Why should you read Leading a Business in Anxious Times, a new book about Systems-based Leadershiptm?
Every business goes through anxious times, whether contemplating a merger, adjusting to new competition or new regulations, the loss of important personnel or the impact of a faltering economy, but 2009 has been far more intense. And as a business leader you know it is the “people issues” that most often do you in as you try to keep company-wide anxiety at bay.
Our new book, Leading a Business in Anxious Times explains how the ability to lead a business these days is directly related to the capacity of its leaders to think clearly and take thoughtful action in the presence of anxious others. It shows how leaders can learn to define effective positions on important issues in a way that can be heard and responded to successfully. The work of business in the twenty first century requires a constant readiness for change.
Leading a Business in Anxious Times is more than just a leadership book or change leadership book directed at the individual leader. Expanding on a theory of human behavior in families, the book introduces systems-based leadership, a concept of leadership as a reciprocal process, a relationship rather than a set of individual characteristics.. Like families, business organizations need leadership that ensures adaptiveness and resilience in order to survive and thrive. The successful leader of the twenty first century will be defined by how effectively their organizations respond to the pressure of continuous change. You can’t be a great leader without being in an effective, open, and creative relationship with others throughout the work system.
Advance Praise
“Baker and Fox connect long held theories that have been central in the treatment of family systems and effectively connected those theories into larger organizational contexts. The authors have made the leap with a practical touch in mind so that managers and leaders at all levels might benefit from their words of wisdom.”
— Thomas J. DeLong Ph.D., Philip J. Stomberg Professor of Management Practice, Harvard Business School.