Leader

I read Leadership Alchemy from cover to cover within a few days. That is not normal for me - I usually have 10 good books in progress at any one time and jump all over the place. Leadership Alchemy is just the resource I've been waiting for. Throughout the past two and a half years of my executive coaching, I've resisted doing what I call a 'vanilla' coaching course. After glancing through the workbook of a colleague who had attended such a course (and a major coaching academy at that) I thought "Is that all they think there is to coaching?" So for two and a half years I've just used my intuition and coached from who I am, my leadership experiences, my life experiences and what I stand for - and my clients seem to thrive.

Leadership Alchemy ties leadership practice with coaching practice and will resonate with both leaders and coaches.

When I read a useful tip in a book, I tag it. My copy of Leadership Alchemy is now emblazoned in a sea of green, orange, blue, yellow and pink stickers (I had to go out and buy some more stickers half-way through the book).

I recommend the book to anyone serious about coaching senior executives and anyone in demanding leadership positions.

Barry O'Sullivan, Executive Coach, Brisbane, Australia

Regardless of whether you are a great leader or are working to achieve successful leadership, this book provides great devotions. If you are searching for something on motivation then you look under the subject heading of motivation and see what stories are available. Each story is motivating, inspiring, and has modern day settings.

The stories are from some of the great leaders of today as well as some from the not so distant past. The devotions will assist any leader in determining a solution for an issue. Leadership Devotions are accompanied by scriptural references so you do not just read what someone else has said or done, but what God says about the same topic.

A great addition for any leader's library, "Leadership Devotions", should be on the shelf of all leaders. It doesn't matter whether you are a leader of many, few, or one, this book will stimulate you to become a great leader.

I found that this book clarified many of the things that I knew and felt about managment but was unable to put into words. The author does an excellent job of discussing various aspects of leadership and provides practical tools that can be used immediately in the work environment. I work for a Utility and we have already started to change the way we view personnel performance based on concepts presented in this book. I read it once, let the ideas simmer for a week, and then read it again.

I have read the The Leadership Machine and other books by the authors. This book is a great tool for managers, Human Resources professional, and anyone who is in a position to help people develop professionally. This book is not your typical managerial self-help book; you won't find any fables or references to FISH here. If you are looking for a guide to developing people in your organization based on research and the experience of the authors this is the book for you. I have used this book to plan my own development and to help others think about their development. If you are going to read this book I would recommend you purchase For Your Improvement (FYI) as well. This is a great starting point, but be aware this is only the tip of the iceberg for what these Lominger offerings can do for you and your company. My organization has worked with Lominger for a number for years and have had great success implementing their strategies.

This book helped me discover my leadership strengths and derailers. I wish I read this book five years ago. I now have a clear insight as to how my personality style adds to and detracts from my leadership capability. I also understand my decision-making style. This book will allow anyone who is serious about leadership a chance for self evaluation. Best of all, it provides a clear description in developing a personal growth plan.

Excellent insights for planning strategies to help congregations into and through change. A great guide for dealing with the dynamics of change -- spiritual, intellectual, and emotional. Helpful differentiation between "management" and "leadership" and the kinds of situations when each style is more appropriate. I use it as a handbook in doing interim ministry.

This book will be helpful to anyone within an organization who is resposible for leading people and training initiatives - or wants to learn how to do it properly. Good, practical advice on Learning and Knowledge Transfer from the significant Thought Leaders of this field. Good stuff!

I actually read this book in Chinese and I understand it has also been printed in India. Not only was it very informative about human evolution and fossils, but the characters were so interesting. It read like a saga and the story of the Leakeys was told in a fascinating way. I highly recommend it.

I was favorably disposed toward Conger's compelling analysis in "Learning to Lead" before I began reading his book. I've been thoroughly impressed by his work thru' several articles he's written (one of which synthesizes the highlights of this book-length exposition in a shorter essay form). "L to L" is essentially a "connoisseurship study," with Conger himself in the primary role of scholarly expert/participant-observer. He writes parts of "L to L" in the first person, as he relates his experiences in several of the most popular leadership training programs available on the market today. But he supplements these more subjective impressions w/ more objective critiques of these programs in light of his more scholarly knowledge re: leadership education, as well. The result is a highly engaging, rewarding reflection that blends the immediacy of a compelling autobiography with the longer view and broader perspective of a savvy social-scientific treatise. Conger has mastered all the salient leadership literature during his long academic career. He thus knows extremely well the subject(s) he writes about here. Yet he complements this professorial persona in "L to L" with his more human, accessible side, too. His readers are thus treated to a very balanced, nuanced appraisal of the major pros & cons of most of the most popular leadership-training approaches one finds being practiced today. Conger uses the direct personal experience of training participants (plenty of others that he and his staff have interviewed, as well as his own) to ground the theory that informs his analysis. He understands the premises that undergird the various approaches he writes about, so he is able to illuminate the limitations as well as the inherent potential of each. I understand that Dr. Conger twice rec'd McGill University's Distinguished Teacher Award. It isn't hard to see from reading this volume why he is such an incisive and gifted educator. Although few of us may still be able to take graduate or undergraduate courses from Conger today, anyone who peruses his "Learning to Lead" will be richly rewarded by his trenchant insights about which combinations of leadership training programs might be most effective--and WHY. I recommend this book MOST ENTHUSIASTICALLY to leadership novices as well as more seasoned educators, trainers, and students in this crucially important and rapidly burgeoning field.

In the early 1980s, I met a running back from the Cincinnati Bengals who spoke about his coach, Dr. Homer Rice, in such glowing terms that I resolved to meet the man or read anything he wrote at the first opportunity.

When I found that Lessons for Leaders had been published, I purchased the book, read it in three evenings, then read it again in order to highlight all the powerful concepts that are contained in this manuscript. I became even more interested in how I could use Dr. Rice's Total Person Concept and apply it to my own life and to our family at home.

I then initiated contact with two individuals who could put me in contact with Dr. Rice. I was able to get in the car with my daughter, drive the ten hours from Richmond to Atlanta, and meet with Dr. Rice. Dr. Rice taught a private session for the two of us where he explained in detail the techniques of his Total Person Concept and how this has become the Total Person Program that has been used with sustained success with student athletes at Ga Tech and now at other universities through the NCAA Champions program. We were also allowed to attend Dr. Rice's Leadership Fitness class.

The man is the real McCoy. He is a class act; and his superb track record at Ga Tech has to rank him as one of the finest athletics administrators in the history of intercollegiate athletics.

Do yourself a favor - buy the book; learn the concepts; put them into practice in your own life first. Then teach these concepts to others. Then come back to Amazon.com and purchase two or three copies of this book for your friends or family members. The book will make an impact for excellence in the lives of all who read it.