The Leaders We Need: And What Makes Us Follow (2nd Edition)

There is only one irrefutable definition of a leader: someone who people follow. Without followers, there is no leader. Therefore, leadership is a relationship between leaders and followers. This book shows how improving leadership relationships improves organizational results. Perhaps even more importantly, the book delves deeply into the dynamics of followership. It tackles the difficult questions about why people follow, why the leaders we want are not always the leaders we need, and how leaders can tap into the core motives of followers to increase engagement and accountability. Leaders and followers need to develop their Personality Intelligence. The more complex and fast-paced work becomes, the more organizations need people who are personally engaged and committed to outcomes. Personality Intelligence is needed to understand people, their drives, values, fears, hopes, and dreams. In order to engage people in productive work, we need to know exactly what (and who) we are engaging. This book provides ample examples about how this has been done in many different organizations, based on the authors extensive experience and well-documented research. Personality assessments, such as the Strength Deployment Inventory (SDI), give leaders and followers a shared language about critical workplace performance issues: strategy, partnership, motivation, conflict management, and developing people s strengths. Leadership in most organizations is team-based, although the myth of the single leader has proven perniciously persistent. Organizations need at least three types of leaders: Strategic, Operational, and Networking. Leadership teams can improve collaboration if they subscribe to a clear leadership philosophy that describes their organizational purpose, the practical values that are essential to accomplishing this purpose, the basis for moral reasoning, and the definition of results. This book is not a quick-fix or a recipe for success. Rather, it will engage you in the difficult, and often messy, questions that will make you think deeply about how to become the type of leader your followers need, and why they will (or won't) follow.