The New SuperLeadership

Leading Others to Lead Themselves

The truly effective leader today must be one who leads others to lead themselves. The rapid pace of change demands fast and flexible responses throughout the organization-there's no time to wait for directives from the top. And the highly-skilled workers so vital to organizational success also demand a high degree of independence. Old-fashioned command-and-control leadership is just too slow and stifling. Charles Manz and Henry Sims, Jr. pioneered the concept self-leadership in their bestselling book SuperLeadership. In The New SuperLeadership, the authors present new content and examples designed to help leaders develop the kind of autonomous, quick-reacting workforce necessary to thrive in these turbulent times. This enriched and expanded edition takes the concepts in the first edition to another level by emphasizing a pragmatic, how-to approach for developing leaders at every level of the organization. Drawing on contemporary examples and profiles, many from the high-tech and information sectors, Manz and Sims shatter the myth of the traditional, aggrandized versions of "heroic" leadership. They show that a leader truly becomes successful by turning followers into extraordinary self-leaders-pillars of strength that will support the organization at every level. They detail a series of action-oriented steps through which the SuperLeader provides an opportunity for followers to express and develop their own leadership skills-and in the process become highly motivated, dynamic contributors. The New SuperLeadership critically reviews traditional leadership styles, vividly illustrating the drawbacks of each: the "Strong Man" whose reliance on fear-based compliance smothers initiative; the "Transactor" who promotes a narrow "what's in it for me?" mentality; and the "Visionary Hero" whose powerful personality inspires commitment but inadvertently discourages independent thinking. By bringing out the leader in every employee, SuperLeadership enables leaders to avoid these pitfalls and develop an enthusiastic, innovative and energized workforce. The New SuperLeadership is a radically new way of looking at leadership, offering a leadership paradigm ideally suited to the realities of the modern workplace. It reveals that the only way to succeed today is to tap into the innate leadership potential that lies within every employee.