The Handbook for Leaders: 24 Lessons for Extraordinary Leaders Paperback - 2004

First line

When the subject turns to leadership, someone inevitably asks, "Isn't leadership something you either have or you don't?

From the rear cover

The Handbook for Leaders

24 Lessons for Extraordinary Leadership

"What makes a great leader?"

Thousands of workers in both North America and Europe were asked that one simple question. Their top responses are compiled in The Handbook for Leaders. This precise, no-nonsense rulebook lists the 24 competencies and guidelines identified time and again as essential for becoming an effective and extraordinary leader, including:

• Focus on results
Cultivate interpersonal skills
• Lead organizational change
Learn from mistakes
• Develop your people
Be open to new ideas
• Take initiative
Build strengths
• Fix fatal flaws
Take a non-linear approach
• Be accountable

The ability to lead is far more than just a natural gift. Study after study shows that leadership is a concrete and learnable skill, one that can be acquired and honed by studying and applying specific proficiencies, attitudes, and habits. Let The Handbook for Leaders introduce you to the requirements for effective leadership, then provide you with a systematic program for attaining, developing, and implementing those skills.

John H. (Jack) Zenger, D.B.A., is executive vice president and a director of Provant, Inc., and the author or coauthor of a number of books on the drivers and principles of leadership, including The Extraordinary Leader and Results-Based Leadership.

Joe Folkman, Ph.D., is managing director of Novations Group, Inc., and the author of Turning Feedback Into Change, Making Feedback Work, and Employee Surveys That Make a Difference.