The Extraordinary Leader: Turning Good Managers Into Great Leaders

If you want to learn about leadership start here. This book lays a good foundational understanding of what leadership and management look like. Other leadership books focus more narrowly in comparison. The massive amount of research that this book is based on makes it the best leadership book I've read.

One of the two or three better books on leadership in my opinion. Contemporary, based on recent solid research. As a management consultant, confirmed many of the principles and concepts I embrace while adding several new, valid ones. Very practical, with sound, "I can use now" applications.

In this volume, two battle-scarred veterans of what might be called "The Leadership Wars" - that is, the exhaustive effort over several decades to define the elusive nature of leadership and how it can best be nurtured - present insights on leadership that are based on a series of formal surveys conducted with companies nationwide. They also present 16 core competencies that affect the perception of whether you are, or aren't, a great leader. In many ways, they demystify leadership. Being a great leader, they tell us, isn't a matter of genetics or tea leaves: by studying what it takes to be a great leader, you can become one yourself. We strongly recommend this book for followers who want to become leaders, and for leaders who would like to be a little less lonely at the top.

Unlike many studies of leadership and management, this book roots out how human behaviors affect results - with robust research and anecdotal evidence that provides readers with progressive but comprehensible logic. It is the best business book I have encountered, because it balances reality against theory, and effectively reconciles the two. It is a bonus that the authors did not impose academic terminology on those of us in the real business world.The great thing is that the authors took the time to quantify and then explain how perceptions of leaders translate into actions by those they lead. The best thing about the book is that it lists specific levels of characteristics and competencies that distinguish adequate from excellent. A reader can quickly paint a self portrait (or picture of fellow leaders, for that matter) that reveals strengths and flaws. Then, one can easily identify what is needed to move up the ladder of respect and esteem. The hard part is that many leaders, as they say in the book, "think that being 'good' is good enough". For those who truly have an interest in greatness, this book gives the recipe.Easy to follow, it thoughtfully breaks down the elements of leadership, starting with broad categories that are boiled down into actionable behaviors and traits. The Extraordinary Leader also gives some surprising insights based on findings that will hopefully change how business leaders establish value systems and shape company culture.This book has become an extremely valuable tool in my consulting practice!

For the past two years I have been working as a consultant on the creation of an executive service for the UN. More recently I have played a similar role for the US federal government. I have become a student of the thinking and the books on developing leaders. This book is by far the most important book to read. Its based solidly on research findings but more importantly on intuitively valid conclusions. It makes practical sense.It takes the current state of the art and moves it forward. It also raises important questions about prevailing beliefs and practices. The ideas developed in this book make you realize why most executive development is not productive.I see this book as a companion piece to another of the great books on the subject, Results-Based Leadership. Jack Zenger is one of the authors of both books.