2006-10-09 An inexpensive, yet valuable addition to your leadership book collection.

With over 200 new leadership titles published every year, this highly readable compendium provides an insight into the mass of theory and literature on the subject of leadership. It synthesizes the wealth of available literature and in general, provides a clear and concise overview of the subjects and the major trends that have emerged in the last hundred years. It looks at the key players (writers, academics and practitioners) and analyzes their contribution to the development of leadership.

An earlier generation of writers examined the traits leaders require, the ways they behave and how they adapt the core skills to specific circumstances. More recent authorities have shown us how leaders create visions, inspire teams and transform organizations; others have illuminated the `dark side' of leadership, and asked whether men and women use the same or different methods to achieve results. In this book, John van Maurik, an acknowledged authority on the subject of leadership, distills the ideas of over thirty `gurus', academics and practitioners from Kouzes and Posner, Kenneth Blanchard and John Adair to Meredith Belbin, Stephen Covey and Peter Senge.

If you're looking to gain a brief overview of some of the key leadership ideas without investing considerable time in reading the original texts, then this may prove to be an inexpensive, yet valuable addition to your book collection.