A ground-breaking book for any leader at any level and for any teacher of leadership from company classroom to MBA. "Character" -- often viewed as too moralistic, lofty, or fuzzy -- is presented as a clear and very workable concept that can significantly enhance leadership.
Building Your Leadership Legacy is a book for improving your personal leadership by examining what kind of leadership legacy you are creating. It is based on the premise that the people whom you are currently attempting to lead will trust you based more on who you are as a person than on what you did or can do.
It's all about character. The notion that character plays a huge part in leadership is well known but little understood. The book presents an air-tight argument for why character is essential to building the trust necessary for people to follow. The concept of character embodies a set of traits or values such as integrity, accountability, openness, respect, teamwork, grit, moral courage, and others. The author clarifies that leadership character is made up of traits that build trust in followers, as opposed to those that are drawn from a moral tradition. (Respecting others makes the list; loving your neighbor does not.)
A comprehensive review of the leadership literature and of the leadership curricula from business schools, consultancies, training companies, and company trainers reveals a huge body of work in this field. The problem is there is little proof that current texts and classes improve anyone's leadership. Moreover, virtually all of the information conveyed in these channels focuses on leadership competencies, namely, skills, knowledge or things to do, not on character. The prescribed competencies or actions may differ based on where the leader is in the hierarchy and on various challenges or circumstances the leader faces. These can be broad, like how to lead large-scale strategic change, or narrow, like how to conduct a coaching session. But they are actions for a leader to do, not character traits for a leader to strive to develop.
This author's focus is on the character dimension of leadership. He develops a succinct and easy-to-follow process for you to personally analyze, meticulously describe, and most important, positively enhance this most intimate and most powerful component of your personal leadership, the character you aspire to be. He then walks you through how to measure and improve it. Unlike other books on the topic of character, this one doesn't prescribe one set of traits; it allows you to draft and therefore to "own" your own.
This book is written for all leaders. Leadership occurs at all levels and in all walks of life. It is not just relegated to the top of companies. Leadership is manifested throughout all organizations. Sometimes the leadership is poor, often mediocre, and on occasion wonderful. But leadership exists whether or not the people doing the leading are aware of it.
The book is also written for those among us who wish to be known for the leaders we develop. Too often the development of leaders in organizations of all types is a very low priority. That is a grave disservice to subordinates and to the organization as a whole.
The book is also written for the Corporation CEO, organization President, or Human Resources Officer who wishes to create a superb leadership development system for the entire institution. Not a small task.
Finally the book is written for those engaged in the study, research, and teaching of leadership, namely professors, instructors, teachers at any institution who wish to enhance markedly the effectiveness of their leadership classes.
