BOOK REVIEW
Book Title: Elevate Your Leadership Skills: Ten Practices to Lead with Purpose and Passion
Author: Elliott Gomez, PhD
Publisher: Unknown
List Price: $19.99
Format: Softcover, 255 pages
Publication Date: 2024
ISBN: 979-8-218-39945-0
Reviewer: Valentina Rada, PMP, PhD
Review Date: May 2024
Introduction
Elevate Your Leadership Skills: Ten Practices to Lead with Purpose and Passion is a guide on how to define and pursue our leadership style, as viewed through the lenses of many years of the author’s leadership journey.
The author of the book, Dr. Elliott Gomez (or Dr. G, as known by his students), is a retired military officer and a dedicated higher education professional who has earned his doctorate from Capella University. The book’s primary goal is to teach the reader how to develop leadership skills and brand the leadership style, starting with the mission, vision, and purpose and continuing with our leadership core values.
Overview of Book’s Structure
The book’s structure has a thoughtful transition from the preface to the vision and how each leadership skill is presented. Dr. G’s approach is innovative in teaching the reader about branding and giving nuance to the leadership style. We all have personal and professional values, but identifying the leadership core values and the mission and vision of the leader takes learning and immersing ourselves in leadership to the next level of acknowledgment.
With the background of a reputable military leader and educator, Dr. G further shares its proposed ten practices and skills to elevate and improve leadership in the book. At the end of the book, Dr. G talks about strategies to become a successful leader, the importance of developing self-awareness and emotional intelligence, and how valuable networking and developing relationships are in a leadership role.
Highlights
The leadership mission, vision, core values, and ten leadership practices presented in the book are well structured. For each, Dr. G has a personal story to share or a world leader in history that the reader can relate to, priming the meaning of each practice and the how and the why of each, which is essential and relevant in a leadership journey.
Before elaborating on each of the ten leadership practices, Dr. G engages the reader in a thoughtful exercise of identifying and defining a personal leadership style. An overview of branding leadership of how to transpose personal values in leadership values as a framework in our decision-making process and fostering effective leadership.
The ten leadership practices are guiding leading strategies everyone should at least reflect on if not ready or prepared to embrace, these are: 1) Leading from the floor by being present around team members, empowering and encouraging them through active participation, and leading by example; 2) Being accountable and accessible by creating a positive, open communication environment and being available and present for the team; 3) Leading from the heart through self-awareness, social skills, and empathy to better understand teams’ dynamics; 4) M.E.S.C. as the principles of Moral, Ethical, Safety Culture and Legal, differentiating between the right and the wrong, employee well-being and compliance of legal responsibilities; 5) Leading with fairness by implying justice and impartiality, individual considerations, trust and respect; 6) Leading with dependability by reliability, predictability, consistency and support; 7) Create leaders by guiding and inspiring others to become leaders, delegating, encouraging autonomy and providing opportunities, coaching, mentoring and providing hands-on experiences 8) Observing as continuous learning through analyzing and assessing behaviors of others and the self; 9) Leading without “Me, Myself and I” through selflessness fostering trust, respect and increased team morale enabling others to succeed; 10) Self monitor continuously by self-awareness and self-improvement being essential for a leader aiming excellence.
More…
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How to cite this review: Rada, V. (2024). Elevate Your Leadership Skills: Ten Practices to Lead with Purpose and Passion, book review, PM World Journal, Vol. XIII, Issue VI, June. Available online at: https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/pmwj142-Jun2024-Rada-Elevate-Your-Leadership-Skills-book-review.pdf
About the Reviewer
Valentina Rada, PhD
Texas, USA
Valentina Rada’s professional experience includes experience in market research, retail, and technology development as a research analyst and project management leader. She is a Project Management Professional and an Agile Certified Practitioner. She has earned a Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas, USA.
Valentina can be reached at valirada@hotmail.com or www.linkedin.com/in/valentina-rada
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