The Source of Leadership: Eight Drivers of the High-Impact Leader

Too often self-help books stimulate the reader while the pages turn, but after the back cover closes the session is over and on we go. David M. Traversi avoids that route in publishing a book, the result of his years as a motivational speaker and writer and coach, that on the surface is a primer for executive search teams to determine who among the hundreds of applicants for CEO jobs deserve to be termed 'leaders', but for the average leader, Traversi has written an extremely user friendly manual that allows the reader to open the potential of personal lives to be everything each of us can be. It is stimulating reading and an enormously helpful guide for self-improvement. Traversi talks about the 'persona' and the 'shadow' aspects of our personalities: the 'persona' is what we present to the world while the 'shadow' contains the 'personality and behavior energies that have been repressed from consciousness, usually since childhood.' Once he has aided the reader in determining self-evaluation he begins his steps to empower and explore the myriad possibilities within each of us that not only direct toward discovering the secrets of Leadership, but in reality lead us down a well constructed path toward fulfilling the potential in each of us. His chapters by name tell the process direction: Presence, Openness, Clarity, Personal Responsibility, Intuition, Creativity, and Connected Communication: it becomes apparent that the method is first, self-evaluation and then transposing those newfound traits into the qualities needed in 'high-impact leaders.' Traversi's layout of his information is clear, unencumbered, and supported by not only excellent definitions but also by examples of each added trait as demonstrated in 'case reports.' The importance of this volume in aiding recruiters to identify true leaders is a given. What impresses this reader is the usefulness of the book in seriously testing and diagnosing and treating the individual to succeed in living in the present and altering attitudes and habits to open windows to a far more successful mode of living, communication, working - and leading! Grady Harp, December 07

I received this book just after finishing up the book-DVD combination of Deepak Chopra's "The Seven Spirtual Laws of Success," and there is a very visible link in my mind between the two. This book fills an important niche and is unique in its class. It communicates all the stuff that CEOs like me do not want to hear, that is so popular in ecotopia--squishy stuff like "be in harmony with nature," etc. The book also avoids, and I share the author's view, the "be a leader" p;ontifications that come out of the varied schools or from self-promoters. I liked so much of what I saw at first glance I took this one on immediately. See my list on Collective and Commercial Intelligence for Peace and Prosperity to understand why this author's message is such a perfect fit for the CEOs of our time, in the NOW but mindful of the future. He is focused simultaneously on the complete failure across all leadership failures, but especially government, religion, and community, and on the importance of finding leadership to get to 2020 is decent shape. He sets the context by pointing out that technology has reduced past advantages of CEOs, and that velocity and complexity, in the absence of what I call Commercial Intelligence (an order of magnitude improvement on "Competitive Intelligence"), are reducing leaders, even well-educated and well-intentioned leaders to hapless debris in the stream of reality. It's about character. Each of the eight chapters start with a chart of what traditional leadership books emphasize, and ends with a chart showing the difference from this approach. A self and trusted other evaluation form ends the book. 1 PRESENCE. Be in the moment, use medication, gain new insights. 2. OPENNESS. Break out of the box, a number of useful short exercises. 3. CLARITY. Includes transparency. Wonderful inventory of 38 negative traits, I was humbled to have to check every single one of them. My rehabilitation has just begun. This chapter is a *great* self-check. 4. INTENTION. Imagine the result and practice what you preach. 5. PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY. Embrace causality, consequences, community. Gain credibility that is priceless and has strategic value. 6. INTUITION. For me this was the other major chapter. The author lists and discusses reasons CEOs are overwhelmed and losing what the Germans call "feeling in the fingertips" or intuition. Childhood and social conditioning (I would include education too competitive and structured and incomplete), technical complexity, mega-size, there are others. 7. CREATIVITY. This is life. Workaholics are by definition narrow. If you don't read, walk, paint, play an instrument or practice something, anything, outside of business, you don't have a life and you will not be inspired, creative, or unconventional. 8. CONNECTED COMMUNICATION. "Do it in person." I recently learned from two great leaders why they never answer emails--the miscommunication, as well as the leakage into the Inter

The Source of Leadership is no less than phenomenal. Phenomenal in how it exposes what many leaders would call subtle personal characteristics - or drivers, as Traversi describes them - as the real core of effective leadership. As I read the book, I reflected on all the very effective leaders with whom I have worked and, indeed, they possessed the drivers described in this book. For instance, Traversi identifies personal responsibility as a primary driver of credibility, which is what Traversi uses to cover integrity and competence. I remember one manager I had who had the highest integrity, and I have to say that it was his sense of personal responsibility that makes me feel that way. Traversi rightfully describes the ability to generate ideas as critical to leadership in this day and age, and shows how openness and creativity - as opposed to resistance and stagnation - are essential to becoming a thought leader. One of the best managers I ever had was highly respected, and hence effective, because she was always out in front of everyone else when it came to ideas. As Traversi describes, she was that way because of her openness, which in turn fueled her creativity. What I love about this book is its practical approach. Traversi isn't on a soap box proclaiming the way things should be. He provides nitty-gritty, useful exercises for developing the eight drivers. Every person, regardless of his or her leadership role or roles (and we all have them), can benefit from this book. My guess is that it will become, perhaps insidiously, a leadership classic. [...].

I LOVE this book! The most refreshing book on leadership I have ever read, and I have read scores of them. My library includes a lot of the classics cited by Traversi, like Built to Last by Collins and Porras, The Leadership Engine by Tichy and Cohen, and The Leadership Challenge by Kouzes and Posner. Don't get me wrong...you have to read those. They define what the leader is supposed to be and do. Without them, you wouldn't know what effective leadership looks like. What The Source of Leadership does, though, is show HOW to be what a leader is supposed to be and HOW to do what a leader is supposed to do. The HOWs are in the form of personal drivers that exist in each leader or aspiring leader. The book contains a lot of practical exercises for the development of these personal drivers. Chapter 1, for instance, provides a guided meditation. As recently as ten years ago, Traversi might have been discredited for bringing meditation into the leadership discussion, but today he is cutting edge. I started meditating a few months ago and the effects on my own leadership have been profound. I am so far better grounded. I make better decisions. I have better relationships. I have more energy. In the end, I produce better results. Thus, Traversi had me with Chapter 1. The rest of the book just builds on that. One of his endorsers (and he has a number of high-profile leaders, such as Lewis Coleman, President of Dreamworks Animation, who have endorsed the book) call it a must-read for leaders. I couldn't agree more.

The Source of Leadership is the first book on leadership that I have read that goes far beyond the traditional leadership theory books that provide lists of character traits, and the varoius identified styles and leadership types. David Traversi identifies the state of leadership in today's society and then proceeds to show the reader how to incorporate the 8 drivers into his/her life to enable not just leadership ability, but to begin having a more satisfying and rewarding life. To help in the "how to" journey, he provides tools, dashboards,and checklists to better explain and identify the areas of focus the reader determines he/she needs to work on towards reaching the overarching goals of being more content, accountable, present, and credible. By working through the exercises and activities in the book, the reader will emerge with many of the abilities and traits associated with effective leaders. Finally, the book debunks the old generalization that leaders are born and not made. Almost anyone with the desire and drive to improve himself/herself through introspection and focus can employ the techniques offered up in this book and successfully develop into a leader in any setting. The Source of Leadership is a wonderful "how to" practical on leadership and well worth the read!