Dear colleagues –
You may be interested in my new book Good Leaders Learn: Lessons from Lifetimes of Leadership published by Routledge Publishing: http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415659772/
More information on the book can be found here including a brief interview on the rationale for writing the books and its contents: http://www.ivey.uwo.ca/research/leadership/research/books-and-reports.htm
Are leaders born or made? This question has been debated for centuries and the controversy lingers today. But I believe the answer is clear. Good leaders are made through a life dedicated to constant learning about their careers, their relationships and the kind of leader they want to become. The only question that remains and the only one that really matters is how do leaders learn to lead? The answers to this question reveal a wealth of important lessons and insights into how we can help people to become good leaders or even better leaders.
As I discovered when I studied the impact of the recent financial and economic crisis on leadership, a great deal of learning comes from the uncomfortable and difficult experiences that challenge leaders. Indeed, it is often significant decisions and life-altering situations that both test and develop leaders. But this book is about more than learning from calamities. It is about the learning that happens to good leaders throughout their lives – the experiences and influences that enable leaders to know what to do, how to act and how to lead during tumultuous and trying times.
This book also explores why some leaders excel and why others fail to live up to their potential. It shows how good leaders are innately curious and why their thirst to know and understand cannot be quenched. It illustrates how good leaders capitalize on the learning opportunities available to them almost every day ... the opportunities to learn about new ideas and better ways to do things, the opportunities to build character and the opportunities to reflect on their commitment to the leadership role.
Good Leaders Learn brings these new insights and lessons into focus by capturing the experiences of a wide variety of leaders from different industries, sectors, backgrounds and locations. And it wraps this richness of practical and real-life perspectives around the leadership framework of competencies, character and commitment to the leadership role. The fundamental purpose of this book is to help current and potential leaders to build the solid foundation of the leadership qualities vital to their continuing success. It will help them learn how to become effective leaders, in good times and bad.
Gerard Seijts
Dr. Gerard Seijts
Professor of Organizational Behaviour
Ian O. Ihnatowycz Chair in Leadership
Executive Director Ian O. Ihnatowycz Institute for Leadership
www.iveyleadershipinstitute.ca
Ivey Business School
Western University
1255 Western Road
London Ontario N6G 0N1 CANADA
Telephone: 519 661 3968
E-mail: gseijts@ivey.ca
Web: http://www.ivey.uwo.ca/faculty/Gerard_Seijts.html
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