Today we often look to our leaders in business, government, or the social sector, to make effective decisions in a complex world. Whether they are asked what steps to take to improve competitiveness in a global economy or to make tough ethical choices, well-trained leaders are critical to organizational effectiveness. Although we know much about leadership development for individuals after they take their first job, we know relatively little about their earlier experiences that contributed to their interest in leadership or subsequent effectiveness as leaders. This volume brings together researchers who explore leadership at different points before individuals enter the workforce and asks important questions surrounding definitions of leadership behavior, necessary leader skills and age-related leader tasks, factors contributing to development of leader identity, and ways to improve the process of leader development. With contributions from well-known leadership researchers such as Robert Sternberg, Howard Gardner, Bruce Avolio, and Susan Komives, the volume shows research evidence for factors such as early childhood and youth experiences on leadership development, which have implications for the way we understand and train leadership in today's organizations.

Tap into the Winning Strategies of Power Mentoring

"A wonderfully useful and readable book about the underacknowledged significance of mentoring."
--Warren Bennis, author, On Becoming a Leader, and coauthor, Geeks and Geezers

"There are few career relationships as pivotal as the one with a mentor. This wonderful book takes readers deep into the chemistry of the best of these. Full of compelling stories to illustrate its lessons, it is a treasure trove of insights."
--Jay A. Conger, Kravis Professor of Leadership, Claremont McKenna College, and author, Building Leaders

"All successful people have someone in their life who helps them at various stages in their development. In Power Mentoring, one finds close-up examples of how mentoring has played an important part leading to individual success. This is one of the most important books on the subject of mentoring to be written in years."
--Henry R. Kravis, founding partner of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.

"Power Mentoring adeptly bridges the academic-practitioner divide by providing practical advice that is firmly grounded in academic research and the authors' own interviews with an amazing array of power mentors and their proteges. The result is a compelling, accessible, and engaging account of how to create, nourish, and flourish effective mentoring relationships. The book brings mentoring to life, and the reader quickly becomes captivated by the stories, accounts, and narratives of Power Mentoring. From Oprah to Spielberg to Welch--who can resist reading this book?"
--Belle Rose Ragins, professor of management, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and coauthor, Mentoring and Diversity: An InternationalPerspective

"Mentoring is so important for any leader, small business owner, or entrepreneur--this book is a must-read!"
--Charles Segars, head, Fine Living Cable Network, and executive producer of the movie National Treasure

Today we often look to our leaders in business, government, or the social sector, to make effective decisions in a complex world. Whether they are asked what steps to take to improve competitiveness in a global economy or to make tough ethical choices, well-trained leaders are critical to organizational effectiveness. Although we know much about leadership development for individuals after they take their first job, we know relatively little about their earlier experiences that contributed to their interest in leadership or subsequent effectiveness as leaders. This volume brings together researchers who explore leadership at different points before individuals enter the workforce and asks important questions surrounding definitions of leadership behavior, necessary leader skills and age-related leader tasks, factors contributing to development of leader identity, and ways to improve the process of leader development. With contributions from well-known leadership researchers such as Robert Sternberg, Howard Gardner, Bruce Avolio, and Susan Komives, the volume shows research evidence for factors such as early childhood and youth experiences on leadership development, which have implications for the way we understand and train leadership in today s organizations.

The quest for moral leaders is both a personal quest that takes place in the hearts and minds of leaders and a pursuit by individuals, groups, organizations, communities and societies for leaders who are both ethical and effective. The contributors to this volume, all top scholars in leadership studies and ethics, provide a nuanced discussion of the complex ethical relationships that lie at the core of leadership. Two distinct factors make the ethics of leadership different from the ethics of other individuals. The first is power - the way leaders exercise it and the temptations that come with it. The second is the moral relationship they have with followers and the range of people with whom they have moral relationships and obligations. In The Quest for Moral Leaders, the contributors explore how leaders themselves view their role, as well as the ways in which leadership functions within business, politics and society. The volume begins with chapters examining how religious beliefs and emotions color the way leaders make decisions. The second section covers how leaders think about morality, while the book's final chapters shift our attention to the function of leadership within organizations. The first book to offer perspectives on leadership ethics from the ancient Greek ideas on reverence to the moral problems of executive compensation, The Quest for Moral Leaders is a must-read for scholars and students of leadership, ethics and business. Leadership consultants will also find this in-depth analysis a valuable resource.