Move to Greatness

Book excerpt: Your guide to the patterns of personality As a senior manager at NASA, Dr. Ginny Whitelaw had access to excellent leadership training. But like most leadership training, it taught leaders from the neck up, not deeply enough to develop the whole and balanced leaders so needed in today's complex organizations. She knew there had to be a deeper, more integrated way of developing effective leaders. There is! Move to Greatness reveals that to lead and live wholly, basic energy patterns must be brought into balance. Out of kilter, these four patterns create the ineffective "buts" in leadership style ("great at making numbers, but hell on staff") and personal performance ("successful at work, but has no life"). Success and failure originate in our use (or misuse) of four fundamental patterns in the nervous system that have been studied over decades: * The Driver pushes into every barrier with speed, directness and intensity and puts a focus on priorities, actions and the bottom line. * The Organizer does the right thing with discipline and order and establishes processes, clarifies roles and assigns responsibility. * The Collaborator swings into playful engagement with life and the people in it, and as a leader, the Collaborator is oriented to customers, employees, loyalty and fun. * The Visionary goes with the flow, hangs out in the chaos, and leaps to new possibilities; the Visionary leader thinks outside the box and creates the future. Using these patterns as a map, you will understand people more easily and more deeply, and see how to lead them more effectively. Moreover, you'll learn how to move yourself to your highest potential. Discover your natural preferences and learn how to literally move yourself-and others-to greatness.