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LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
(Selected Bibliography)  

The Arbinger Institute.  Leadership and Self-Deception.  Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 2000.

The author's insights applied to leadership behavior in an organization are challenging, causing deep self-reflection and personal assessment.  A captivating book that is hard to put down.

Benfari, Robert.  Changing Your Management Style.  Lexington Books, 1995.

Dr. Benfari emphasizes that most managers, when motivated and through proper instruction, can adapt their management style to any particular culture.  In this follow-up book to Understanding Your Management Style, Benfari focuses on answering the question "Now that I know about my management style, how do I change it?"  by looking at psychological types (MBTI®), needs, conflict management styles, effective use of power, and managing stress--and then explains how to use them within an organizational context.

Bennis, Warren.  On Becoming a Leader.  Addison-Wesley, 1989. 

As a follow-up to his earlier book, Leaders, which focused on the "what's," Bennis now emphasizes the "how's": how people become leaders; how they lead, and what organizations do to encourage or clock leadership development.  Bennis believes that to be an effective leader one has to be able to express oneself fully, which can happen only if we understand ourselves.  The key to understanding ourselves is learning from one's experiences.

Bennis, Warren.  Why Leaders Can't Lead.  Jossey-Bass, 1998.

Bennis analyzes the culprits of entrenched bureaucracy, ominous social trends, and mind-numbing routines that sabotage our plans and undermine vision.  He suggests new insights for change agents struggling to take charge in an era that conspires against effective leadership.

Blanchard, Kenneth & Norman Vincent Peale.  The Power of Ethical Management.  Fawcett Columbine, 1998.

The authors suggest a unique ethics check that asks the three most important questions leaders must address:  Is it legal?  Is it balanced?  How will it make me feel about myself?  They provide no-nonsense advice on developing a clear and definite sense of purpose and suggest the 5 P's of ethical power:  purpose, pride, patience, persistence and perspective. 

Block, Peter.  Stewardship:  Choosing Service Over Self-Interest.  Berrett-Koehler, 1993. 

Stewardship replaces top-down control with partnership and choice at all levels.  Individuals within an organization take responsibility and hold themselves accountable.  Block presents models of stewardship for organizations and for individuals.  He states that organizations that practice stewardship will succeed by choosing service over self-interest and by integrating the best of he human spirit with the demands of the marketplace.

Bolman, Lee G. & Terrence E. Deal.  Leading with Soul.  Jossey-Bass, 1997.

This book chronicles the journey of a dispirited leader in search of something more than a healthy bottom-line.  This leader, by rediscovering his own soul, learns how to rekindle his spirit and that of his organization. 

Bridges, William.  Managing Transitions.  Addison-Wesley, 1991.

The author attacks an area of managing change that many not only avoid, but also do not even recognize-the human side of change.  Bridges presents the reader with a three-phase transition model that eliminates much of the mystery involving he human side of change.  He then provides a series of checklists to serve as a road map for managing transitions in the real world.

Conger, Jay A., Gretchen M. Spreitzer,  & Edward E. Lawler III.  The Leader's Change Handbook-An Essential Guide to Setting Direction and Taking Action. Jossey-Bass, Publishers, 1999.

Full of fascinating case studies, action strategies, and unbeatable advice, The Leader's Change Handbook contains the best new thinking from each of its distinguished contributors on the twin challenges leaders face as they try to create leaner, more responsive organizations while empowering their workforces.  Taken individually , each chapter offers specific solutions for executives, managers, consultants, and human resource professionals struggling to implement change within their organizations.  Taken together, they form a comprehensive handbook that outlines the key elements of effective change management, expands the traditional notions of leadership, and anticipates the futures of organizational transformation.

Cooper, Robert K. and Ayman Sawaf.  Executive EQ:  Emotional Intelligence in Leadership and Organization.  Perigee, 1998.  

This book offers a wealth of practical application techniques and memorable stories to bring new life and opportunity to the workplace, drawing on groundbreaking research.  A study advocating the position that emotional intelligence can improve any business through the use of such virtues as integrity, trust, and understanding.  The book also provides effective techniques for instituting these virtues in a corporate environment.  Everyone knows there is more to business then IQ, and now the authors show readers how to map their emotional intelligence and use it to achieve more financial success in the market place and greater personal energy in the workplace. 

Covey, Stephen R.  The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People:  Restoring the Character Ethic.  Simon and Schuster, 1989.

Covey defines habit as a combination of knowledge, skill and desire.  He suggests a shift away from personality ethics, such as public image, superficial solutions and the pursuit of success.  He recommends living with a character ethic based on integrity, dignity, growth, and quality.  His seven habits are based on the fundamental principles of human effectiveness. 

DePree, Max.  Leading Without Power.  Jossey-Bass, 1998.

This work speaks to the purpose of our organizations, where true assets go home at night, leaders can no longer force loyalty; they must win it. DePree shows leaders how to lead without power and transform their organizations into movements that fulfill the human spirit.

Chairman of Herman Miller, Inc., named one of the hundred best companies to work for in the U.S., DePree declares that leadership isn’t a science or a discipline. It is an art which must be felt, experienced, created. He shows how to do this through the practice of principles such as: "Leaders don’t inflict pain; they bear pain." "The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between the leader is a servant." The art of leadership "liberates people to do what is required of them in the most effective and humane way possible."

The Drucker Foundation, Frances Hesselbein, Marshall Goldsmith, Richard Beckhard, (editors).  The Leader of the Future. Jossey-Bass, 1997.

This book offers over 30 essays by business-world luminaries such as Stephen Covey, Ken Blanchard, Sally Helgesen and Peter Senge. Each offers a special perspective on leadership and a unique glimpse into the future. Together, their thinking provides insight and knowledge.

Egan shows how to create opportunity and competitive advantage by learning how to manage shadow-side realities--the special favors, broken rules, political promotions, and undiscussed firings--that take place behind the scenes in most organizations. These "shadow-side" deals--the covert, undiscussable, and unmentionable--are not found in employee manuals. But being able to identify, manage, and gain value from these "below the surface activities" is an integral part of every successful manager’s job.

This book about organizational behavior provides a fundamental study of the applied behavioral sciences. This edition builds on the situational leadership thrust of earlier editions, and integrates this with concepts of motivation and behavior, communication, and group dynamics. The authors seek to help managers cultivate effective organizations by helping them understand why people act as they do, by improving their accuracy in understanding, analyzing, and improving their own and others’ behavior; and by making use of their ideas in social, family, and work environments.

Isaacs, William.  Dialogue and the Art of Thinking Together.  Doubleday, 1999.

Dialogue provides an intellectual and practical framework for understanding the way we work together -- or fail to and is must reading for all managers, politicians and diplomats. Particularly where different cultures or sub-cultures are involved, it is not only an option, but a necessity if any inter-cultural understanding is ever to arise in this complex multi-cultural world. This book is a brilliant and much needed exposition of a crucial topic.

Kaplan, Robert E.  Beyond Ambition.  Jossey-Bass, 1991.

Beyond Ambition reveals why the drive to excel, though it can bring success in the short term, is actually derailing the careers of too many talented managers. Arguing that personal balance is the road to managerial excellence, the authors show how managers can perform at peak effectiveness without burning themselves out.

Kofodimos, Joan.  Balancing Act: How Managers Can Integrate Successful Careers and Fulfilling Personal Lives.  Jossey-Bass, 1993.

Drawing on over 10 years of research and experience, Kofodimos explains the pressures—both external and internal--that pulls people out of balance and tells how to restore equilibrium. The book provides numerous checklists and self-assessment tools to help determine the degree and nature of imbalance in our lives and in our organizations. The book also explains the personal changes necessary to attain balance and calls on individuals to foster the organizational changes needed to develop a supportive environment.

This book reveals what Kotter has seen, heard, experienced, and concluded in 25 years of transforming companies. William C. Finnie, Editor-in-Chief of Strategy & Leadership says: "Leading Change is simply the best single work I have seen on strategy implementation."

By providing rich examples of real managers in action, Kouzes and Posner reveal the six key disciplines and related practices that strengthen a leader’s capacity for developing and sustaining credibility. The authors show how leaders can encourage greater initiative, risk-taking, and productivity by demonstrating trust in employees and resolving conflicts on the basis of principles, not positions.

These best-selling authors team up to show how managers at all levels can use proven strategies to recognize and reward employee accomplishments and inspire extraordinary performance. They show managers how they can develop either a whole reward and recognition program or choose from a toolkit of ideas that will consistently bring out the best in their people. Kouzes and Posner expand upon the core practice of their field guide, The Leadership Challenge, and reveal the key to unlocking the high achiever within by what they call "encouraging the heart."

Lencioni, Patrick.  The Five Temptations of a CEO.  Jossey-Bass, 1998.

An insightful leadership fable with a useful self-assessment to determine which of the temptations you are most susceptible to.

This book is your surefire guide to systematically finding solutions to performance problems in your organization. In an easy-to-read, concise style, the authors outline a proven and successful step-by-step approach to solving problems that arise because people aren't doing what they're supposed to be doing or what you want them to do. Complete with flowcharts and illustrations, this book will help you: determine what performance problems are costing your organization in dollar terms, as well as what it will cost to fix them; determine if performance problems are caused by lack of skill, lack of motivation, or other obstacles; and identify solutions to remove the probable causes, including determining whether or not training is required.

Morgan, Gareth.  Imaginization: The Art of Creative Management.  Sage Publications, 1993.

Imaginization is a way of thinking and organizing and is a key managerial skill. It provides a way of helping people understand and develop their creative potential. It offers a means of finding innovative solutions to difficult problems.

Dr. Ralston offers practical advice for turning strong feelings into a positive force for building a more dynamic organization. She emphasizes the importance of addressing the unspoken "hidden dynamics" that keep us silent when we need to speak, "closed" when we need to be open, and "fearful" when we need to trust. Ralston shows us how the unwritten contract that governs employment relationships, the impact of fear on decision making, and how hidden agendas work against coming up with the best solutions.

Dr. Rusk applies the ethical principles of respect, caring, understanding, and fairness to help in creating satisfying resolutions to pressure situations in which threatened emotions and defensive reactions are commonplace. Dr. Rusk explains how to recognize barriers to communication and understand the role of emotions in problem solving.

Ryan, Kathleen D. & Daniel K. Oestreich.  Driving Fear Out of the Workplace.  Jossey-Bass, 1991.

Quality is impossible when people are afraid to tell the truth. Fear of losing credibility or a promotion, getting fired, or hurting a relationship limits and corrupts employee performance. Based on interviews with more than 250 people from 22 companies, the authors show managers and executives how to eliminate fear, encourage quality employee performance, and increase corporate competitiveness.

This is a pragmatic guide that shows how to create a learning organization--for business, schools, agencies, and communities--to achieve superior performance. The stories, challenging questions, exercises, and step-by-step model building will help translate the theory from The Fifth Discipline into practical applications.

Stone, Douglas, Bruce Patton, & Sheila Heen.  Difficult Conversations.  Penguin Books, 1999.

We know we must confront a coworker, store clerk, or friend about some especially sticky situation--and we know the encounter will be uncomfortable. So we repeatedly mull it over until we can no longer put it off, and then finally stumble through the confrontation. This book offers advice for handling these unpleasant exchanges in a manner that accomplishes their objective and diminishes the possibility that anyone will be needlessly hurt.  The explanations and suggested improvements are, admittedly, somewhat complicated. And they certainly don't guarantee positive results. But if you honestly are interested in elevating your communication skills, this book will walk you through both mistakes and remedies in a way that will boost your confidence when such unavoidable clashes arise.

Stone, Florence M.  Coaching, Counseling & Mentoring. AMACOM, 1998.

This book shows readers how to adapt the necessary skills of coaching, counseling and mentoring to specific situations and improve employee performance across all levels. It is packed with self-tests, real-life scenarios, and hands-on, practical guidance to help managers, supervisors and teams.

Swenson, Richard A., M.D.  Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives.  Navpress, 1992.

Balancing work and private lives is something all of us face.  Dr. Swenson provides a prescription against the danger of over-loaded lives.  Focusing on margin in four key areas - emotional energy, physical energy, time, and finances - he offers an overall picture of health that employs contentment, simplicity, balance, and rest.

Tichy, Noel & Mary Devanna.  The Transformational Leader.  John Wiley and Sons, 1986.

This insightful book provides a simple framework for learning how to transform organizations to meet new competitive challenges. It provides a concrete agenda which managers can use to think about and implement fundamental, revolutionary changes necessary to turn companies away from old habits and toward new opportunities.

This book is intended for practicing managers who want a fresh look at organizations and how to manage them. The book’s two concurrent themes are introduced in the title. First, "performing art" is Vaill’s metaphor representing "dynamism, fluidity, extraordinary complexity and fundamental personalness of all organizational action." The second concept, "chaotic change," describes "a system of problems or instabilities" which Vaill sees in today’s corporate environment. These two themes are brought together in a series of chapters meant to challenge and stimulate the reader to new levels of management innovation and effectiveness.

Weisinger, Hendrie, Ph.D.  The Power of Positive Criticism.  AMACOM, 2000.

The author does an excellent job with developing a rational position for considering positive criticism as an alternative to what others have called "feedback".  His approach and practical suggestions are worthy of consideration.

Wheatley, Margaret J.  Leadership and the New Science: Learning About Organization from an Orderly Universe.  Berrett-Koehler, 1992.

How does "new science"--revolutionary discoveries in quantum physics chaos theory, and molecular biology--affect the fundamental issues of organizing work, people, and life? Wheatley suggests we tear down 17th century Newtonian thinking about our universe and adopt new perspectives from our natural world. A new perspective can help to find order in a chaotic world; differentiate order from control; create more participative, open, and adaptive organizations; and reconcile individual autonomy and organizational control.

The Leadership Development Center, August 2001.