The Extraordinary Leader

By: John H. Zenger, Joseph Folkman

Narrated by: Barrett Whitener

Length: 4 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

Secrets for developing leadership and competitive advantage in any organization

The Extraordinary Leader is a research-based book about leadership. It analyzes 200,000 assessments from 20,000 managers and presents new insights that demystify this complex subject. It clearly establishes the importance of developing great leaders versus being satisfied with merely good ones, and highlights the link between leadership behavior and an organization's performance.

From the authors' research, a new model of leadership emerges that challenges long-held beliefs about leadership competencies. The authors identify 16 competencies that tower above all the others - ­­the ones that separate great leaders from the average. One of the book's major breakthroughs is its focus on the importance of maximizing strengths as opposed to merely correcting weaknesses. Further, the importance of balanced strengths is introduced: When strengths are clustered in one area, the leader is less effective than he or she could be with strengths in different areas.

©2002 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. (P)2007 McGraw Hill-Ascent Audio