Leadership in Balance ─ New Habits of the Mind

Today's global society calls for new habits of the mind—a fundamental shift from emphasis on leadership in control to leadership in balance, and from a leader's way of behaving to a leader's way of thinking. In Leadership in Balance, proven experts Kucia and Gravett develop a unique self-assessment that captures a leader's balance across eight different ways of thinking related to Strategy (head), Culture (heart) and Leadership (hand). This instrument offers an image, a structure, and a purpose for leadership which creates the opportunity for individual learning and growth and for deeper and richer coaching conversations. Along with interviews with executives of successful international and global organizations, the authors also introduce and explain their methods, and explore the leaders' ways of thinking and interpreting meaning in their organization.

John F. Kucia (Cincinnati, OH) is Administrative Vice President at Xavier University, USA. In that role, he has served as a key member of the leadership team that has elevated Xavier from a small, regional Jesuit university to a nationally known and respected academic institution and athletic powerhouse. Kucia has spent nearly 40 years as a practitioner of collaborative leadership in the fields of health care and higher education, specifically in the areas of strategic planning, leadership development and training, organizational change, intercollegiate athletics, property acquisition and urban redevelopment. He has drawn upon his extensive experience to research this unique and unstudied topic.

Linda Gravett (Cincinnati, OH) is Founder and Senior Partner of Gravett and Associates, an established management consulting agency, and President and CEO of Just the Basics, Inc., an executive coaching and strategic planning firm for small companies and nonprofits. Her client list includes: Meridian Bioscience, Voith, Perfetti Van Melle, Parsons Brinckerhoff, and The Discovery Channel. She has been an executive in organizations of varying size and scope for the past 30 years, and is a frequent presenter and speaker at local, regional and state conferences for the Society for Human Resource Management, American Society for Training and Development, and the Chamber of Commerce. She has also made guest appearances on local, regional and national radio and TV programs. Her website (www.gravett.com) shares monthly newsletters and announcements on upcoming speaking engagements and books to 1000+ members. She is the author or co-author of three bestselling titles: HRM Ethics: Perspectives for a New Millennium (2002), Bridging the Generation Gap (2007), and Using Your Emotional Intelligence to Develop Others (2009).