a new department head, a concerned citizen casting your vote for a municipal councilman, a club member choosing a new president, or an aspiring leader deciding which offer will provide the greatest growth opportunities, Finding the Best and the Brightest offers fresh insights on the dynamic relationship between leaders and those who follow them.

This rigorous, seminal study of leadership selection in British Politics focuses on the Conservatives and Labour Party to explore the skills needed to be an effective leader over the course of the 20th and into the 21st Century.

In 28 succinct lessons, Choose to Lead guides people to know themselves as leaders. Kathleen invites readers to shift their perspective on leadership beyond titles and roles to encourage them to align their talents and strengths with the impact they wish to have in the world. If you want to understand how to be happy and successful by leading in your life, this book is the guide you've been searching for.

Award-winning leadership teacher, lifelong educator, University of Chicago professor, and consumer advocate Dr. Linda Ginzel offers a new and expanded version of Choosing Leadership based on her bestselling workbook. Useful to everyone, from high-level executives to high school students, teachers, and stay-at-home parents, you can choose to be a leader. Silver Award, 2023 Nautilus Book Awards, Business & Leadership (large press) Category Choosing Leadership gives readers the tools to sharpen your leadership skills, putting the responsibility for personal growth and professional development in your own hands. It counters stereotypes that lead us to believe it takes a fancy title, big budget, impressive credentials, charisma, or innate leadership traits to be a “leader.” Rather, leadership is a choice; you choose when to manage and when to lead. It provides an opportunity to answer tough questions of yourself, process your own life lessons, reflect on your unique experiences, and create your best future self. This process of self-discovery will help you develop individualized, customized wisdom and be your lifelong companion on the road to being wiser, younger. Now revised, with the addition of Learning Modules for each chapter, Choosing Leadership provides step-by-step guidance to create group experiences designed to enable reflection, explore ideas, and enhance self-understanding. These group experiences create collective wisdom and encourage learners to make better and more thoughtful choices. Through peer discussions, readers learn how to coach themselves. While gaining self-understanding, they also gain confidence. They realize they know how to lead and are wiser, younger.

Are you hungry to help others through leadership but don't feel like you have the authority? One of the greatest myths of leadership is that you must be in charge in order to lead. Great leaders don't buy it. Great leaders--whether they have the official authority or not--learn how to be an influential presence wherever they are. In How to Lead When You're Not in Charge, author and pastor Clay Scroggins explains the nature of leadership and what's needed to be a great leader--even when you answer to someone else. Drawing from biblical principles and his experience as the lead pastor of Buckhead Church in Atlanta, Georgia, Clay will help you nurture your vision and cultivate influence with integrity and confidence, even when you lack authority in your organization or ministry. In this book, Clay will walk you through the challenge of leadership and the four basic behaviors all great leaders have and how to cultivate them: Leading yourself Choosing positivity Thinking critically Rejecting passivity With practical wisdom and humor, Clay Scroggins will help you free yourself to become the great leader you want to be so you can make a difference. Even when you're not in charge. ---------- "This book will be one of the most, if not the most, pivotal leadership books you'll ever read." - Andy Stanley "If you're ready to lead right where you are, this book can show you how to start." - Dave Ramsey "Read this book! The marketplace is full of leadership messages, but this one is a stand out." - Louie Giglio