Full Leadership Development: Building the Vital Forces in Organizations

"I found this book a real treat. It has the rare quality of being both profound and light at the same time. . . . It has the potential for appealing to a large audience, including managers, consultants, trainers, students, and researchers. For some of them, it will make a real difference in their life and work. Few books do." -- Boas Shamir, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

People interested in developing their own leadership potential, or the leadership potential of those around them, will find a wealth of knowledge in Full Leadership Development. The author approaches the concept of leadership as a system, not only as a process or a person. His framework is based on what he defines as the full range of leadership: people, timing, resources, the context of interaction, and the expected results in performance and motivation. He contends that when a leadership system is optimized, it in turn optimizes the vital force of each individual, thereby enhancing the collective force of the entire organization. The quality of the relationships among the leaders, their peers, and followers is a source of enrichment for all involved. Bruce J. Avolio models his theory for leadership through his writing style.

The author pulls together his experiences and perspectives from all aspects of his life, providing a rich foundation for his theories. He uses personal examples, anecdotes, and cases to communicate his range of experience as a consultant, trainer, and researcher, as well as a traveler, spouse, and parent. The result is a conversational and accessible book that engages the reader with its interactive style.

Bruce J. Avolio

Marion B. Ingersoll Professor, Executive Director, Center for Leadership and Strategic Thinking

Michael G. Foster School of Business, University of Washington

Dr. Avolio has an international reputation as a researcher and practitioner in leadership. He has consulted with public and private organizations in North and South America, Africa, Europe, and Southeast Asia, as well as in Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia and Israel. His research and consulting includes work with the militaries of the United States of America, Singapore, Sweden, Finland, Israel, and South Africa.

Dr. Avolio is a fellow of the Academy of Management, American Psychological Society, American Psychological Association and the Gerontological Society. He is the former President of the Society for Human Resource Management Foundation and the Organizational Behavior Division of the Academy of Management.

Dr. Avolio has published 10 books and over a 125 articles on leadership and related areas. His books include Transformational and Charismatic Leadership: The Road Ahead (Elsevier Science, 2002), Full Leadership Development: Building the Vital Forces in Organizations (Sage Publications, 1999), and Developing Potential Across a Full Range of Leadership: Cases on Transactional and Transformational Leadership (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2000). His newest books are Leadership Development in Balance: Made/Born (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, February 2005), The High Impact Leader: Moments Matter in Authentic Leadership Development (McGraw-Hill 2006) and Psychological capital: Developing the human competitive edge (Oxford Press, 2007) with Fred Luthans and Carolyn Youssef.

Dr. Avolio has worked with government agencies on national leadership development projects, and with governments at the state and local level. His current projects include:

• Working with public healthcare leaders to design a leadership institute for healthcare providers and educators.
• Working on a 4 year project with the U.S. Veteran’s Administration on strategic leadership development and ownership.
• Current projects include a 300k contract with the U.S. Military Academy at West Point to investigate ethical leadership development; a 730k contract to conduct a longitudinal investigation of leadership development with military officers, and a 186k contract with the VA to examine how taking ownership and developing leadership produce better healthcare results.

Dr. Avolio’s latest interest and presentations focus on the following:

• How do we accelerate authentic leadership development for maximum impact on performance?
• How do we use the positive psychological capacities of leaders to accelerate change?
• How do we show decision makers the ‘return on development’ investment in leadership?
• How can we develop leaders and leadership to effectively operate in extreme contexts?