Letters to a Young Leader

Book excerpt: If you are interested in becoming a better leader, this book is a great place to start. Rather than using the familiar textbook approach, leadership expert Robert Denhardt offers practical lessons drawn from a lively year-long correspondence with two (fictional) former students about their experiences in leadership. The letters explore the deeply personal issues these and other young and emerging leaders are facing – what the skills and personal qualities are that you need for contemporary leadership, what will leadership mean to you and those you lead, and even why or why not you might want to become a leader. Along the way, the book speaks to the big picture, arguing that leadership today has been stripped of its historic contribution to creating meaningful human experience and has been reduced to a technical exercise in executive management. Based on his experience of teaching leadership to thousands of undergraduates, graduate students, and advanced practitioners, Denhardt speaks person-to-person with young leaders about their questions and their concerns as they enter into the somewhat flawed world of leadership today. The result is a call for a new leadership for a new generation. This book will be valuable to students enrolled in regular and executive degree programs in leadership, business management, public administration, nonprofit management, educational administration, and many other fields. It also speaks to young leaders out of school but committed to enhancing their leadership. Indeed, readers of all ages will learn lessons relevant to their own professional development.