Publisher's Synopsis
The purpose of Leadership Skills: For Managers, Supervisors and Team Leaders is to provide organizational leaders and candidates for these positions with the fundamental knowledge and skill development that they need to succeed as leaders in today's business environment. The book focuses on the nature of the role that most managers and supervisors are required to fulfill as they strive to accomplish things through others, which is the essence of leadership. It recognizes that the many managers and supervisors in business, industry, government and other organizational sectors have been appointed to their current positions mainly because of their technical skill - not because of their leadership ability and that while some people are "born" leaders, the majority are not. Therefore, if a person is to succeed as a manager, supervisor or other organizational leader, he or she must acquire leadership skills through training and experience, which is exactly what the author provides the reader in this highly informative and instructive book. The book consists of twelve chapters that focus on essential leadership skills including: Understanding The Role and Responsibility of a Leader, How to Build a Winning Team, How to Manage Diversity, How to Improve Communication Skills, How to Plan, Organize and Manage Time Effectively, How to Solve Problems and much more. Each chapter clearly sets forth chapter learning objectives followed by instructional text highlighted by a series of Key Points that emphasize crucial leadership learning issues. At the end of each chapter the reader is presented with a Self-Awareness Test that will provide feedback regarding how well he or she understands the leadership issues and principles presented. Concluding each chapter is a structured format by which the reader can prepare a Personal Developmental Plan that will help him or her gain introspection about developmental needs related to the topic of the chapter and then prepare developmental goals and a set of strategies by which skill development can be accomplished. A final and most valuable feature of the book is the Leadership Skills Test that will be found in Appendix C. This 40 paired-item test measures the extent that the respondent's leadership beliefs and behaviors are congruent with those that research has found are characteristic of the most successful leaders. The concepts and principles presented in this book are based on extensive research as well as on the author's personal experience as a business executive and management consultant that spans over 45 years.
