U.N.I.Q.U.E.: Growing the Leader Within

By Debra J. Slover

When you boil it down to its essence, leadership is about working with others to make a differencein our family, school, community, business]or even our world. Combining an illustrated fable,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0978679806
• ISBN13: 9780978679804
• Release Date: March 2007
• Publisher: Leader Garden Press
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Stop Living Your Life in Survival Mode

This book came into my life when I needed it the most. It articulated feelings that I had trouble putting into words. In essence, the message is stop living your life in survival mode. In a tough economy, it is a message we all need to hear. Author Debra J. Slover states, "We cannot always control the circumstances of our lives, but we can choose how we respond to them." Her book is a guide on how to do just that. Our mental outlook filters our perception of reality. Slover provides tips and exercises on how to shift our way of thinking so that we thrive. The book is a fable/memoir/self-help hybrid. The fable is populated with animals beautifully illustrated by Darlene Warner. Hugh, the sheep, is led through a Leadership Garden by Annabelle, the collie, stopping along the way to visit with different animals. Each offers Hugh a "U.N.I.Q.U.E." tidbit of wisdom on how he can go from being afraid and weak to courageous and powerful. He becomes a leader whose character is rooted in integrity through direct and open communication. Slover is down to earth. She openly admits that she is not perfect and how she continually needs to work on her faults - just like the rest of us. In one instance, she chewed out a student worker who could not provide her with a campus parking pass. Knowing she was wrong, she went back and apologized to the student. She's an author who practices what she preaches. The self-help aspects can get wordy at times. The book connects best when concepts are fleshed out rather than merely defined. I found that I do not walk away remembering what the acronym U.N.I.Q.U.E. stands for, but instead with a comprehension of the overall message. The chapter exercises engage the reader to actively examine his/her life. They are helpful tools in making the reader realize how many "weeds" need to be removed from his/her "leadership garden." When I first picked up the book, I thought it was going to be a slog through New Age mumbo jumbo. I couldn't have been more wrong. I flew through this book in two sittings. I kept reading passages where I thought to myself, "This author gets it." She addresses problems that we all need to resolve. If you're looking for sound advice on how to obtain peace of mind and a sense of well-being, pick up this book. It'll show you the way.

An excellent heart, mind, and spirit self-help guide

Written by youth and adult leadership trainer Debra J. Slover, U.N.I.Q.U.E: Growing the Leader Within is a self-help guide to cultivating purpose, aim, and leadership skills within oneself. Chapters discuss how to balance the four key behavioral attributes a leader needs (visualization, organization, harmonization, and energization), how to practice and attain the key traits needed for leadership, tips, tricks, and techniques for expressing the voice of the leader spirit within, and much more. Accessible to readers of all ages and backgrounds, and drawing upon vignettes and the occasional gardening metaphor to illustrate its point, U.N.I.Q.U.E. is an excellent heart, mind, and spirit self-help guide, whether preparing to lead a business, a sports team, a coalition, a few friends, or simply oneself.

J.O.Y.O.U.S.

What a fantastic experience to read and feel. With the multitude of books out there with themes that touch the soul, this book clearly stands above the rest. As I read the book, I found myself touched but the hidden lessons all thought this beautiful 147 page experience. U.N.I.Q.U.E. Growing the Leader Within does not only transport you to a simpler time in your life by placing you within the pages, but I found that for myself, that it re-stimulated a part of the soul where learning and remembering was easy and not clouded by everyday pressures. To me that is the natural way to learn, and the natural progression into your Leader within. The main character Huge represents a part of all of us that transfigures the beginning of everyday thought, every experience and every endeavor. You cannot begin anything without starting at Hugh! This book by the author Debra J. Slover, reminded me where I have been and where I will be going. The journey is never ending but full of light. That is what this book is for me. Pure light.

Classroom Connections

My mom gave me a copy of U.N.I.Q.U.E. when it was first coming onto the market. Leadership Studies are an area of research for me and I am also an avid gardener, so she felt the metaphor of a Leadership Garden was a natural fit. She was right in many ways. After getting into the book, I realized there may be some potential for use in a leadership class. Along same time, my church was proposing a Community Garden to grow produce for the local food bank. Likewise, the university where I am getting my doctorate from and where I instruct was interested in enhancing Service Learning opportunities. A class was soon born using this book as a text that provides a focused journaling exercise for the students. This is coupled with coursework in global food issues such as water scarcity, climate change, Genetically Modified foods, and other topics. These are matched with exposure to local activists in each of these areas like organic farmers, farmer's market associations, and hunger activists. It seeks to make the "think globally, act locally" notion in a very real way with the personal empowerment to make a difference. I highly recommend Debra's book because of its readability and its multiple applications both within and outside the classroom.

Can a lost sheep really become a leader?

Can a lost sheep really become a leader? Why, yes! Of course! We all can! At first, I thought the book was going to be just another tired lesson plan for finding your way in the world: but Deborah J. Slover's book, U.N.I.Q.U.E.: Growing the Leader Within, goes beyond the traditional self help doctrines to actively explain the ideas behind cultivating an individual leadership spirit. Funny as it may seem, I followed Hugh the wayward sheep through the book's incredible Leadership Farm Fable where we learned the essential principles and behaviors needed to cultivate our leader spirit through a tour of the metaphorical Leadership Garden. The first time I read the book I glossed over the actual exercises provided at the end of Hugh's stops on the Leadership Farm tour. But I was drawn by the author's honesty and compassion and by the intricate, beautiful illustrations that adorn the Fable. I reached for the book again and again. Each time I sat down to examine the Fable I found new depth in the story as well as in the author's commentary and soon found myself sitting at the kitchen table carefully completing each lesson. There I was, enthusiastically weeding out my negative tendencies and planting the positive behaviors needed to lead a more fulfilling life. My absolute favorite concept presented by Deborah J. Slover is that Hugh and I and anyone else can develop into a leader that does not require commanding a following. Good leadership, the type taught in the lessons, allows everyone to become a great leader of their own lives with a unique purpose, aim and love: a type of leadership that means a workable, imaginative co-existence where everyone is a leader. After reading the book, I imagined all sorts of people using the book to replace counter productive, self-victimization with new direction. I especially could visualize people in positions of authority using the book to understand how their role could be more empowering that overpowering. I recommend the book to individuals looking for a private experience for self emancipation and to all types of groups looking for common instruction on developing a thriving, cooperative mission.