About the Book
In this groundbreaking new book, Bob Kaplan and Rob Kaiser introduce an innovative approach to identifying and correcting lopsidedness in leaders. You will discover how to make optimal use of your strengths and avoid getting trapped in a one-dimensional mindset that results in ?too much of a good thing.? Based on twenty years of research and extensive work with senior leaders, The Versatile Leader is packed with illustrative cases and practical applications. The book is equally useful for self-improvement and for coaching other managers.
Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments. Preface: Oversights and Insights.
Part I: A Perspective on Leadership Assessment.
There is a disconnect between what is generally known about leadership and the way leaders are assessed in most organizations. The first part of the book identifies these oversights and recommends ways of correcting for them. The first part, largely descriptive, lays out the book’s foundation.
1. Think Volume Control: Don’t Overuse Your Strengths.
2. “Mirror, Mirror . . .”: Look for Excess Too.
3. Know Your Own Strength.
4. The Impact of Mind-Set: Learning the Inner Game of Leadership.
Part II: Two Major Oppositions in Leadership.
Of all the oppositions, dichotomies, polarities or dualities in leadership, two stand out as arguably the most important to a leader’s effectiveness. They are: (1) forceful and enabling leadership, and (2) strategic and operational leadership.
5. Forceful and Enabling Leadership: The Power of Both.
6. Strategic and Operational Leadership: The Power of Both.
Part III: Prescriptions for Development.
The third part offers ways to correct overdoing it, underdoing it, and the combination of both, lopsidedness. All three chapters describe the outer/behavioral work of development and the inner/personal work of development.The book concludes with an elaboration of an ideal of versatility, which if not a destination that most leaders will reach can nevertheless serve as a direction for their development.
7. Throttling Back.
8. Revving Up.
9. Adjusting Both Sides.
10. The Multi-Versatile Leader.
Appendix.
Notes.
Index.
About the Authors.
About the (patented) Leadership Versatility Index.
Pfeiffer Publications Guide.
About the Author :
Bob Kaplan is a partner with Kaplan DeVries Inc., which provides leadership consulting to individual executives and management teams. Previously, Kaplan played a senior role at the Center for Creative Leadership. He has consulted to many top executives over the years, and is the author of numerous articles as well as the book, Beyond Ambition: How Driven Managers Can Lead Better and Live Better. Rob Kaiser, also a partner with Kaplan DeVries Inc., is director of¿research and development. Kaiser also coaches individual leaders, specializing in helping high potentials prepare for senior leadership roles. Previously, he served on the Center for Creative Leadership's research staff.
Bob Kaplan is a partner with Kaplan DeVries Inc., which provides leadership consulting to individual executives and management teams. Previously, Kaplan played a senior role at the Center for Creative Leadership. He has consulted to many top executives over the years, and is the author of numerous articles as well as the book, Beyond Ambition: How Driven Managers Can Lead Better and Live Better. Rob Kaiser, also a partner with Kaplan DeVries Inc., is director of¿research and development. Kaiser also coaches individual leaders, specializing in helping high potentials prepare for senior leadership roles. Previously, he served on the Center for Creative Leadership's research staff.
Review :
"thought Leaders" webcast hour long interview (HR.com webcast, July 17, 2006) When it comes to strengths, can managers have too much of a good thing? Yes, according to leadership consultants Kaplan and Kaiser (partners with Kaplan DeVries, Inc.), who posit that "overdoing" one's strengths can lead to ineffectiveness. After suggesting that other management assessment scales do not measure such excesses, the authors describe their Leadership Versatility Index (LVI(tm)), a "360-degree tool" designed to identify whether a leader is forceful or enabling, too strategic or too operational. When leadership is skewed to either end of these scales, it becomes lopsided: overenabling leaders may be too quick to avoid conflict; those who focus exclusively on operations may develop tunnel vision. In three sections, the authors describe the importance of moderating strengths, discuss the leadership dualities described above, and suggest ways to "throttle back" or "rev up" strengths as needed. The book is engagingly written and provides case studies, charts, and highlights at the end of each chapter, but it feels more like an extended and sometimes redundant advertisement for their LVI(tm) (described more fully in the appendix) than a standalone manual for improvement. Recommended for larger public or business libraries only.
—Sarah Statz Cords, Madison P.L., WI (Library Journal, June 15, 2006)
"This terrific new book…" (GovLeaders.org, May 17, 2006)
"thought Leaders" webcast hour long interview (HR.com webcast, July 17, 2006) When it comes to strengths, can managers have too much of a good thing? Yes, according to leadership consultants Kaplan and Kaiser (partners with Kaplan DeVries, Inc.), who posit that "overdoing" one's strengths can lead to ineffectiveness. After suggesting that other management assessment scales do not measure such excesses, the authors describe their Leadership Versatility Index (LVI(tm)), a "360-degree tool" designed to identify whether a leader is forceful or enabling, too strategic or too operational. When leadership is skewed to either end of these scales, it becomes lopsided: overenabling leaders may be too quick to avoid conflict; those who focus exclusively on operations may develop tunnel vision. In three sections, the authors describe the importance of moderating strengths, discuss the leadership dualities described above, and suggest ways to "throttle back" or "rev up" strengths as needed. The book is engagingly written and provides case studies, charts, and highlights at the end of each chapter, but it feels more like an extended and sometimes redundant advertisement for their LVI(tm) (described more fully in the appendix) than a standalone manual for improvement. Recommended for larger public or business libraries only.
—Sarah Statz Cords, Madison P.L., WI (Library Journal, June 15, 2006)
"This terrific new book…" (GovLeaders.org, May 17, 2006)
"thought Leaders" webcast hour long interview (HR.com webcast, July 17, 2006) When it comes to strengths, can managers have too much of a good thing? Yes, according to leadership consultants Kaplan and Kaiser (partners with Kaplan DeVries, Inc.), who posit that "overdoing" one's strengths can lead to ineffectiveness. After suggesting that other management assessment scales do not measure such excesses, the authors describe their Leadership Versatility Index (LVI(tm)), a "360-degree tool" designed to identify whether a leader is forceful or enabling, too strategic or too operational. When leadership is skewed to either end of these scales, it becomes lopsided: overenabling leaders may be too quick to avoid conflict; those who focus exclusively on operations may develop tunnel vision. In three sections, the authors describe the importance of moderating strengths, discuss the leadership dualities described above, and suggest ways to "throttle back" or "rev up" strengths as needed. The book is engagingly written and provides case studies, charts, and highlights at the end of each chapter, but it feels more like an extended and sometimes redundant advertisement for their LVI(tm) (described more fully in the appendix) than a standalone manual for improvement. Recommended for larger public or business libraries only.
—Sarah Statz Cords, Madison P.L., WI (Library Journal, June 15, 2006)
"This terrific new book…" (GovLeaders.org, May 17, 2006)
"thought Leaders" webcast hour long interview (HR.com webcast, July 17, 2006) When it comes to strengths, can managers have too much of a good thing? Yes, according to leadership consultants Kaplan and Kaiser (partners with Kaplan DeVries, Inc.), who posit that "overdoing" one's strengths can lead to ineffectiveness. After suggesting that other management assessment scales do not measure such excesses, the authors describe their Leadership Versatility Index (LVI(tm)), a "360-degree tool" designed to identify whether a leader is forceful or enabling, too strategic or too operational. When leadership is skewed to either end of these scales, it becomes lopsided: overenabling leaders may be too quick to avoid conflict; those who focus exclusively on operations may develop tunnel vision. In three sections, the authors describe the importance of moderating strengths, discuss the leadership dualities described above, and suggest ways to "throttle back" or "rev up" strengths as needed. The book is engagingly written and provides case studies, charts, and highlights at the end of each chapter, but it feels more like an extended and sometimes redundant advertisement for their LVI(tm) (described more fully in the appendix) than a standalone manual for improvement. Recommended for larger public or business libraries only.
—Sarah Statz Cords, Madison P.L., WI (Library Journal, June 15, 2006)
"This terrific new book…" (GovLeaders.org, May 17, 2006)
