A Usefully Different Approach to Leadership

It’s time for a distinctively different approach to leadership. In the Leadership Mode, by Don Dunoon, puts “on hold” conventional ideas about leaders, authority, and influence, and views leadership as centered in learning processes and as usefully distinguished from management. This framing of leadership emphasizes specific, in-the-moment interventions toward achieving change with contentious problems (those that are viewed differently by stakeholders). The proposition is that this approach can enable more people to exercise leadership, release previously untapped intelligence for working through problems, and make possible a truer focus on leadership work as differentiated from management.

(See the main menu above for links to detailed information about aspects of the book, including key concepts and chapter summaries.)

In The Leadership Mode Book

Extract from the Foreword

Dr. Iva Wilson, retired President of Philips Display Components and who was First President of the Society for Organizational Learning (SoL):

“Reading Don’s book truly opened my eyes relative to my own leadership style, particularly with respect to the ways in which I went about my work as president of Philips Display Components…I am strongly recommending this book to all those who are serious about making positive and lasting changes in their way of leading.”

The Book’s Introduction

The Introduction to In the Leadership Mode scopes the book’s main arguments and will give you a feel for what’s to come in later sections.

Review Extracts

Some kind words from our readers

“A Must Read”

I am excited about the content of the book In the Leadership Mode. The book captures a key component essential for effective leadership: connecting with and understanding followers. Some of my failures in the leadership realm could have been avoided had I better understood and applied these principles. It is rarely enough to ask followers their opinion on a new initiative and then move forward. Don provides a concise approach that allows leaders to probe, reflect, and substantiate just how the organizational culture impacts followership response to contentious issues and change initiatives. A leader’s success working through contentious issues may hinge on understanding these cogent principles. A must read for all leaders.

Prof Jim Freemyer of Indiana Wesleyan University

Published on In the Leadership Mode’s Amazon page
Read the full review here:

“Highly Recommended”

Dunoon not only explains his new leadership mode, but also describes how to get into it, all the while mercifully free of a sustained focus on self-awareness, replacing this with a cogent argument for individual contributions to group learning. I thought the book was the most accessible and refreshing text on leadership I’ve read for a long time, and I’ll wager you will too. Highly recommended.

From a review by Ian McCallum

Published in The Australian Library Journal, Vol 58, No 2, May 2009, pp.202-3
Read the full McCallum review here.

“Impressive range of sources”

This is a thorough book that presents detailed arguments based on the author’s own experience and the work of a number of gurus such as Chris Argyris and Peter Senge. (The impressive range of sources is well-researched and referenced.) It is relatively easy to read and it really makes you examine your own assumptions about leadership and what makes a “leader”.

From a review by Rodney Gray

Published in the magazine Strategic Communication Management.

Book Details

Published by Trafford Publishing; October 2008; 242 pages; quality trade paperback (soft cover); catalogue #08-0160; ISBN 1-4251-6376-9; US$32.50.
Edited by JoAnne O’Brien-Levin, Ph.D.; Foreword by Iva Wilson Ph.D.; Cover Design and Artwork by Ingo Voss; Designed by Linda Maclean.

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