Discovering Leadership

An introductory leadership textbook that guides students through the concept of leadership by design, a theory that involves planning each step of their leadership development, focusing on practical skills and valuable attributes that will maximize their leadership success now and into the future.

Organized around five major design challenges, each challenge is explored in a stand-alone module. Students begin the leadership journey with themselves, understanding their own strengths, styles, and skills. The text moves on to relationships, exploring how leadership is a process that involves values, decision-making, motivation, and power. A module on others' success unpacks the most effective practices of leadership and management, this is followed by a module on leading culture, teams, and community, before concluding with a section on how leaders can create lasting, positive change.

The book covers foundational leadership topics with a strong emphasis on skill building and helping develop CORE competencies: confidence, optimism, resiliency, and engagement. Students are encouraged to develop these skills through experiential learning, with multiple features in each chapter such as reflective and scenario-based exercises, and case studies of internationally recognized companies like Amazon and Proctor & Gamble, along with interviews with Fortune 500 Company CEOs.

There are online resources for instructors and students, which include: Test bank, PowerPoint slides, an instructor manual, teaching tips, answers to in-text questions, multimedia resources, quiz questions, and flashcards.

Suitable reading for first and second year undergraduates on Leadership, Introduction to Leadership, and Leading Organizations courses

“"This is a text that lays a foundation from which the students can build their leadership knowledge and begin their personal leadership journey."”

"One of the best leadership texts I have ever read. If students immerse themselves in the activities and discussions contained within, they will put this book down with an understanding of how to motivate others to know, be, and do more." -- Joshua H. Truitt
"Discovering Leadership: Designing Your Leadership Success represents an excellent first conversation and illustration of the catalyst intersection between design thinking and more traditional business management and leadership conversations. Students will benefit from the holistic five dimensional view of leadership, and faculty will be challenged to think beyond traditional boundaries of organizational management and effectiveness."  -- DeNisha McCollum
"A comprehensive leadership development text based on principles of design thinking." -- Kerry Priest
"This book will help us better prepare out students for the internships and post-graduation placements we hope for." -- Linette P. Fox
"The text is a phenomenal guide for using a design thinking process toward developing effective leaders that are desperately needed by our world." -- Don Mulvaney
"Provides an opportunity for students to learn about themselves as leaders and how they can use their leadership skills to effectively lead others within an organization." -- Heather A. Vilhauer
-- Patricia Mitchell

Tony Middlebrooks, Ph.D. creates tools, explores and teaches at the intersection of leadership, innovation, creativity and design as Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Programs for Horn Entrepreneurship at the University of Delaware. Dr. Middlebrooks has created and taught more than 35 different courses for all collegiate levels, as well as numerous experiential abroad programs. He presently teaches leadership theory and practice, decision-making, creativity and innovation, and social entrepreneurship. He received both the University of Delaware Excellence in Teaching and Excellence in Advising Awards, and regularly helps faculty develop their teaching. Previously Dr. Middlebrooks co-developed the Organizational and Community Leadership program at UD, the doctoral program in leadership as a professor at Cardinal Stritch University, and spent ten years prior in non-profit leadership positions. Dr. Middlebrooks has published numerous articles and book chapters, and has delivered hundreds of presentations. He is co-author of Public Sector Leadership, co-creator of the Idea Fan Deck and Design Thinking Cards, and has served as Symposium Editor for the Journal of Leadership Studies since 2011. A firm believer that leadership learning can benefit everyone and can make a difference, Dr. Middlebrooks consults and facilitates workshops for a wide variety of organizations and audiences.  His current scholarly interests focus on methods of leadership education and the integration of leadership, creativity, and design thinking.  Dr. Middlebrooks has a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He resides in Wilmington, Delaware with his wife and collaborator Dr. Jules Bruck.Dr. Scott J. Allen is the Reid Chair in Management at John Carroll University, where he is an Associate Professor. He teaches courses in leadership, management, executive communication, and the future of work. He has published more than 50 book chapters and peer-reviewed journal articles. He presents at academic conferences and has written four books. His most recent book is Captovation: Online Presentations by Design. Outside his academic endeavors, Scott speaks, consults, coaches leaders, facilitates workshops, and leads retreats across industries.Mindy S. McNutt, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Leadership at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. She earned her B.A. in Communication, M.S. in Personnel Counseling, and Ed.S. in Educational Leadership from Wright State; and her Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration from Bowling Green State University.  Currently she teaches in all three leadership programs at Wright State, the undergraduate program in Organizational Leadership, the Master of Science in Leadership Development, and the Doctorate in Organizational Studies. Dr. McNutt has engaged in leadership curriculum development for over 30 years for high school youth, undergraduate curricular and extra-curricular programs, and most recently served with several faculty colleagues to write the proposal for the Doctorate in Organizational Studies. At Wright State and at several area community colleges, she has held a variety of leadership positions including, among others, academic vice president, campus dean, and dean of student services and institutional advancement. Additionally, Dr. McNutt is or has been involved in a number of boards and committees at the local, state, and national levels.Among her varied research interests are leadership education, transformational leadership, women in leadership, leader values, and a current project examining the relationship between values and organizational culture.   She has been involved in several projects of significance: serving as an Associate Editor of the International Leadership Association Building Leadership Bridges book entitled LEADERSHIP 2050: Contextualizing Global Leadership Processes for the Future; and collaborating with a nation-wide team to create and serve as faculty for the international Leadership Education Academy.  Dr. Morrison is currently a professor of Organizational and Community Leadership in the School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Delaware in Newark, DE. His research interest focuses on issues surrounding senior leadership accountability. Currently, he is researching the effectiveness of CEOs in preparing for the possibility of a natural disaster. He has published two books and over 80 manuscripts in a variety of professional journals. In addition, Dr. Morrison has presented over 90 papers at regional, national, and international conferences. He is currently serving on 3 refereed editorial boards for academic journals as well as the executive editor of the Journal of Education for Business. He has been the recipient of 7 outstanding teaching awards in the College of Education and the College of Human Resources at the University of Delaware. Within the leadership major at the University of Delaware, his teaching focuses on preparing future leaders to initiate change within organizations by adopting a new set of principles and practices that have emerged in recent years.

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