Product Description

With the rapid trend away from management to business leadership, there is a need for a new, broader understanding of leadership. This clear and authoritative guide answers the questions, 'what is strategic leadership?', 'what makes a person effective as a strategic leader?' and 'how can I develop my abilities as a leader?' The concept of leadership is relevant not only to organisational life but to all of us: everyone has to 'lead' their own life. To be a strategic life-leader means developing a vision and direction for one's life, identifying personal core values and fostering an informal team among colleagues and associates. "Effective Strategic Leadership" is as important for unstructured careers as it is in large companies or organisations.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #301391 in Books
• Published on: 2002-05-24
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Review
Business is war! Ever since the first shop was opened, merchants and managers have struggled with the same problems which have befallen generals and army leaders ever since man became adept enough to form armies. What is leadership? How do you convince the people you lead to follow you? How do you inspire them? How do you motivate yourself? By their very simplicity these questions reveal themselves as problems which are rooted deep in the human psyche. Drawing from historical accounts, anecdotal sources and the memoirs of some of history's greatest military leaders John Adair succeeds in pointing towards some of the answers. From Napoleon to Montgomery, Churchill to Caesar, Adair cuts through the hype to get to the core of what it is that made these men successful. Drawing useful parallels between the world of business and the changes it is undergoing and battles of the recent past, he points to the inescapable fact that strategic leadership is both an art and a science. It can be broken down, analysed and effectively applied but it also takes the right attitude to help you do it. Adair doesn't just leave it at that. He delves further trying to see if he can also come up with what that 'right' attitude really is. Effective leaders, he concludes, know how to perform certain tasks. They also know how to empathize with those around them. Using the battlegrounds of history as the learning ground of business, Adair looks at both successes and failures and draws inferences which are difficult to dispute. Breaking his thesis up into manageable chapters, Adair proves himself more than equal to the task of tipping the scales towards the science part of leadership. If you're involved in today's business world in any way, if you are in charge of more than just yourself, then this book is one that you simply cannot afford to overlook. (Kirkus UK)

Synopsis
With the rapid trend away from management to business leadership, there is a need for a new, broader understanding of leadership. This clear and authoritative guide answers the questions, 'what is strategic leadership?', 'what makes a person effective as a strategic leader?' and 'how can I develop my abilities as a leader?' The concept of leadership is relevant not only to organisational life but to all of us: everyone has to 'lead' their own life. To be a strategic life-leader means developing a vision and direction for one's life, identifying personal core values and fostering an informal team among colleagues and associates. "Effective Strategic Leadership" is as important for unstructured careers as it is in large companies or organisations.

About the Author
John Adair, the world's first Professor of Leadership Studies, is now visiting Professor at the University of Exeter and an international consultant to a wide variety of organizations in business, government, the voluntary sector, education and health. Named the 2nd most useful leadership writer, he is one of forty people worldwide who has contributed most to management thought and practice.

Customer Reviews

Well worth buying
"Oh no - not another book on strategy, why on earth did I buy this?" I asked myself when I found my copy a year ago. It had lain unread for a couple of years and I had forgotten about it. However, John Adair is right up there with Peter Drucker as being worth reading if you are a practicing manager. His ideas are insighftul and often implementable, immediately. He makes complicated ideas simple. I read a page of this book most days, and it is nearly always helpful. As well as things to do, Adair reassures the reader on how to think and deal with uncertainty, by giving momorable examples.