Mastering Leadership - by Robert J Anderson & William A Adams (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

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.

From the Back Cover

Praise for Mastering LEADERSHIP

"This is the definitive book on leadership principles and practices! Expansive and practical at the same time, Mastering Leadership is for forward-thinking leaders who want the most essential leadership lessons analyzed and presented in one astute place. Anderson and Adams' Universal Model synthesizes everything that leadership theory thus far has to offer. Read it, apply its principles, and you witness the transformation in yourself and everyone in your circle!"
-- Marshall Goldsmith, Author of the New York Times #1 bestseller Triggers, Top-ranked Executive Coach, Author of bestsellers MOJO and What Got You Here Won't Get You There

"There is no shortage of information on leadership theory--Google will return over 15,000,000 results in .32 seconds. However, in their new book, Mastering Leadership, Adams and Anderson turn theory into practice by framing great leadership as a purposeful pursuit rather than a genetic anomaly. Their leadership model provides a well proven framework that allows leaders to assess their strengths and needs. Importantly, it also provides the practical knowledge and tools to enable a transition to greater effectiveness. This book should be a well-worn staple in every leader's '10 Essentials."
--John Mendel, Executive Vice President, Automotive, American Honda

"This is not a book written for bedtime reading. Its ideas need to be examined in the bright light of day and then...for the courageous...put into practice. The authors have very skillfully woven a tapestry with threads from extensive research, years of experience, philosophy, and metaphysics. The Leadership Circle Profile (LCP) and the Universal Model of Leadership (UML) are tools that empirically guide the reader on a journey of self-discovery and growth. Their application breeches the barriers of traditional thinking and carries the reader into the realm of Unity Leadership. The demands on today's leaders to produce high-performing and highly-productive organizations has never been greater. Therefore, understanding the correlation between business performance and leadership effectiveness has never been more important. This book helps leaders answer the question posed in one of the book's case studies: 'What would you do if you could?"
-- Stephen Ewing, Chairman of the Board of AAA Michigan and ACG, Retired President and Chief Operating Officer of MCN Energy Group Inc., Retired Vice Chair of DTE Energy

"This book is a testimony that love and power and clear purpose can co-exist. It gives form and proof that leadership is a human function. You can define it, measure it, teach it, and yet, in the end, our capacity to be honest with ourselves and fulfill our promises to each other is decisive. The book offers the integration of mind and matter, depth and relatedness; rare combinations in the modern world of speed, convenience, and scale. Read the book. Put it under your pillow. Speak of it to others."
-- Peter Block, Partner of Designed Learning and Author of Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used; Stewardship: Choosing Service Over Self-Interest; and The Empowered Manager: Positive Political Skills at Work

About the Author

ROBERT J. ANDERSON is the Founder and Chairman of The Leadership Circle and the Full Circle Group. He has been a pacesetter and visionary in the leadership development field for 30 years.

WILLIAM A. ADAMS is the CEO of The Leadership Circle and the Full Circle Group. He has been a practice leader in the field for 30 years. His clients include the CEOs and teams of major Fortune 500 corporations (public and private) and private equity start-up businesses.

With The Leadership Circle and Full Circle Group team.