What Makes A Balanced Leader

Despite continuous public interest in leadership studies as well as the abundance of extant literature, the world continues to face leadership predicaments. Given the global crises mankind has been recently exposed to, which include the financial crisis of 2008 as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, further exploration of leadership concepts seems warranted. This edited book aims at introducing the concept of Balanced Leadership from an Islamic perspective. Drawing on both leadership and Islamic studies, the book synchronizes between secular and religious knowledge domains whilst introducing the notion of balance to mainstream leadership literature. The conceptualizations presented in the book serve to dissect the leadership literature, present historical and philosophical accounts of the balanced leadership concept and infuse that with Islamic theology. The book is useful for practitioners interested in leadership studies as well as scholars and researchers aiming at extending the leadership literature.

Empower your people, your company—and yourself—with leadership egolibrium egolibrium: the ability to toggle between egocentric and “other-centric” attitudes, values, and behaviors for organizational success There’s no doubt about it: the very best leaders are deeply in tune with their behavior and understand the impact it has on others. As one of the world’s top trainers in the field of accelerated experiential learning, Ron Roberts understands this more keenly than anyone, and in The Well-Balanced Leader, he helps you re-envision your own behavior to become the best leader you can be. Roberts makes the process of finding the perfect leadership balance—what he calls egolibrium—personally enriching and easy to achieve. He begins by identifying the nine human behavioral dichotomies that most affect the quality of leadership: Nonjudgmental / Judgmental Nondefensive / Defensive Relinquishing Control / Controlling Openness to learning / Know it all Doing the right thing / Doing whatever you want Patience / Impatience Letting go / Holding on Acceptance / Resistance Other-centric / Egocentric Everyone’s behaviors fall somewhere between each dichotomy. Using the activities, action steps, games, and thought exercises included for each pair, you’ll figure out exactly where your behaviors land, and then learn how to move that position in one direction or the other to find the right balance or your specific needs. When you transcend your personal needs and focus on the needs of others and of the organization, everyone benefits—including you. The result is not only greater job satisfaction for people at all levels, but greater productivity— regardless of the organization’s field, product, or service. The Well-Balanced Leader gives you the tools for making the small, incremental changes in behavior that lead to big changes in awareness—and huge changes in your leadership effectiveness.

Leadership is an art and not a science and there is no single way of leading. Things change. All the time. And your leadership style needs to react to every unique situation with the right balance of actions and emotion. Do you want a strategy to help you find the right leadership approach for any given situation and team? Nearly all of the vast numbers of leadership books focus on one aspect of leadership, and everything is approached using that key skill. The problem with this approach is that it is oversimplified and just too limiting. It doesn't take into consideration your context or allow you to use the most important of human qualities, our judgement. A combination of skills - such as control, creativity, engagement, delegation, compassion, empowerment - is necessary in a successful leader. In The Balanced Leader we have created a set of principles that leaders can apply to many different workplace contexts, and with varied teams, to enable them to identify the right approach for balanced, dynamic and effective leadership.

We need effective leaders today more than ever before. In fact, the root cause behind failed businesses and failed governments is usually either a lack of leadership or the presence of destructive or ineffective leadership. In this collection of dissertations on topics relevant to effective leadership, youll be challenged to think. Along the way, youll learn how to discover and clarify your mission, vision, and values; learn how to handle difficult people and situations; improve the performance of your people and teams; and communicate with coworkers, customers, and colleagues. Youll also learn about the leadershp continuum and its gradations and how to find the action, behavior, or decision that balances as best as possible benefits with costs. Balance is getting something just right. However, since the world is always changing, the sweet spot is always changing too. What was in balance yesterday may not be today. Like riding a bicycle, we constantly need to monitor our positions and make adjustments to compensate for curves and bumps in the road. Make sound decisions, build better teams, communicate more effectively, be appropriately flexible, and be appropriately strong, with the lessons, examples, and insights in Balanced Leadership.

What makes a great school leader? Contrary to what many believe, the answer is not tied to a certain kind of personality but to specific behaviors and actions that have positive effects on student achievement—behaviors and actions that any school leader can learn and put into practice. Over the last decade, thousands of school principals have done that, by implementing "balanced leadership," an approach that recognizes the need to both maintain and challenge the status quo in order to move schools forward. Building on the analysis that was first reported in School Leadership That Works, the authors of Balanced Leadership identify the 21 responsibilities associated with effective leadership and show how they relate to three overarching responsibilities: * Establishing a clear focus—keeping the work and the conversations targeted on the issues that matter most; * Managing change—understanding how to skillfully steer through the challenges associated with making improvements, both large and small; and * Developing a purposeful community—creating a sense among all teachers and staff that they are invested in student outcomes and that they can make a difference. For each of these areas, key points and specific practices are described in detail and illustrated with stories from school principals who have successfully learned how to become great leaders. Step-by-step tools provide clear guidance for readers who are ready to make the same kind of journey—one with the potential to transform them and the schools they serve.

A new theory of balanced leadership in projects Leadership is not static. Instead, authority in projects shifts dynamically between project managers, individual team members, and sub-teams, depending on the situation. Leadership may be exercised through a vertical, horizontal, shared, or distributed leadership approach. However, balanced leadership ensures the best suitable approach is used in any given situation. Based on an award-winning global program of research studies, Balanced Leadership is a thorough investigation of balanced leadership in projects. Ralf Müller, Nathalie Drouin, and Shankar Sankaran present a project-specific leadership approach as well as a theory of balanced leadership, and the situations in which different strategies are required. They also outline the five building blocks that enable balanced leadership: nomination of team members, identification of potential leaders, selection and empowerment of leaders, empowered leadership and its governance, and leadership transition. The book explains the coordination of these building blocks through the socio-cognitive space shared by project manager and team. Using real-life case studies and clear examples, this book offers a new way of considering and utilizing dynamic leadership in project settings.

"Balanced Leadership in Unbalanced Times" is Dr. Robert Pasick's useful new toolbox of leadership strategies for men and women who want to improve their performance at work and in the community. Dr. Pasick is a popular writer, psychologist and leadership coach with many public appearances on radio and TV. You may have seen him on "Oprah." His clients range from veteran Fortune 500 executives to men and women starting their first businesses or stepping into their first professional careers. He understands how hard life is these days for millions of Americans suddenly shifting careers and employers. Dr. Pasick's life-saving advice is that people don't have to merely juggle the competing demands of work, family, community, health and values. We can learn to balance these vital spheres of life and, working with Dr. Pasick's dozens of strategic ideas in this new book, we can become more effective leaders as a result. The core of the book is a series of Coach's Clipboard strategies, inviting readers to start with the most important challenges in your daily life. The book becomes your personal toolbox with space to outline your immediate and long-term goals. In "Balanced Leadership in Unbalanced Times," you'll meet a wise coach who will reduce your stress, raise your spirits and quickly get down to the key choices you can make today.

This book, written by a leading scholar in leadership, takes readers through a very realistic look at what it takes to develop leadership competencies. Focusing on four major goals, this text: *provides the reader with a broader and deeper understanding of what constitutes authentic leadership development; *challenges a very basic notion that leaders are born versus made; *talks about the elements that comprise leadership development so readers are informed to ask the many providers of leadership development the right questions; and *develops full leadership potential. There are numerous case examples used throughout the book: high-tech executives, community leaders, correctional service supervisors, bank managers in Canada, and platoon commanders in Israel. Each example is used as a general basis for discussing how people develop their leadership potential, and as models of training and evaluation. Leadership Development in Balance: MADE/Born is intended for graduate or undergraduate students of leadership, project managers, supervisors, senior executives, school principles, health care officers, or legislators.