Leadership That Matters: The Critical Factors for Making a Difference in People's Lives and Organizations' Success

by Marshall Sashkin, Molly G Sashkin, Molly G. Sashkin

Book Overview

Leadership That Matters examines transformational leadership-leadership that not only improves productivity and performance but also makes a positive difference in the lives of organization members.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1576751937
• ISBN13: 9781576751930
• Release Date: February 2003
• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

One of the best out right now

I am a doctoral student organizational leadership and have thus read many books on leadership as well as current academic literature, so I know the difference between a fadish popular leadership book and one that is well grounded and sound. This is the latter. Yet, it is still very accesible to non-academics. I assigned this book for an undergraduate class on leadership and the students absolutely loved it. The authors have not broken any new theoretical ground with this book. Sashkin and Sashkin are great synthesizers; they have taken the best of current transformational leadership theory and have combined it into a workable and cohesive approach to leadership that is grounded in the current leadership literature and is easy to read (not an easy task). This book only slightly works as an overview of leadership studies in general. They leave out in depth discussions of too many other current important leadership ideas. Instead they focus primarily on the transformational leadership approaches, and support it well with many theoretical strands. For a comprehensive and more systemative overview of leadership theory, try Peter Northouse: "Leadership Theory and Practice" or Gary Yukl: "Organizational Leadership." For a good one-stop approach and synthesis of TL, get this. While not groundbreaking, it is practical and useful for leaders and thus I recommend it.

Practical advice for leadership that matters

This book is great! Feedback from my Advanced Leadership Studies graduate students at the Johns Hopkins University was unanimous. The mostly MBA students felt it was easy to read and understand, without a lot of jargon. The text presents a sound research base, yet many students described it as a good "how-to" book that includes clear methods for putting leadership concepts into practice in the workplace. Students gained helpful strategies for becoming and helping others become transformational leaders.

Finally, something new.

This book does a marvelous job of surveying the existing landscape of scholarly writing on leadership; then it brings a new clarity to the topic. It seems we have suffered for years with authors promoting a single aspect of leadership -- either traits, or behaviors, or situation/context. The Sashkins show how the combination of the three aspects more fully describes meaningful leadership. Finally a book that isn't about managing, but actually about meaningful leadership. Probably the best one out there today.

It does make a difference...

This book presents an excellent synthesis of the major theories that have defined the framework within which leadership is currently explored and practiced. Furthermore, it offers a clear and well defined stream of logic that will provide readers the opportunity to identify and implement some changes in their lives that could make a difference in the way they lead and follow. The crisp and concise presentation, the smooth flow, and the nice balance of theory and practice embedded within its content makes this book a valuable resource for students, researchers, consultants, and managers alike - as well as anyone else who would like to enhance and broaden their views on leaders and leadership.

Best leadership book in years!

This is a fabulous book that examines all the theories of leadership over the past 100 years and identifies those valid aspects of leadership that truly work. Extensive research is intermingled with interesting stories to present leadership traits and behaviors that generate organizational success. This is the best management book of the 21st century!