Flexible Leadership ─ Creating Value by Balancing Multiple Challenges and Choices

If you are a manager or a training and development professional, you need concrete suggestions for guiding your organization through rapidly changing conditions and difficult challenges. Flexible Leadership offers a comprehensive theory that integrates findings from different disciplines and more than a half century of research and explains how leaders can effectively enhance the bottom-line performance of their organizations. The authors provide illustrative examples of effective and ineffective leadership, including some from their own consulting experiences over the past 30 years in private and public sector organizations. The book includes information about
Leadership and management behaviors that can be used to enhance organizational performance.
Improvement programs, management systems, and structural forms that can be used to enhance organizational performance.
Integrating direct and indirect forms of leadership.
Balancing tradeoffs and competing demands related to performance.
Adapting leadership to changing situations.
Integrating leadership processes at different levels of an organization.
Competencies relevant for effective leadership.

Gary Yukl is a professor of management at the the University at Albany, State University of New York and the author of ten books, including Leadership in Organizations (5th ed.) (Prentice Hall).
Richard Lepsinger is managing vice president of Right Management Consultants and the co-author of The Art and Science of 360û Feedback and The Art and Science of Competency Models (both from Pfeiffer).

"Flexible Leadership ‘connects the dots’ between Leadership and Management and provides the insight to appreciate both. With practical examples, applications and behavioral tools, this is a road map for emerging and experienced leaders alike."
—Mary Eckenrod, vice president, World Wide Talent Management, Cisco Systems, Inc.
"Yukl and Lepsinger present the full range of direct and indirect behaviors required to be an effective leader in a practical manner that is easy to understand and apply."
—Vijay Govindarajan, Earl C. Daum 1924 Professor of International Business and Founding Director, William F. Achtmeyer Center for Global Leadership, Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College
"One of the most sophisticated examinations of leadership to date. Moving beyond the all too prevalent simple recipes, Flexible Leadership paints a rich picture of the realities of leading. A wonderful resource for those who wish to become masterful leaders."
—Jay A. Conger, professor, London Business School
“If you want to learn what leadership is really all about, this is the book for you. It is about three core leadership tasks that can be learned by ordinary managers and integrated in accordance with the nature of your business and situation. This book provides a new and very useful framework for understanding what leaders must do to create sustainable performance."
—Michael Beer, professor emeritus, Harvard Business School, and chairman, Center for Organizational Fitness
"A leadership book that captures the complexity of a leader’s role while providing specific guidelines and tools that help you realize that being an effective leader is not out of your reach."
—Peter Voss, president and CEO,CDC IXIS Asset Management North America, L.P.
“I have always believed that a significant part of my job as a senior executive was to help develop effective leaders at all levels of my organization. Flexible Leadership provides an indispensable guide that will help leaders respond effectively to the challenges and choices they face on the job.”
—Bill Sheldon, president and CEO, Eisai, Inc.

Acknowledgments.
Preface.
The Authors.
1. The Nature of Effective Leadership.
Leadership: Fact and Myth.
Model of Flexible Leadership.
Origins of the Model.
Overview of the Book.
Conclusions.
Section I: Efficiency and Process Reliability.
2. The Challenge of Improving Efficiency and Process Reliability.
Examples of High Efficiency and Process Reliability.
Conditions Affecting Efficiency and Process Reliability.
Ways to Improve Efficiency and Process Reliability.
Conclusions.
3. Leadership Behaviors to Enhance Efficiency and Process Reliability.
Operational Planning.
Clarifying Roles and Objectives.
Monitoring Operations and Performance.
Solving Operational Problems.
Relationships Among the Behaviors.
Conclusions.
4. Programs and Management Systems for Improving Efficiency and Process Reliability.
Quality and Process Improvement Programs.
Cost Reduction Programs.
Management Systems and Structural Forms.
Recognition and Reward Programs.
Conclusions.
Section II: Innovation and Adaptation.
5. The Challenge of Adapting to the External Environment.
Conditions Affecting the Importance of Adaptation.
Examples of Failure in Adaptation.
Examples of Successful Adaptation.
Reasons for Success and Failure.
Ways to Enhance Adaptations.
Conclusions.
6. Leader Behaviors to Enhance Adaptation.
Monitoring the Environment.
Strategic Planning.
Envisioning Change.
Building Support for Change.
Implementing Change.
Encouraging Innovative Thinking.
Facilitating Collective Learning.
Relationships Among Change-Oriented Behaviors.
Conclusions.
7. Programs, Systems, and Strategies for Enhancing Adaptation.
Intrepreneurship Programs.
External Benchmarking.
Programs for Understanding Customers.
Reward and Recognition Programs.
Collective Learning Practices.
Knowledge Management Systems.
Structural Forms to Facilitate Innovation.
Mergers, Acquisitions, and Strategic Alliances.
Conclusions.
Section III: Human Resources and Relations.
8. The Challenge of Managing Human Resources.
Conditions That Affect the Importance of Human Resources.
Implications of Strategy for Human Resources.
Examples of Good Human Relations.
Examples of Human Relations Problems.
Ways to Improve Human Resources and Relations.
Conclusions.
9. Leader Behaviors for Enhancing Human Resources.
Supporting.
Recognizing.
Developing.
Consulting.
Empowering.
Team Building.
Relationships Among the Behaviors.
Conclusions.
10. Programs and Management Systems for Enhancing Human Resources.
Human Resource Planning Systems.
Employee Development Programs.
Empowerment Programs.
Recognition, Award, and Benefit Programs.
Quality of Work Life Programs.
Orientation and Team-Building Programs.
Conclusions.
Section IV: Finding the Right Balance.
11. Multiple Challenges and Tradeoffs for Leaders.
Tradeoffs Among the Three Performance Determinants.
Changes in Performance Determinants.
Examples of Effective Balancing.
Other Tradeoffs for Leaders.
Conclusions.
12. The Path to Flexible Leadership.
Guidelines for Effective Leadership.
Competencies for Effective Leadership.
Conclusion: The Essence of Flexible Leadership.
Notes.
Index.