Murphy EC. Leadership IQ: A Personal Development Process Based On a Scientific Study of a New Generation of Leaders, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1996, 278 Pages [ISBN 0-471-14712-5].

An outstanding, practical book on the current "hot" topic of leadership that should appeal to both left-brain and right-brain potential leaders. The author talks about six insights he has researched and intuited about true leadership:

• Leadership can be defined and measured as a form of intelligence,

• In a successful organization, every leader works (coining the term workleader) and every worker leads,

• These workleaders know how to say the right thing to the right people at the right time to get the right work done well, on time, and within budget,

• Workleaders rely on specific tools to fulfill eight specific roles,

• When workleaders master the eight roles, they achieve what is called a synergistic kick,

• Workleaders obey "Seven Guiding Principles" in everything they do and say:

1) Be an achiever; 2) Be pragmatic; 3) Practice strategic humility; 4) Be customer-focused; 5) Be committed; 6) Be a learned optimist;

7) Be responsible.

The first chapter develops the seven guiding principles and introduces the eight workleader roles:

1) The Selector: Select the right people to serve the customer,

2) The Connector : Build and enhance relationships to connect people to the right cause,

3) The Problem Solver: Transform problems and produce results,

4) The Evaluator: Enhance individual performance by evaluating progress towards objectives,

5) The Negotiator: Negotiate resolutions to conflicts and serve the customer by achieving consensus on what needs to be done,

6) The Healer: Heal the wounds inflicted by change and mend the fabric of organizational life,

7) The Protector: Protect one's culture by diagnosing and responding to valid organizational threats,

8) The Synergizer: Create a whole greater than the sum of its parts by synergizing all stakeholders.

Each role is defined through its goals and methods in a separate chapter. The excellent structure summarizes the role methods through the use of two specific tools relevant to the particular skill with each tool's essence placed in a box. The rest of the chapter explains uses through examples based on the author's observed experience, further demonstrated by a unique approach of actual, literal dialogue used by the leader in a situation.

One of the most interesting case studies comes in Chapter 3 (The Connector). It concerns a healthcare situation, described as follows, that may sound all too familiar:

Marliese Woerner Thatcher stands out because of her success in connecting with people who have been torn apart by anger and turmoil. Marliese came aboard one of the Southwest’s premier healthcare providers, University Hospital in San Antonio, to restabilize a complex academic medical center faced with financial chaos and fractious and embittered stakeholders. How she met the challenges of political posturing by city, state, and federal officials; a disenfranchised medical staff; insecure workers and desperate union leaders; a shell-shocked board directors; and fearful patients is a remarkable story.

The book contains a thorough "Leadership IQ Test" through which one can develop a very clear picture of how one "stacks up" versus the key areas discussed in the book.