The Five Talents That Really Matter: How Great Leaders Drive Extraordinary Performance

This competent manual from Conchie (coauthor of Strengths-Based Leadership) and Dalton—president and partner, respectively, at the management consulting firm Conchie Associates—details how executives and managers can improve their leadership skills. To determine the characteristics of good leaders, the authors collected data on 100 executives, identified what qualities they shared, and then verified the correlation between those qualities and effective leadership by comparing survey results from a different pool of executives with their performance reports. The authors found that the best leaders set goals, push for improvement, maintain flexibility in the face of setbacks, and cultivate meaningful relationships with direct reports while fostering their talents. When deciding what goals to pursue, the authors recommend that leaders consider how to make “the greatest progress with the least effort and most optimized cost.” To maintain good relationships with employees, Conchie and Dalton contend that executives should be “constantly curious” about others and on the lookout for “pockets of negativity” that might “require careful engagement” (though what such engagement would look like goes unexplored). The authors’ data-driven approach distinguishes this from more typical business manuals, though the guidance tends to be overly broad, if sensible. This is worth a look. Agent: Leah Spiro, Riverside Creative Management. (Aug.)