Real Leadership ─ Helping People And Organizations Face Their Toughest Challenges

• Presents a new, more effective approach to leadership: helping people to honestly face reality and deal with their most pressing problems, rather than imposing ideas and solutions on them
• Shows how to apply this new approach to six major organizational challenges
• Offers actual examples of real leadership in action

Too many organizations today play follow the leader: the commander articulates a ÒvisionÓ and people uncritically go along with it. But this style of leadership is ultimately ineffective and even dangerous. It hampers peopleÕs ability to anticipate and react to changing circumstances. And if the leaderÕs vision is flawed, the entire organization will suffer.

In Real Leadership, Dean Williams argues that the true task of the leader is to get people to face the reality of any situation themselves and develop strategies to deal with problems or take advantage of opportunities. Leaders who are responsible with their power and authority don't dictate; they help people determine what shifts in their values, habits, practices and priorities will be needed to accommodate changing conditions and new demands.

Williams details how to apply this new approach to six different challenges that every organization faces. Throughout, he uses examples from his own experiencesÑworking with organizations as diverse as the government of Singapore, Aetna Life and Casualty, and the nomadic Penan tribe in BorneoÑas well as historical examples and the insights gleaned from his many interviews with presidents, prime ministers, and business leaders to demonstrate the practical application of real leadership in the real world. At a time when so many ""visionary"" leaders have led their organizations to disaster, Real Leadership offers a needed, proven alternative.