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Business. Nonfiction. The most trusted source of leadership wisdom, updated to address today's realities The Leadership Challenge is the gold-standard manual for effective leadership, grounded in research and written by the premier authorities in the field. With deep insight into the complex interpersonal dynamics of the workplace, this book positions leadership both as a skill to be learned, and as a relationship that must be nurtured to reach its full potential. This new seventh edition has been revised to address current challenges, and includes more international examples and a laser focus on business issues; you'll learn how extraordinary leaders accomplish extraordinary things, and how to develop your leadership skills and style to deliver quality results every time. Engaging stories delve into the fundamental roles that great leaders fulfill, and simple frameworks provide a primer for those who seek continuous improvement; by internalizing key insights and putting concepts into action, you'll become a more effective, more impactful leader. A good leader gets things done; a great leader aspires, inspires, and achieves more. This book highlights the differences between good and great, and shows you how to bridge the chasm between getting things done and making things happen.… (more)
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What the authors don’t love, however, is wisdom. “How to” advice often encourages leaders to appeal to people’s hopes, dreams, and future visions, while apparently not needing to appeal to the reality of the way the world actually works. Consequently, it’s not surprising than, that that they conclude that because their vast survey showed that leaders don’t want to keep things unchanged, effective leaders must therefore pioneer new things. Apparently, historical leaders who fought against “innovators” (who we now exalt as “early adopters”) were wrong-headed anomalies. C.S. Lewis is apt here: “The real job of every moral teacher [which is really what a leader is] is to keep on bringing us back, time after time, to the old simple principles which we are all so anxious not to see; like bringing a horse back and back to the fence it has refused to jump or bringing a child back and back to the bit in its lesson that it wants to shirk.” Constantly seeking to innovate and improve as the authors suggest, will only lead to a “dynamic workplace” where organizations that are “stable, orderly, and run like clockwork” are replaced by ones where employees are on shifting ground where they can’t consistently rely on an organizational structure that is permanent enough to ensure they will always be protected.
Furthermore, citing the extensive research they have completed, they remind us of the tremendous influence leaders have: ‘If you’re a manager in an organization, to your direct reports you are the most important leader in your organization…The leaders who have the most influence on people are those who are the closest to them,” they write. “You have to challenge the myth that leadership is about position and power…” The book has a well deserved reputation as must-read material for leaders and anyone interested in leadership, and provides inspiration for those of us involved in workplace learning and performance (training) since so much of what we do helps develop leadership skills among those we serve.
The Leadership Challenge, Fourth Edition, has been extensively updated with the latest research and case studies, and offers inspiring new stories of real people achieving extraordinary results. The authors' central theme remains the same and is more relevant today than ever: "Leadership is Everyone?s Business." Their "five practices" and "ten commitments" have been proven by hundreds of thousands of dedicated, successful leaders. This edition, with almost one-third new material, emphasizes the global community and refocuses on business leaders.
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