Mastering Leadership

Is your leadership a competitive advantage, or is it costing you? How do you know? Are you developing your leadership effectiveness at the pace of change? For most leaders today, complexity is outpacing their personal and collective development. Most leaders are in over their heads, whether they know it or not. The most successful organizations over time are the best led. While this has always been true, today escalating global complexity puts leadership effectiveness at a premium. Mastering Leadership involves developing the effectiveness of leaders—individually and collectively—and turning that leadership into a competitive advantage. This comprehensive roadmap for optimal leadership features: Breakthrough research that connects increased leadership effectiveness with enhanced business performance The first fully integrated Universal Model of Leadership—one that integrates the best theory and research in the fields of Leadership and Organizational Development over the last half century A free, online self-assessment of your leadership, using the Leadership Circle Profile, visibly outlining how you are currently leading and how to develop even greater effectiveness The five stages in the evolution of leadership—Egocentric, Reactive, Creative, Integral, and Unitive—along with the organizational structures and cultures that develop at each of these stages Six leadership practices for evolving your leadership capability at a faster pace A map of your optimal path to greater leadership effectiveness Case stories that facilitate pragmatic application of this Leadership Development System to your particular situation This timeless, authoritative text provides a systemic approach for developing your senior leaders and the leadership system of your organization. It does not recommend quick fixes, but argues that real development requires a strategic, long-term, and integrated approach in order to forge more effective leaders and enhanced business performance. Mastering Leadership offers a developmental pathway to bring forth the highest and best use of yourself, your life, and your leadership. By more meaningfully deploying all of who you are every day, individually and collectively, you will achieve a leadership legacy consistent with your highest aspirations.

Transform Your Organization by Scaling Leadership How do senior leaders, in their own words, describe the most effective leaders—the ones that get results, grow the business, enhance the culture and leave in their wake a trail of other really effective leaders? Conversely, how do senior leaders describe the kind of leader that undercuts the organization’s capacity and capability to create its future? This book, based on groundbreaking research, shows how senior leaders describe and develop leadership that works, that does not, that scales, and that limits scale. Is your leadership built for scale as you advance in today’s volatile, uncertain, dynamic, and disruptive business environment? This context puts a premium on a very particular kind of leadership—High-Creative leadership capable of rapidly growing the organization while simultaneously transforming it into more agile, innovative, adaptive and engaging workplace. The research presented in this book suggests that senior leaders can describe the High-Creative leadership with surprising clarity. They also describe with equal precision the High-Reactive leadership that cancels itself out and seriously limits scale. Which type of leader are you? You scale your leadership by increasing the multiple on your leadership in three ways. First, by developing the strengths that differentiate the most effective leaders from the strengths deployed by the most Reactive and ineffective leaders. And second, by increasing your leadership ratio—the ratio of most the effective strengths to the most damaging liabilities. Third, by developing High-Creative leaders all around you. Scaling Leadership provides a proven framework for magnifying agile and scalable leadership in your organization. Scalable leadership drives forward-momentum by multiplying high-achieving leaders at scale so that growth, productivity and innovation increase exponentially. Creative leaders multiply their strengths beyond technical competence by leading in deep relationship, with radical humanity, passion and integrity. Drawing upon decades of solid research and experience enhancing individual capability and collective leadership effectiveness with Fortune 500 companies and government agencies, the authors provide an innovative and efficient framework to help you: Take stock of your own personal balance of leadership strengths and weaknesses Scale your leadership in deep relationship and high integrity Proliferate high-achievers throughout your organization’s leadership system Identify ineffective leadership and course-correct quickly Transform your organization by transforming leadership Scaling Leadership is an invaluable tool for executives, managers, and leaders in business, academia, nonprofit organizations, and more. This innovative resource provides effective techniques, real-world examples, and expert guidance for organizations seeking to improve performance, align and execute strategies, and transform their business with scalable leadership capability.

Mastering Leadership: Shift the Drift and Change the World is a comprehensive, fresh, and exciting new interpretation of leading and the role of leadership.Our world won't change because we HOPE for world peace, a healthy planet, and safe schools for our kids. Change happens when one committed person stands up to make a difference and inspires others to do the same. Master leaders change the world. What if the title of "leader" was actually inconsequential in the true role and responsibility of leadership? Most people see "the leader" as the ultimate authority in business, government, and life. We're trained to think that if we work hard and achieve our goals, eventually someone else will bestow the mantle of leadership on us as an acknowledgment of our accomplishments.What if, instead, you start leading today? Mastering Leadership: Shift the Drift and Change the World will take you on an eye-opening journey of discovering what leadership can mean for the seven billion people on the planet who are waiting for someone else to change the world. Author Michael Strasner introduces the 12 Distinctions of Master Leaders; learning to apply them will transform what you think you now know about leadership.Mastering Leadership: Shift the Drift and Change the World is so much more than knowledge and information; it's a full-throated, passionate and high-octane approach to making an extraordinary difference in the world.

Spiral Dynamics introduces a new model for plotting theenormous economic and commercial shifts that are makingcontemporary business practice so complex and apparentlyfragmented. Focusing on cutting-edge leadership, managementsystems, processes, procedures, and techniques, the authorssynthesize changes such as: Increasing cultural diversity. Powerful new social responsibility initiatives. The arrival of a truly global marketplace. This is an inspiring book for managers, consultants,strategists, and leaders planning for success in the business worldin the 21st century.

In this book, project management expert Dr. Alexander Laufer leads an all-star team of practitioners and thought leaders in presenting a powerful project leadership framework. Laufer’s framework addresses the toughest challenges of new product development: large, complex projects composed of many diverse, geographically distributed, and highly interdependent components; organizational change; and repeated and risky tasks. Laufer reveals core leadership principles that are crucial to successful project leadership in dynamic and complex environments, regardless of industry, project goals, or stakeholders. Then, together with his contributors, he presents eight chapter-length case studies covering exceptionally challenging projects in a wide spectrum of industries and products – from developing missiles to reorganizing companies, building spacecraft and dairy plants to flying solar-powered airplanes. Readers will discover new ways to unleash the power of autonomy and learning; adapt to change on a timely basis; “give up” control without “losing” control; use face-to-face interaction to maximize alignment; manage “no fun” missions in hostile environments; deliver on bold ideas through sheer preparation; learn from practice – and unlearn lessons that need to be unlearned. Mastering the Leadership Role in Project Management will be invaluable to executives, project leaders, and aspiring project leaders in all organizations – regardless of their project goals, backgrounds, or experience.

This book defines and clarifies the extraordinary challenges leaders in the health care industry are facing and will continue to confront in the coming years. This text advances a model of leadership that enables executives to steer their organizations through the maze of uncertainty created by legislative, economic, demographic, clinical, information management, and political change. The authors skillfully demonstrate how the transformational demands of leadership can be effectively integrated with the transactional and operational necessities of managing. A Competing Values Framework guides leaders toward an aptitude for assimilating vision development, strategic planning, and operational management. The resource is organized into four distinct sections: competition and commitment; communication and collaboration; community and credibility; as well as coordination and compliance. --

Looking toward the C-suite? Take heed. Author and serial CEO Dick Cross pulls back the curtain on this top leadership role, explaining in his new book that being a successful leader, running a business, and doing it extraordinarily well isn't a full-time job. In 60-Minute CEO: The Fast Track to Top Leadership, Cross makes the case that the single greatest determinant of business success revolves around the job at the top. Cross suggests that the most important, and often overlooked, duty for a CEO is thinking about how to improve his or her business and how to be a leader. Cross also reveals that a mediocre leader can be transformed into an exemplary one simply by refining two key things: thinking and character. In Cross's trademark conversational style, he conveys why strategy and execution, while important, should take a back seat to authenticity and responsibility, and that the essential elements of the CEO role can be accomplished in several 60-minute sessions every week. Executives may fill their time with other tasks, but leading and running a company requires explicit skills different from those needed for any other corporate position. The good news is that those skills are easy to learn, fun to do, and not time-consuming. In an entertaining style, Cross offers executives the fast track to the top leadership position. And while 60 minutes may seem like a quick fix, as Cross sees it, three 60-minute sessions a week devoted solely to considering your business and your role as leader are crucial to business and leadership success. In 60-Minute CEO, Dick Cross brings over 25 years of experience of transforming companies in various stages of underperformance into industry powerhouses. Cross combines his knowledge and experience with the stories and lessons of preeminent leaders and thinkers including General George Patton and Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson.

Overview: Sooner or later, we are all called to lead in some capacity. Leadership skills are vital in corporate settings, small businesses, church or community organizations, and even within the home. Chris Brady and Orrin Woodward have recognized this need and have jointly created an in-depth, step-by-step guide for developing leadership skills. Utilizing an abundance of historical examples, the authors have developed a unique 5-step plan that charts a course for creating and maintaining strong leadership in any organization. The plan guides the reader through the "Five Levels of Influence": Learning: a leader must be able to learn from anyone; Performing: persevere through failure to find success; Leading: extend your ability by expanding your team; Developing Leaders: learn to trust your people; Develop Leaders who Develop Leaders: create a legacy. This book is full of prescriptive advice, quotes and anecdotes that illustrate their principles.