The Integrated Leader

Book excerpt: The Integrated Leader is a contemporary search for the questions to which 'leader' or 'leadership' is an answer. Taking a thoughtful approach to management education and learning, this book explores and explains ideas not usually found in books written for managers. Its purpose is to provoke the kind of reflection and thinking that experience (and most leadership training) tends not to reach.The book will get leaders and managers to stop and think. This may not sound like much, but it is very important and significant. It represents a shift in gears in personal leadership thinking and is written for anyone who wants to ask better questions of themselves. The Integrated Leader is practical and also philosophical. It is easy to read and will reward multiple readings. Informed by the experience of practicing managers who re-enter education, it does not simply regurgitate tired old leadership theory. It neither talks down to the reader nor dumbs down any of the complex concepts needed to sustain organisational and personal health and well-being. The book includes between-chapter reflections on the Integrated Leader's Manifesto, an eleven-point declaration for leading self in various contexts.The Integrated Leader is a must-read for anyone sincere in their need for sustainable personal development.