The book is organized into four parts: leadership development and selection, the tasks and capabilities of leaders, the leadership of organizations, and leadership requirements of the unique demands of today’s world. In Part One, on leadership development, we examine the critical issues of leadership assessment and selection. A great deal of research and investment has been made in both of these areas over the past decade. From there, we explore the use of action learning as a development methodology to promote new leadership forms and identities. We close Part One with a chapter that challenges the established paradigm of deploying behavioral competencies as the foundation for leadership development efforts.

In Chapter One, author Ann Howard explores the issue of how to select for leadership capability. Getting leader selection right can not only boost organizational performance, but also provide employees with an opportunity to excel in work they enjoy. “Best Practices in Leader Selection” describes how to get the selection process right. It reviews the objectives of selection, describes current selection techniques and evidence about their efficacy, and looks at how individual selection methods can be combined into an effective selection system.

In Chapter Two, authors Manuel London, James Smither, and Thomas Diamante examine leadership assessment—the process of determining the success or potential of individuals for leadership positions. They discuss how leadership assessment is used for predicting performance, evaluating performance, diagnosing performance gaps, and setting directions for improvement and career development. Leadership assessment involves measuring individual characteristics and evaluating behaviors as well as collecting indicators of group or organizational effectiveness that result from the leader’s behavior. Assessments can and should occur on different levels—organization, team, and individual. They also should measure multiple dimensions—financial, personal, and interpersonal. The authors explore these many dimensions of assessment.

Authors Patricia O’Connor and David Day, in Chapter Three, “Shifting the Emphasis of Leadership Development: From ‘Me’ to ‘All of Us,’” discuss the necessity of managers shifting their perceptions of leadership from seeing themselves as independent actors and leaders to seeing themselves as an interdependent “leadership collective” within their organizations. But developing such “collective leadership identities” goes against the grain of most people and organizations. The authors explore through two organizational case studies how one methodology—action learning—can promote collective leadership identities.

The last chapter in Part One challenges the conventional wisdom of the field—that a set of tangible leadership competencies should be the foundation of any developmental effort. Most contemporary leadership development initiatives begin with an elaborate (and expensive and time-consuming) process of identifying a small number of competencies that are believed to characterize effective leaders in an organization. In Chapter Four, authors Morgan McCall and George Hollenbeck challenge this competency-based approach. They argue that development initiatives need to focus on using experiences to develop competence, rather than on preconceived competencies. They lay out a blueprint for completely revamping our current approaches.

Part Two of the book—“The Tasks of the Leader”—focuses on certain fundamental or baseline capabilities and responsibilities of leaders. For example, leaders know when and where to deploy a particular tactic in their broad repertoire of influence approaches. They are particularly effective at directing and motivating teams and at fostering environments promoting innovation. Finally, the best are guided by a moral or ethical compass despite pressures to do otherwise.

Author Gary Yukl examines in Chapter Five the use of proactive influence tactics ranging from rational persuasion (using facts and logic) to inspirational appeals (linking a request to target values and ideals). He describes eleven types of proactive influence tactics, explains what we know about their relative effectiveness, explores the situations best suited to each, and provides guidelines on how to use them for leading people in organizations. He also describes how most of the proactive tactics can also be used to resist unwanted influence attempts by others.

Chapter Six—“Creating the Conditions for Success: Best Practices in Leading for Innovation” by Michael Mumford, Dawn Eubanks, and Stephen Murphy—highlights the mix of the technical, organizational, and strategic skills required to lead the development of innovative new products and services. The authors identify each of the stages of the innovation process in which leaders must excel. Each stage is illustrated with the specific capabilities that leaders must demonstrate.

Craig Johnson, in his chapter entitled “Best Practices in Ethical Leadership,” brings us to the critical responsibility of all leaders—to set a moral standard for their organizations. He begins by defining the tasks of ethical leadership and identifying key practices that enable leaders to carry out this responsibility. The first task is simply to behave morally as leaders carry out their roles. The second task is to shape the ethical contexts of their groups and organizations. The dual responsibilities of acting as a moral standard and shaping the ethical context for their organizations intertwine, but Johnson examines each one separately to provide a more complete picture of the task facing leadership practitioners. He then introduces a set of resources and tools that leaders can draw on when assuming ethical duties.

In Chapter Eight, “Best Practices in Team Leadership: What Team Leaders Do to Facilitate Team Effectiveness,” authors Kevin Stagl, Eduardo Salas, and C. Shawn Burke explore one of the most critical capabilities of leaders: leveraging team performance. They provide an overview of the broad functions and behaviors that team leaders must enact to create the conditions required for team effectiveness. They discuss the need for leaders to create five conditions that serve as a set of mutually reinforcing resources that teams can draw upon when working toward outstanding performance. These five prerequisite conditions for team effectiveness include creating (1) a real team, (2) with a compelling direction, (3) an enabling structure, (4) a supportive organizational context, and (5) expert coaching. This chapter describes how leaders can successfully foster each condition.

In Part Three of the book, where we explore organizational leadership, we turn our attention to seniormost leaders and their roles in change and corporate governance. We examine critical questions such as, What are the actions and approaches that executive leaders must adopt as they lead change during difficult transitions for their organizations? What is the role of corporate social responsibility, and what are the corresponding actions required by executives to instill a culture of social responsibility? Finally, what kinds of leadership should corporate boards provide for the organizations they oversee and particularly in relation with the company’s seniormost leader, the chief executive officer (CEO)?

Chapter Nine, by Mitchell Lee Marks, examines how leaders can help organizations and their members overcome the unintended consequences of major organizational transitions. Marks discusses the fact that senior leaders have two requirements to ensure workplace recovery. One is to weaken the forces that maintain the undesired status quo, and the second is to strengthen the forces for the desired new vision. They must intervene at both the emotional and business levels. Simultaneously, they engage employees by freeing up time and other resources to help them find ways to get their work done better. They must also generate energy by clarifying a vision of a new and better organization and creating a learning environment that creates incentives for people to experiment. Last, they enforce their desired posttransition organization by aligning systems and operating standards with new organizational realities. Marks explores how leaders can accomplish each of these outcomes.

Chapter Ten, by David Waldman, presents a view of executive leadership that centers on social responsibility values, the forms of leadership that emanate from such values, and the resulting effects on followers. The underlying premise of this chapter is that executive leaders can have a positive leadership effect on their followers over the long term only through a sense of social responsibility targeted toward multiple stakeholder groups. Waldman describes the behaviors and mindsets that are required if executive leaders are to successfully guide their corporations, deploying a moral compass and a set of performance standards that stretch way beyond today’s narrow emphasis on profitability.

The last chapter in Part Three—“Best Practices in Corporate Boardroom Leadership”—examines the leadership roles that board members must embrace if they are to provide oversight from the boardroom. It explores a new generation of boardroom best practices in leadership. Specifically, alternative forms of leadership, such as nonexecutive chairpersons, lead directors, and stronger committee leadership, are described as a counterbalance to the CEO’s authority. The pluses and minuses of each form of leadership are discussed. This chapter offers concrete guidance for boards wishing to implement these leadership alternatives.

In Part Four, the last part of the book, we take a look at leading in today’s world. We address three specific topics highly relevant to the current times. Given the turmoil in the world, we feel it is particularly important to explore the demanding leadership requirements faced in times of crisis. We want readers to learn how to prepare their organizations in advance for crises. Our second topic—leading diverse organizations—is a reflection of the fact that diversity is the hallmark of today’s workplace. It is imperative that we examine the leadership practices that recognize and leverage diversity at work. Finally, globalization is rapidly transforming how we work and lead. Understanding how to lead across cultures is a necessity for many managers and executives. There is a great deal of new research on the topic that has important practical implications for readers.

We begin Part Four with Ian Mitroff’s chapter, “Best Practices in Leading under Crisis: Bottom-Up Leadership, or How to Be a Crisis Champion.” Examples of crises abound, from the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, to the corporate scandals such as Enron/Andersen to natural disasters such as the tsunami in Southeast Asia and Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana. All of these cases represent failure of leadership. Mitroff argues that leaders must proactively and rigorously prepare their organizations for a broad range of potential crises. They begin the process by helping us to challenge the basic assumptions we hold about our lives and our organizations. These assumptions make us vulnerable and unprepared for crisis. Successful crisis leaders speed up the recognition and awareness of these assumptions across their organizations. They also implement the organizational strategies of anticipation and innovation to minimize the impact of a crisis. Mitroff explores how crisis leaders effectively accomplish these outcomes.

Chapter 13, by Lynn Offermann and Kenneth Matos, addresses the needs of leaders who wish to further develop their capabilities in working with diverse staff. The authors begin by examining the value that leaders gain from addressing organizational diversity and the costs of ignoring it. This is followed by a discussion of key concepts and approaches to understanding diversity in organizations as a foundation for understanding specific leadership practices. A summary of best practices for leaders of diverse organizations is then presented, along with a discussion of some of the most significant challenges in the implementing diversity leadership. The chapter concludes by offering a detailed example of how leaders can put these best practices to work by developing the capabilities of diverse staff through mentoring.

Mary Teagarden’s chapter on cross-cultural leadership closes out this part of the book. She addresses five questions fundamental to understanding the topic. The first is, Does cross-cultural leadership really matter? A second issue is, How do we best understand and define the concept of cross-cultural leadership? Third, what are the behaviors, competencies, and skills that distinguish individuals who are adept at cross-cultural leadership? Fourth, is the cross-cultural leader’s set of competencies innate, or can it be developed? The fifth question considers knowledge: What specifically does a cross-cultural leader need to know? What are the kinds of questions that these leaders must be asking themselves to ensure they possess insights needed to succeed in each situation? This chapter answers these questions with a set of leadership best practices.

Chapter Fifteen, our final chapter, summarizes the essential lessons on leadership practices from each of the book’s contributors. It then identifies the common themes shared across the chapters. Specifically, we identify five major themes: (1) leaders need to engage and involve their followers; (2) effective leaders proactively monitor, measure, and adapt to their environments; (3) leaders need to model the way; (4) leaders must be proactive; and (5) there are no shortcuts to leadership—the developmental process is a long-term investment.

In preparing a volume such as this, we owe a tremendous thanks to our authors. They are all well-known experts in their respective topic areas. They also participated in a conference that we hosted in 2005 at the Kravis Leadership Institute at Claremont McKenna College on the topic of the practice of leadership. We also want to thank Sandy Counts, who helped us format and organize the book itself. She has been a godsend. We also thank Becky Reichard, who helped out in chapter editing. Finally, Kathe Sweeney, our editor at Jossey-Bass, and her team have been wonderfully supportive and helpful. Kathe saw the potential in the book and early on committed to making this volume a published reality.

Claremont, California

JAY A. CONGER

RONALD E. RIGGIO