Pathways to Outstanding Leadership

Michael Mumford, a noted scholar in leadership, takes a comparative look at leaders who were considered charismatic, idealogical, and pragmatic in an effort to uncover what constitutes "outstanding leadership". The three types of leaders are compared and The intent of this book is to provide a comprehensive comparison of charismatic, ideological, and pragmatic leadership. One hundred twenty leaders from government, military, business, religion, and politics are examined with respect to key leadership behaviors, including problem solving, leader–follower interactions, communications, politics, and integrity. Additionally, the implications of these paths for development and performance are examined. Most prior books on outstanding leadership have focused exclusively on vision-based leadership and have not focused on historically notable leaders and incidents of truly outstanding leadership. Case material from relevant biographies illustrate in concrete form the conclusions flowing from the various quantitative analyses. This is an important book for university and organizational courses on leadership.