The 2nd Language of Leadership

By Patricia M Fandt, Michael P. Quirk, Patricia M. Fandt

Book Overview

This book focuses on the behavioral and personality areas that can be used to strengthen one's skills and to make wise decisions about when and how to lead. It was written for the working professional who wants to learn what he or she can do by working with their personality to become more satisfied with and masterful in their leadership roles. Good leaders have learned to succeed over time by acquiring the needed range of personal skills, much like one learns a second language. Geared for entry and mid-term leaders, this book is an empirically based training guide to acquire knowledge and implement a plan to help increase one's leadership skills.

Within the framework of 10 chapters, this book:
* promotes a shared recognition of the role that personality plays in leadership by reviewing a case study of representative leadership situation that both identifies familiar personal struggles and organizational changes;
* offers a way of thinking about how personality in general and the Big 5 in particular fills in the gaps and connects the pieces when it comes to how people become effective leaders;
* illustrates how--within the Big 5 framework--to use the 2nd language approach to leverage natural personality strengths and manage weaknesses in an effort to build greater leadership effectiveness;
* makes available 2nd language tools including effective intervention strategies and goal setting techniques based on enabling philosophies to understand what makes this approach accessible and practical to use; and
* reassures that most leadership failures are reversible and that through using the 2nd language approach, these inevitable and sometimes necessary setbacks afford clarity about how to use your style to the best advantage.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805833579
• ISBN13: 9780805833577
• Release Date: April 2000
• Publisher: Psychology Press
• Length: 146 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Great ideas on personality and leadership

The 2nd Language of Leadership is an informative and highly readable book that will be a great resource for professionals, students, persons in managment from many fields. It captures the reader's interest in the beginning with a short story entitled the "popcorn chronicals". This story draws the reader into a leadership conflict seen through the eyes of two persons who hold different values, and who exhibit different leadership styles. The bulk of the book shares research on the "big 5 personality factors" and their relationship to leadership. Examples of key leaders in business and politics bring the descriptions to life for the reader. A key issue throughout this book involves the notion that each person will have areas of relative strength and weakness related to the big five. They suggest that our capacity for leadership is related to our ability to know both our strengths and weaknesses. Areas that come naturally to us are described as the "first language" of leadership. When we find a leadership niche that fits with our innate personality strengths we will be more likely to succeed. However, long term success is thought to require that we operate beyond our narrow area of strengths. The authors debunk the myth that one personality is the "ideal" personality for leadership. They convey the importance of adopting an attitude of acceptance and learning to augment areas, which they entitle "the second language" of leadership (i.e., areas of leadership that don't come as quickly). They describe the relative merits of 4 views on leadership (the power view, the transformational view, the paradigm shift view, and the social view) that follow from one's personality profile. This book offers an empirically-based guide to preparing for leadership positions. This book will be a very informative and helpful resource especially for those entering a leadership role or trying to enhance their skills in an existing leadership role.