Leadership: No More Heroes

by David Pendleton, Adrian F. Furnham, Jonathan Cowell

Leadership is most needed in times of change, uncertainty and crisis. We are living through those times. To support leaders in all spheres, this book provides a guide to the territory of leadership and its three the strategic (head), the operational (hands) and the interpersonal (heart). It describes the tasks leaders have to achieve and explains the psychology of leadership based in personality. It argues strongly that complete leadership is the province of diverse teams of leaders made up of complementary differences. And now the best has just got better. The new edition shows how leadership has to change over time, describes how the most highly rated leaders achieve their goals and also elucidates the neuroscience of leadership to enhance understanding of leadership’s foundations. Pendleton, Furnham and Cowell’s work is a powerful combination of the best research on the psychology of leadership and years of iteration and practical implementation in the field – working with thousands of leaders from all walks of life and learning from their successes and challenges. There is no one secret recipe for success as a leader. What this book provides is a framework to enable you to achieve success in your own way.

264 pages, Hardcover

Published December 17, 2020

Reviews

[Tara Brabazon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a direct and convincing book that has moved through multiple editions. The subtitle is provocative and compelling: no more heroes.

This book exfoliates the assumptions about leadership. It says the unsayable and picks at the scab of cultural assumptions. Do leaders actually make a difference - at all? The researchers offer a definition that is powerful: “our definition of leadership is this: to create the conditions for people and organisations to thrive and achieve significant goals.”

The key argument of this book is all leadership is situational. Therefore models of leadership cannot move between contexts without critique. Most importantly, assumptions about leadership block a considered understanding of an organization or institution.

[Alireza Hejazi · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book’s four main points are as follows. First, it has been suggested that leaders must deal with three types of demands: strategic, organizational, and interpersonal. Second, it has been argued that it is difficult, if not impossible, for any person, no matter how gifted, to be world-class in all three fields, let alone all leadership tasks. Third, the leader’s attitude establishes a pattern of aids and impediments in the establishment and maintaining of leadership capacity. Fourth, imperfect human leaders working together will have full leadership. This book’s target audience includes corporate leaders and managers, as well as leadership experts, instructors, and learners.