The events of the past few years have challenged today’s leaders as they’ve never
been challenged before. The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, shifting economic
conditions, supply chain crises, and widespread social and political unrest have
forced leaders in all organizations to adapt to new ways of working and examine
their assumptions about the best ways to help followers and organizations succeed.
Leaders are struggling to make sense of the shifting environment, keep up
with fast-changing events, and learn how to lead the people in their companies
effectively and successfully in the midst of turmoil. This edition of The Leadership
Experience addresses themes and issues that are directly relevant to the current
fast-shifting environment. My vision for the eighth edition is to give students an
exciting, applied, and comprehensive view of what leadership is like in today’s
world. The Leadership Experience integrates the most recent leadership ideas and
applications with established scholarly research in a way that makes the topic of
leadership come alive. Organizations are undergoing major changes, and this textbook
addresses the qualities and skills leaders need in this rapidly evolving world.
Recent chaotic events, combined with factors such as a growing need for creativity
and innovation in organizations, the widespread use of social media, the
growth of e-commerce and mobile commerce, the use of virtual and remote teams,
globalization, and other ongoing transformations, place new demands on leaders
that go far beyond the topics traditionally taught in courses on management or
organizational behavior. My experiences teaching leadership to students and managers,
and working with leaders to change their organizations, have affirmed for
me the value of traditional leadership concepts while highlighting the importance
of including new ideas and applications.
The Leadership Experience thoroughly covers the history of leadership studies
and the traditional theories but goes beyond that to incorporate valuable ideas
such as leading hybrid work and remote teams, igniting individual purpose, follower
engagement, the leader’s duty to followers, fixed versus growth mindsets,
the importance of trust, challenges of diversity and inclusion, leadership vision,
shaping a healthy vs toxic culture and values, leadership courage, and the importance
of moral leadership. The book expands the treatment of leadership to capture
the excitement of the subject in a way that motivates students and challenges
them to develop their leadership potential.