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A Book Review of Mastering Self-Leadership: Empowering Yourself for Personal Excellence

Authored by Chris Neck and Charles Manz and published by Pearson Education, Limited, the book Mastering Self-Leadership: Empowering Yourself for Personal Excellence presents itself as one of the most powerful guides to self-improvement for the purpose of enhancing one’s leadership capabilities. As commented by the authors, this is an offer of an awakening process that begins at an individual’s personal level. It presents the true belief that individuals capable of managing themselves in the best way stand better chances in managing others through leadership skills. In sum, it offers a comprehensive collection of tools and skills that truly empower an individual to personal excellence, brilliance, and perfection of leadership at personal and group levels.

It is worth noting that Chris and Charles approach the issue of leadership mush objectively. In their approach, they offer real-life and existent examples of ways to apply leadership skills and horn them to produce the best of them. Further, it is adequately considerable that the vast of these samples draw from across different professions and societal fields in which leadership skills are found and applied. To this extent, they cover active, passive, and other forms of leadership in the corporate world and other entrepreneurial fields. It is also evident that this book contains a collection of research provisions which add to its credibility. Borrowing largely from scholarly sources offered by renowned authores it endeavours to cultivate improved emotional intelligence, the application of social responsibility, and a broadly improved leadership skill in the overall.

In its presentation, the book journeys through ten chapters and two other sections named as Some Additional Thoughts and an Epilogue. The first three chapters form the foundation of the book. They lay the ground upon which the book gets written. Their titles include: The Journey, Mapping the Route or We Do Choose, and Rough Road, Detours, and Roadblocks or Leading Ourselves to do Necessary but Unattractive Tasks. In the first chapter, they define leadership, establish the sources from which it is pulled and end by establishing the fact that we all engage in individual leadership by leading ourselves. Thus, the book emphasizes on the relevance and need for self-leadership. This is followed by a peer into the factors we must consider when when choosing the paths of leadership to take. In this, the authors outline both external and internal; personal factors involved in the choice of leadership. Chapter three establishes the strategies relevant for enhancing self-leadership. In these, the ability to apply self-generated strategies is contrasted with existent world strategies to settle on the best interpretations of an individual’s scores.

The next four chapters cultivate the take-off in one’s journey to self-leadership and apply them its application in team leadership. Overviewing the relevance of natural rewards, activities relating to natural power, and the way to enhance this, the book goes ahead to kick of the psychological journey that establishes the power in the mind in preparation for a take-off to the thinking-travel that sums leadership. The whole of these directions on thinking get summed up in two chapters that establish thinking as a central tool to establishing and enhancing personal and team leadership abilities. To sum up this part of the book, the authors conjoin various mental aspects, balancing, and self-leadership tools to achieve a greater team leadership.

Considerations towards achieving the greatest outcomes in self-leadership are probably found in the last chapter of the book which runs from chapter eight to ten. The beginning of these chapters is characterised by real-life examples that make learning self-leadership even easier. Using various tale perspectives; the authors sum up the book in the last chapter which is named The Journey Completed. This is purely based on thoughts of Personal Effectiveness where the authors finally outline it as the greatest tool of achieving self and team leadership.

Considerably, the concepts presented in this book actually achieve the essence of the purpose for which the book is written. Mastering Self-Leadership: Empowering Yourself for Personal Excellence: may seem an easy goal to achieve. However, it is only after one reads the text that they realize the authors took time and did incisive research on the real issues that determine how self and team leadership is controlled and propelled. The concepts presented in the book are quite useful: they awaken ones hidden self, reminds individuals of their secret leadership abilities, and equips them with real tools to improve where they have limitations.

Perhaps, the fact that the book is a collection of information from varied resources makes it one of the strongest in its field. Added to this strength is the fact that it still applies psychological, psychosocial, and other effective tools in applying its concepts, Further still is the fact that varied professional and societal perspectives get considered in its applications. Examples of these include leadership in academics, corporations, other businesses, and administrative units.

Substantially, the book altered my way of thinking in various approaches. One of such is the understanding of the application of integrative frameworks in applying self-leadership growth and development. This would entail integrating the environment, individual abilities, and skills from other individuals in achieving self and team leadership.

Work Cited

Neck, Christopher P, and Charles C Manz. Mastering Self-Leadership. 1st ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2010. Print.