This book can be useful to any man or woman who already is, or wants to become, an effective, if not wise, leader of other people.

The book is well named; it is about self-knowledge as a prerequisite to effective leadership of others. It is written to be used, more than read and returned to a shelf. My copy is well-marked with notes and highlighting. If you're looking for a cleverly written and poetically worded book, this is not it. This sits between a textbook and an everyday quick reference guide.

While the authors are well-credentialed management scientists and consultants, they have not included a lot of data or pithy stories about the effective and ineffective leaders they have helped over the decades. There are plenty of charts and diagrams for the major subjects, however. Overall, they have written a useful overview of the emotional, psychological and behavioral inclinations and choices upon which we base our leadership decisions and actions - with tips on how to use the information.

Too many managers, business owners, executives and team leads, among others, focus on how to get more out of people with little or no meaningful consideration about what they're putting into the environment. To deeply understand others, one must understand oneself. To understand human motivation, one must be in deep rapport with what motivates oneself. To really "get" what it means to effectively lead others toward important outcomes, a leader must go beyond merely remembering what it was like to follow (though for many that would be a terrific start) and truly empathize with one's followers. All of that is only possible when one is truly in touch with oneself.

I think this book provides easy-to-grasp explanations of established assessment tools, such as the DISC model. It discusses the important differences between one's disposition, values, and persona. It describes and explores another model called TISC, which helps one understand the blend of self-focused and other-focused motivations. One's disposition and valuing point of view will substantially determine how one "shows up" as a leader. The book includes an overview of the Situational Leadership model, too.

In short, you have to understand this stuff if you want to be more than a super-manager who drives people to make the numbers. If you want to be the kind of leader who affects people in powerfully positive ways, and is effective in the everyday world, spend some time with The Leader Within.

I look at it this way; this isn't the only book on leadership to own. But, it will help if it's one of them.


David Facer
www.ActivatePotential.com