eBook downloads, eBook resources & eBook authors
A hands-on, practical guide, "Practice of Adaptive Leadership" contains stories, tools, diagrams, cases, and worksheets to help managers develop their skills as leaders who are able to take people outside their comfort zones and address the toughest challenges.
In times of constant change, adaptive leadership is critical. This Harvard Business Review collection brings together the seminal ideas on how to adapt and thrive in challenging environments, from leading thinkers on the topic—most notably Ronald A. Heifetz of the Harvard Kennedy School and Cambridge Leadership Associates. The Heifetz Collection includes two classic books: Leadership on the Line, by Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky, and The Practice of Adaptive Leadership, by Heifetz, Linsky, and Alexander Grashow. Also included is the popular Harvard Business Review article, “Leadership in a (Permanent) Crisis,” written by all three authors. Available together for the first time, this collection includes full digital editions of each work. Adaptive leadership is a practical framework for dealing with today’s mix of urgency, high stakes, and uncertainty. It has been used by individuals, organizations, businesses, and governments worldwide. In a world of challenging environments, adaptive leadership serves as a guide to distinguishing the essential from the expendable, beginning the meaningful process of adaption, and changing the status quo. Ronald A. Heifetz is a cofounder of the international leadership and consulting practice Cambridge Leadership Associates (CLA) and the founding director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School. He is renowned worldwide for his innovative work on the practice and teaching of leadership. Marty Linsky is a cofounder of CLA and has taught at the Kennedy School for more than twenty-five years. Alexander Grashow is a Senior Advisor to CLA, having previously held the position of CEO.
The economy uncertain, education in decline, cities under siege, crime and poverty spiraling upward, international relations roiling: we look to leaders for solutions, and when they don’t deliver, we simply add their failure to our list of woes. In doing do, we do them and ourselves a grave disservice. We are indeed facing an unprecedented crisis of leadership, Ronald Heifetz avows, but it stems as much from our demands and expectations as from any leader’s inability to meet them. His book gets at both of these problems, offering a practical approach to leadership for those who lead as well as those who look to them for answers. Fitting the theory and practice of leadership to our extraordinary times, the book promotes a new social contract, a revitalization of our civic life just when we most need it. Drawing on a dozen years of research among managers, officers, and politicians in the public realm and the private sector, among the nonprofits, and in teaching, Heifetz presents clear, concrete prescriptions for anyone who needs to take the lead in almost any situation, under almost any organizational conditions, no matter who is in charge, His strategy applies not only to people at the top but also to those who must lead without authority—activists as well as presidents, managers as well as workers on the front line.
The dangerous work of leading change--somebody has to do it. Will you put yourself on the line? To lead is to live dangerously. It's romantic and exciting to think of leadership as all inspiration, decisive action, and rich rewards, but leading requires taking risks that can jeopardize your career and your personal life. It requires putting yourself on the line, disrupting the status quo, and surfacing hidden conflict. And when people resist and push back, there's a strong temptation to play it safe. Those who choose to lead plunge in, take the risks, and sometimes get burned. But it doesn't have to be that way say renowned leadership experts Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky. In Leadership on the Line, they show how it's possible to make a difference without getting "taken out" or pushed aside. They present everyday tools that give equal weight to the dangerous work of leading change and the critical importance of personal survival. Through vivid stories from all walks of life, the authors present straightforward strategies for navigating the perilous straits of leadership. Whether you're a parent or a politician, a CEO or a community activist, this practical book shows how you can exercise leadership and survive and thrive to enjoy the fruits of your labor.
Since its publication, Complex Adaptive Leadership has become a Gower bestseller that has been taught in corporate leadership programmes, business schools and universities around the world to high acclaim. In this updated paperback edition, Nick Obolensky argues that leadership should not be something only exercised by nominated leaders. It is a complex dynamic process involving all those engaged in a particular enterprise. The theoretical background to this lies in complexity science and chaos theory - spoken and written about in the context of leadership for the last 20 years, but still little understood. We all seem intuitively to know leadership 'isn't what it used to be' but we still cling to old assumptions which look anachronistic in changing and challenging times. Nick Obolensky has practised, researched and taught leadership in the public, private and voluntary sectors. In this exciting book he brings together his knowledge of theory, his own experience, and the results of 19 years of research involving 2,500 executives in 40 countries around the world. The main conclusion from that research is that the more complex things become, the less traditional directive leadership is needed. Those operating in the real world, nonetheless, need ways of coping. The book is focused on helping practitioners struggling to interpret and react to increasingly VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) times. The book will particularly appeal to practitioners wishing to improve their leadership effectiveness as well as for students and researchers in the field of leadership.
Do you ever feel that you are leading in uncharted territory? Pastor and consultant Tod Bolsinger draws on decades of expertise guiding churches and organizations in this expanded practical leadership resource, offering illuminating insights and practical tools to help you reimagine what effective church leadership looks like in our rapidly changing world.
Author and consultant Jennifer Garvey Berger has worked with all types of leaders—from top executives at Google to nonprofit directors who are trying to make a dent in social change. She hears a version of the same plea from every client in nearly every sector around the world: "I know that complexity and uncertainty are testing my instincts, but I don't know which to trust. Is there some way to know what to do when I can't know what's next?" Her newest work is an answer to this plea. Using her background in adult development, complexity theories, and leadership consultancy, Garvey Berger discerns five pernicious and pervasive "mind traps" to frame the book. These are: the desire for simple stories, our sense that we are right, our desire to get along with others in our group, our fixation with control, and our constant quest to protect and defend our egos. In addition to understanding why these natural impulses steer us wrong in a fast-moving world, leaders will get powerful questions and approaches that help them escape these patterns.
Leaders today—whether in corporations or associations, nonprofits or nations—face massive, messy, multidimensional problems. No one person or group can possibly solve them—they require the broadest possible cooperation. But, says Harvard scholar Dean Williams, our leadership models are still essentially tribal: individuals with formal authority leading in the interest of their own group. In this deeply needed new book, he outlines an approach that enables leaders to transcend internal and external boundaries and help people to collaborate, even people over whom they technically have no power. Drawing on what he's learned from years of working in countries and organizations around the world, Williams shows leaders how to approach the delicate and creative work of boundary spanning, whether those boundaries are cultural, organizational, political, geographic, religious, or structural. Sometimes leaders themselves have to be the ones who cross the boundaries between groups. Other times, a leader's job is to build relational bridges between divided groups or even to completely break down the boundaries that block collaborative problem solving. By thinking about power and authority in a different way, leaders will become genuine change agents, able to heal wounds, resolve conflicts, and bring a fractured world together.
Learn to lead, no matter who you are, with the tools, techniques, and inspirational stories found in this guide. Anyone can lead. You don’t have to be a CEO or work in a management position to have influence. Your Leadership Moment provides practical tools, techniques, and inspiration to discover your leadership potential. It combines personal and real-world anecdotes with a framework for Adaptive Leadership that can help anyone learn to lead. In this book, you will discover what a Leadership Moment is, the key concepts of Adaptive Leadership, how to stop perfectly solving the wrong problems and start creatively solving the right problems, and how to make real, positive change. Author and leadership expert Eric Martin has brought leadership development to the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in over one hundred countries. Eric’s work draws on Adaptive Leadership, an unconventional and somewhat provocative leadership practice developed at Harvard by Drs. Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky—and further refined by Alexander Grashow. Your Leadership Moment teaches Eric’s expansion on Adaptive Leadership in a way everyone can understand. Praise for Your Leadership Moment “Martin combines relentless optimism with hard-nosed realism in powerful stories of people like you and me who saw a leadership opportunity and refused to sit on the sidelines. Each of us has the potential for a leadership moment.” —Dr. Marty Linsky, faculty at Harvard Kennedy School & author of The Practice of Adaptive Leadership “An adaptive leadership truth-telling about defining moments of our times. A compelling read for people and companies who seek to challenge the status quo and survive.” —Lauren Serota, head of performance & talent at Patagonia “Your sense of yourself and what is possible will be elevated on the other side of reading this book.” —Alexander Grashow, author of The Practice of Adaptive Leadership
A model for developing the leaders and delivering the leadership results the world needs Leadership Results explores the fall of traditional leadership thinking and the struggling multibillion dollar leadership development industry that is failing to deliver results, and explains the mindset, skills, ways of being and methods that will get results in the new context and evolving paradigm. The Leadership Results model is practical and predictive, providing a way forward for companies seeking to build sustainable leadership capacity, develop individual leaders, boost employee engagement and deliver breakthrough results through shared and collective leadership. Actionable steps guide you through the process of evolving leadership culture to see increased productivity, growth opportunities and ensured profitability borne on a culture of trust, collaboration, fairness and a commitment to innovation and real prosperity. Expert analysis debunks pervasive myths and assumptions surrounding leadership, employee engagement, and talent development, while demystifying the role technology plays in innovation and progress. Leaders, coaches, trainers, OD practitioners, change agents, and students will find insightful guidance, thought-provoking discussion and illustrative case studies that will help them: Rethink leadership to make a stronger impact Take bold action to change the status quo Marry strategic and innovation leadership into a force for real change Stop making the same mistakes and start forging a new path forward From the heads of state on down, all levels of leadership are experiencing a rapid loss of trust and confidence — and the glaring absence of results that follows. Unethical business practices are costing more than five per cent of the global GDP every year; citizens around the world have lost faith in the public and private sectors; only 13% of employees are engaged at work — clearly, there is a severe lack of effective leadership. Leadership Results provides a practical way forward through this global quagmire, with a clear, actionable model for leadership that works.
