ABSTRACT

This chapter describes the nine essential elements for leadership mastery, including skills such as setting direction, creating key processes, and nurturing behaviors. Setting direction for people and organizations is the highest priority for leaders because it meets a basic human need to have purpose and to be on a journey. Leaders are critical for maximizing the human capital of the organization. One of their primary tasks is to build and nurture the team. Creating key processes takes the leader through the steps required to establish goals and metrics. Steward structure influences behavior and shapes an organization's culture over time. Conversations within an organization turn it into a viable and living network of people, with the highest level of teamwork enabled by future-oriented conversations. Leaders and their support are the agents of employee learning and development, which are the building blocks of organizational success. Boundaries define right and wrong, without them individuals lose their way and organizational anxiety ensues.