Customer Reviews

Leadership Passages: The Personal and Professional Transitions That Make or Break a Leader (J-B US non-Franchise Leadership)

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Transitions are a part of everyone's life. And since the publication of Judith Viorst's "Necessary Losses," transitions has become and increasingly popular subject for authors.

Dotlich, Noel, and Walker in "Leadership Passages" cover thirteen common personal and professional passages (transitions) that they say make or break a leader...in fact, they can make or break any human, not just leaders. The authors based this book on their work as executives within major companies, business advisors and executive development consultants.

Passages are predictable and inevitable. Most will go through more than one. Since passages are intense, they can destroy one's spirit. At the same time, they represent an opportunity as those who successfully navigate these difficult currents of life will experience real personal growth. And if not handled with emotional and intellectual honesty, these passages lead to danger.

Most people, the authors have found, who move through life experiencing one success after another are shallow. They distinguish between the senior executive who has been strengthened and deepened by his/her passages and failure, from those who have not. The former are the most effective leaders.

"Leadership Passages" is filled with examples and covers the following transitions.
1. Joining a company.
2. Moving into a leadership role.
3. Accepting the stretch assignment.
4. Getting responsibility for a business.
5. Dealing with significant failure for which you were responsible.
6. Coping with a bad boss and competitive peers.
7. Losing your job or being passed over for the promotion.
8. Being part of an acquisition or merger.
9. Living in a different country.
10. Finding meaningful balance between work and family.
11. Letting go of ambition.
12. Facing personal upheaval.
13. Losing faith in the system

There is something in this book for everyone. This is a book that will have value at many points in your career. And these passages will test your resiliency, your ability to accept responsibility, your ability to reflect, seek support, develop and seek refuge, use a professional network, gain perspective, take risks, refine, and pass on your experience.

Authors David L. Dotlich, James L. Noel and Norman Walker connect the growing body of work about the emotional intelligence of leaders with the practice of executive coaching and leadership development. Where does emotional intelligence come from, and how can you stimulate its development in the next generation of leaders? The authors' answer is that growth is indivisible from pain and change. Any great leader fights personal and professional battles, and earns a few scars. The bottom line: what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. For individual leaders-in-training, the question is how to grow after being hit by life's curveballs. For firms, the question is how to incorporate executives' personal lives and career setbacks into their development as leaders. In this regard, the book bridges a gap in executive development literature. We very highly recommend it to those experiencing difficult transitions, and to human resource and development professionals.

Leadership Passages offers a guided tour of real-world do's and don'ts, as it relates to the 13 most common passages most executives will face at some point in their career. The passages themselves are not surprising. They include things like dealing with a significant failure for which you are responsible, being part of a merger or acquisition, and coping with a bad boss or competitive peers.

What's different is the way the authors cast failure and seemingly negative events in a new, more positive light. The book maintains that these events are a critical part of truly successful leadership. I was encouraged to read passages like the following:
"(The) passages have an impact on leaders, just as they do on all of us. If you go through them with your eyes-and your mind-closed, you diminish your own development. If you go through them consciously and are open to the lessons they hold, you dramatically increase the odds of being a consistently effective leader."

"High-performing leaders are aware of their strengths and their weaknesses; they talk and think about their limitations and failures and try to learn from them. They see themselves as continuously learning, adapting, and responding to both positive and negative circumstances. Most important, they are highly conscious of their feelings and behaviors as they move through life."

I would recommend this book for any executive who is looking for new perspectives on professional development and is willing to invest the time and effort to confront both the highs and lows we all experience. I hope you find the book as thought-provoking and rewarding as I did.

This book focuses on an interesting premise- that leadership is significantly developed by key experiences and the person's reactions to them. Many of the key experiences need to be actively sought out and accepted such as accepting a stretch assignment or living in a different country. Others are often a matter of time such as joining a new company, coping with a bad boss, or facing personal upheaval. Another- dealing with failure- is in between with an element of decision in choosing to take risks and stretch oneself, and an element of time. What links all these experiences together is that they must be dealt with honestly in order to learn from them. The book does a good job of presenting these ideas and more, with examples of people who have gone through the passages- some successful, others not. While few will agree with everything presented, it raises good questions and should be appreciated for that.

I have not read a Dotlich book that has disappointed. If you're an executive, or making your living helping executives, you'll lap up the honesty and authenticity of "Leadership Passages". Leadership is a topic about which few people can write without mistaking good fortune for wisdom. Dotlich and his colleagues have written about the lessons in authenticity we all can learn from narrowly surviving, and even failing, the challenges that any executive must expect to encounter at some point in his or her career. If you've had a few of these searing experiences already, you can trust "Leadership Passages" to help you be as prepared emotionally as any book can help you be for the next one. What's more, you will gain inspiration to participate purposefully, and perhaps even zestfully, in what today has become one of the most challenging of all civilization's passages: the bending of corporatism to addressing intelligently the true needs of all this planet's creatures.

A light reader with diagnostics and Rx that is heavily oriented to senior leaders' career peaks and waves but it has great personal advice for aspiring leaders' and mid careerist's leadership tool box. Also, valuable advice for organizational leaders that shape high performance work cultures. If you buy into life long learning philosophy - this book is for you. If you think learning is for the birds. . .I recommend you still get it - it might open your mind to a new and re-focused you.

Leadership Passages offers a refreshingly holistic view of what it takes to learn and grow as a leader. Unlike the narrow way many corporations define and measure leadership success, Dotlich and his co-authors address the importance and value of personal/life experiences, as well as seemingly negative "failures," as a natural part of professional development. The book is well-organized and the content is both approachable and relevant to anyone interested in growing their leadership ability as an integral part of life's journey.