The Persuasive Leader: Lessons from the Arts

Table of Contents:
Foreword by Denise M. Rousseau xvi Preface xvii Acknowledgements xviii About the authors xix 1 Persuasive leadership in life and work 1 Beginning cases 2 What is leadership? 4 Persuasive leadership in a new world 5 A newer focus on emotions and logic 6 Leadership as a social role in all living groups 6 Leadership legacies 7 Leadership goals 8 Leadership sub-roles 9 Leadership in changing crcumstances 9 Leader agendas 10 Leadership and the arts 10 Parents as persuasive leaders 11 Leadership and strategies 11 Do leaders need charisma? 12 Persuasion as a key to all leadership efforts 13 Leaders as coherent wholes 13 Learning from examples 13 Types of persuasion settings 14 Types of Leadership 15 Leadership skills as identified in the arts and humanities 15 Do we need empirical studies of leadership? 16 Leaders and ethical behaviours 17 Leaders as examples of persuasive and moral principles 17 2 Usingaesthetics and the arts in persuasive leadership 21 Beginning cases 22 Leaders using the arts 24 What are the arts? 25 Practical use of the arts 25 The aesthetic response 26 Aesthetics and human evolution 27 Unity among the arts 27 Performance art 28 Leader–managers as architects 28 The orchestra conductor metaphor 29 Music in aesthetics 30 Humans as artists 31 Theatrical principles in leadership 32 Fictional versus actual leaders 33 Behaving like an artist 34 3 Usingwords effectively in persuasive speech and writing 37 Beginning cases 38 Evolution of language 39 Importance of word choice 39 Power of words to evoke emotion 40 Aesthetic versus non-aesthetic language 41 Function of fictional stories 41 Use of stories in persuasion 42 Delivering words effectively 42 Audience reactions to words 45 Words reflect characteristics of the speaker 45 Being open-minded in one’s communications 46 4 Persuasive leadership and rhetoric principles 49 Beginning cases 50 Persuasion principles from philosophy 51 Persuasion in literature 52 Henry V 53 Julius Caesar 55 Joshua Chamberlain 56 Discussion of speeches 58 5 Persuasive leadership-planningconsiderations 63 Beginning cases 64 Studying the prospective audience 65 Building credibility 66 Obtain endorsements by influential persons 66 Build competence and coalitions 67 Gather facts and arguments in favor of goals 67 Plan for creating arousal/activation and more memorable messages 68 Planning for message content 68 Preparation 69 Practice 69 Choose optimum timing and setting 70 Emotional appeals 70 Use of dramatic principles in persuasion planning 70 Creating an engaging character—yourself 71 Learning acting skills 71 Process of planning 72 Using the arts in planning 72 6 Audience characteristics 77 Beginning cases 78 Audience characteristics 78 Audience to leader effects 79 Use of participation 80 Audience concerns 82 Psychological needs of the audience 82 Effect of cultural differences in audience responses 83 Motivational propensities in an audience 83 Occupational differences 84 Gender, ethnic, racial, and age differences 84 7 Leader–follower emotional ties 89 Beginning cases 90 Leader–follower attraction 92 Leader–follower bonding 93 Narcissistic behaviour 93 Attraction to morality 94 Attractiveness versus behaviour 94 Similarity 95 Openness and attraction 96 Optimistic and hopeful leaders 96 Respect for differences 96 8 Creatingpositive responses in sub-leaders and followers 99 Beginning cases 100 Leading sub-leaders 101 Counselling group members as individuals 102 Creating positive emotional states 103 Leaders as role models 105 Positive psychology 106 Optimism in the arts 108 Adversity coaching 108 Matching individuals and groups with appropriate tasks 109 Social barriers to persuasion 109 9 Persuasive leadership and change 113 Beginning cases 114 Change as a constant 115 Some fundamental causes of resistance to change efforts 116 Importance of feelings of self-efficacy in the motivation to change 117 Leader effectiveness versus likeability 117 Leadership and admiration—Benjamin Franklin 118 Franklin's targeted virtues 119 Using goals in change 120 Handling multiple factors in change 120 Self-leadership and change 121 Psychotherapy as an aid to change 121 Creating positive emotions 122 How small changes can have big effects 122 10 Strategic plans as a persuasive tool 125 Beginning cases 126 What are strategies? 127 Importance of acceptance of strategies 127 Credibility in the strategic planning process 128 Strategic plans and goal setting 128 Importance of self-perceived efficacy in goal achievement 129 Visioning and goal setting 130 Follow-up activities in strategic implementation 131 11 Harmful persuasion 135 Beginning case 136 Doing harm with persuasion 136 Types of harm 137 Why do such persuasive leaders act the way they do? 138 Confronting evil 138 Why is harmful persuasion accepted? 138 Standing up to injustice 139 Helping orientations 139 The role of deception in harmful persuasion 141 Deceptive messages well delivered 142 12 Self-leadership 145 Beginning cases 146 Leadership and self-management 147 Political liberty 147 Freedom in organizations 148 Trends in self-direction in several fields 149 Self-direction in parenting and preparation for self-direction 149 Therapy and other individual change programmes 149 Differential degrees of self-leadership and wasted human assets 150 Self-management and human respect and dignity 150 Self-leadership and the professional 151 13 Persuasive variations in different settings 153 Beginning cases 154 Persuasion in the courtroom 156 The law as a symbol of justice 158 Persuasion in the medical community 158 Persuasion in the home 160 Architecture 161 Philanthropic and artistic organizations 161 In the political arena 161 14 Achievingtrust and cooperation 165 Beginning cases 166 Leadership issues in cooperation 167 Reactions to authority 168 Origins of trust 169 Types of trust 170 Follower and leader needs 172 Explaining and fostering cooperation among group members 172 15 The noble persuasive leader 179 Beginning cases 180 What is nobility? 182 Roots of noble behaviour 182 Religion and nobility 183 Nobility in business enterprises 184 Nobility as a social class 184 Noble behaviour in the form of altruism and helping 185 The appeal of noble leaders 186 Immoral leaders 186 What are immoral practices in terms of morality within organizations? 187 Moral development 188 16 Leadership emergence 191 Beginning cases 192 Choosing leaders 194 Situational factors in persuasive leader emergence and effectiveness 194 Some indicators of leader emergence and success 195 Leaders as independent visionaries 198 Persuasiveness in leader effectiveness 198 Leader–follower interactions 199 Mindsets of effective leaders 199 What do prospective followers want in a leader? 200 Leadership changes 201 17 Handlingproblems and failure 203 Beginning cases 204 What are problems and failures? 206 Failures due to a changing world 207 Causes of persuasion failures 208 Persuasion failures mixed with successes 208 Persuasion failures due to competing social cultures 208 Politics and persuasion failures 209 Personal characteristics in reacting to problems and failures 210 Role of arrogance and hubris in failures 210 18 Why become a persuasive leader? 215 Beginning cases 216 Persuasiveness as a means to significant ends 218 Changing life roles 219 The human search for happiness 219 What is true (rather than perceived) happiness? 220 Expectations and happiness 221 Good and evil ends 221 Redeeming oneself 222 The ideal persuasive leader in fiction 223 Search for a meaningful life 225 Expectations and success 226 Avoidance of regrets/remorse 226 Persuasion and performance and a changed self-identity 227 Role of positive values 228 Life as a search for beauty 229 Summary 229 End cases 230 Exercise 231 Works cited 232 Appendices. A Brief look at some of the relevant arts and humanities 233 B Happiness 239 C Behaviours of the best and worst bosses 243 D Selected social science theories relevant to persuasive leadership 247 Bibliography 253 Index 259

About the Author :
Stephen J. Carroll is a retired professor emeritus at the University of Maryland, who now works as a private consultant. During his career he has authored twelve books on psychology and organizational behaviour. He has served as a consultant to more than 30 industrial and government organizations and is a regular speaker at the University of Maryland and Syracuse University executive courses. He is best known for his books on performance assessment and leadership.  He first developed the idea for this book in his courses for company executives where he found they responded particularly well to the case examples from the arts and from day to day life. Patrick C Flood is an Academic Fellow at Cambridge University. He has worked at the London Business School, University of Maryland, University of Limerick, Dublin City University and the London School of Economics. He is known primarily for his work on leadership teams and firm performance. His books include Effective Top Management Teams (2001, Blackwelll; Managing Strategy Implementation (with S.J.Carroll, Blackwell, 2000) (5000 copies sold over life) and Managing without Traditional Methods (Addison Wesley, 1996). He is currently external examiner at SAID business school and consults for the following companies: Pernod Ricard-Irish Distillers; Nypro-Clinton(US); Hewlett Packard (UK), Wang, Paul Partnership and VEC, Novartis, Nortel, ICL (UK), NHS(UK).

Review :
"... this unique book is ideal for executives, organizational leaders, consultants, educators, and MBA students." (Publicnet.co.uk, September 2010)