Excellent insights into what makes successful leaders. In essence, success goes to those with the greatest breadth and flexibility in style and perspective.
As Dr. Decosterd is well experienced in organisational development, applied psychology, university teaching and executive coaching her views are most applicable.
The start of the book there is her “Leadership Behaviour Rating” scale (1-10), where a score above 7 in a category indicates a depth strength. A high breadth score is a score of 7 in 7 or more categories:
– assertive
– transformational
– strategic
– savvy
– innovative
– expressive
– engaging
– resilient
– methodical
– grounded
And thus to her thesis – in order to succeed leaders need to act from a broader, more complete range of business, organisational and interpersonal behaviours.
The model she presents has 10 guiding behaviours (how to) and 4 key processes (what):
Behaviours
– left brain:
– methodical
– expressive
– grounded
– assertive
– right brain:
– strategic
– innovative
– transformational
– engaging
– plus factors:
– resilient
– savvyy
Processes
– visioning
– operationalising
– implementing
– declaring
The above lists just scratch the surface as each of these behaviours have related traits (which are too numerous to list here).
And there are action/development plans to assist in the trajectory of leadership improvement. They are based on:
– orient your leadership from right to left
– work differently, not harder
– when stuck in a preference, shift style
– avoid the quick fix
– manage your energy thoughout the day
– create dynamic interplays
– promote synergies
– go natural
– build a library on leadership, not book-of-the-month picks
– make feedback your new best friend
There is a Charles Schulz quote in the book which is quite apt: “Life is like a ten speed bike. Most of us have gears we never use”.
For me, there is much in the book which speaks to self development
IT Considerations 
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