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

David M. Traversi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2007

Leadership is failing in many forums and failing at an increasing rate as technology accelerates and complicates our existence. Inside, you’ll discover the keys – the source – to embodying and performing the well known but highly elusive traits and functions, respectively, of the high-impact leader. You’ll learn how to develop eight personal drivers, energies deep within, each of which drives several of the traits and functions of the high-impact effective leader:

• Presence,
• Clarity of thought, emotion, and behavior
• Openness
• Intention
• Personal responsibility
• Intuition
• Creativity
• Connected communication

With the burgeoning trend toward seeking a deeper grounding personally as a means of performing better professionally, The Source of Leadership is the early "defining voice" of this new leadership discipline. (See www.thesourceofleadership.com) 

Editorial Reviews

Review

Traversi has written a bold, innovative book in which he practices what he preaches. Business books often have an issues/actions structure, illustrated with case studies. The case studies in The Source of Leadership are excellent, but the best are those where Traversi frankly describes the issues he identified in his own personal management style and how he applied the eight drivers to positive effect. The result is an illuminating set of guidelines for any leader.
—Jerry Weissman, author of the international best-sellers Presenting to Win and In the Line of Fire and president of Power Presentations, Ltd., a communications consultancy

As an executive search professional who has placed CEOs for thirty-five years, I weed out wannabes from real leaders on a daily basis. Leadership is three things: creating a culture, creating a plan, and hiring a team to execute. Traversi articulates this and the finer points of leadership very well. This book is a must read for anyone who wants to fine tune his or her leadership skills.
—Vito Bialla, CEO and founder of Bialla & Associates, Inc., executive search consultants in Sausalito, CA

This is a must-read for any executive interested in succeeding in the future. Traversi has clearly articulated a new paradigm of the leadership model. This how-to book is both instructional and provocative.
—J. Michael Chu, founder and managing Partner of Catterton Partners in Greenwich, CT, a $2 billion private equity firm focused on investing in fast growing, middle-market consumer companies.

This book is the leader's ideal antidote for a world that is getting more complex and faster by the minute. Now and in the future, the extraordinary leader is going to have to be grounded in reality, highly aware, and able to access powers deep within. The Source of Leadership is an excellent roadmap to that kind of leadership.
—Stephen M. Ross, founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of RELATED

Traversi understands, on a deep level, that everything is connected. He understands that until a leader achieves personal empowerment and fulfillment he cannot become a high-impact leader. At a time when the business and professional world—and our country—is in dire need of excellence and integrity in leadership, Traversi has written a powerful guide to help transform ordinary leaders into extraordinary ones. I strongly recommend The Source of Leadership to anyone who wants to learn how to lead by example.
—Beverly Engel, MFT, best-selling author of numerous books including Honor Your Anger and The Power of Apology

With the current state of affairs in world relations, politics, business, religion, and even the family, a new leadership paradigm is imperative. Traditional approaches to leadership just aren’t moving the needle. The Source of Leadership is a powerful outline of a new model of leadership that leaders and aspiring leaders can ignore only at their peril. Compelling, enjoyable, and timely!
—Carl W. Stratton, founder and president of Carlton Services, LLC

From the Publisher

In this pivotal book, business leader David Traversi examines the eight drivers common to all great leaders and offers advice on how readers can cultivate these powerful predictors of success and influence in their own professional lives.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 232 pages
• Publisher: New Harbinger Publications; 1 edition (September 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1572245085
• ISBN-13: 978-1572245082
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,761,159 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I am an executive coach, strategic advisor, speaker and author (The Source of Leadership: Eight Drivers of the High-Impact Leader (2007)), investor, artist, and entrepreneur. I have been a trial lawyer, investment banker, corporate CEO and CFO, and a few other things.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How to prepare yourself to be a leader in today's world, September 20, 2007

By 

Edward Sadler (California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Source of Leadership: Eight Drivers of the High-Impact Leader (Hardcover)

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!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Empowering the Individual: Finding the Leader in Each of Us, December 13, 2007

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Source of Leadership: Eight Drivers of the High-Impact Leader (Hardcover)

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

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Contains practial exercises, January 9, 2008

By 

Armchair Interviews (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Source of Leadership: Eight Drivers of the High-Impact Leader (Hardcover)

There's a lot of solid content and solid advice in this book for those who want specific advice on being more effective as a leader. Readers who are uncomfortable with new-age references or practices, or the inclusion of politically correct examples, such as a lesbian couple raising adopted children, should probably look for another book on leadership.

Traversi uses his life experience, both successes and failures, as well as those of others he knows personally to illustrate how his Leadership Dashboard can be used to achieve results both organizationally and personally. In each of the eight major chapters he describes a dominant driver and then shows how the driver impacts both the eleven character traits of a leader and the eight functions of a leader.

It's interesting that he derives his character traits and functions from what he refers to as "traditional leadership" literature such as "The Leadership Challenge," "Built to Last," "Good to Great," and "Servant Leadership," and as he says in his book, "almost anything written by Peter Drucker, John Gardner, Max DePree, Warren Bennis, Margaret Wheatley, John Maxwell, and Jack Welch." He acknowledges that all of these people provide wonderful "what's," but asserts that none of these people ever provided "hows"in their writings. To me that's a stretch and a major weakness of the book. I'm sure that hundreds, if not thousands, of leaders would say that they became more effective leaders because of the teachings of these people - both what's and hows.

The book provides examples and how to's that people can apply and be more effective. There are practical exercises that can help implement the various principles that Traversi believes are important.

I believe both the author and reader would be better served by focusing on what people can achieve by applying what this book teaches rather than making assertions about the work of others that are both difficult to prove and also cause people, who previously found value in those works, to question the value of what this book offers.

Armchair Interviews agrees.