Many who aspire to be organizational leaders focus on developing "hard" skills related to quantitative action and analytical thinking. These are important, but over his many decades of executive leadership, Dr. Eugene B. Habecker has learned to value the "softer" side of leadership. Unfortunately, these "soft" skills and behaviors are often neglected, to the detriment of both leadership and organizational development.

In The Softer Side of Leadership, Dr. Habecker, president emeritus of Taylor University, makes a case for these skills and provides practical ways to develop them and put them into action. He draws from his own experience, other leadership experts, and from the Bible.

The Softer Side of Leadership has two main sections. The first section focuses on the soft skills that effective leaders develop in a more personal dimension. These skills help leaders build and maintain a healthy spiritual, mental, and physical foundation that will benefit them personally as much as professionally. The second section naturally builds on the first, focusing on skills that effective leaders foster in the organizational dimension, such as creativity, trust, and forgiveness.

Many of these skills, practices, and attitudes may be difficult for readers whose business education has been driven by numbers and immediate results. But to be effective, they must commit to continuous learning―and that includes understanding the softer side of leadership. These soft skills support what hard skills cannot, at least not on their own: a culture that better promotes robust mission fulfillment.

Each chapter includes key takeaways and action steps, equipping readers to immediately develop and employ the skills presented. As readers develop the skills and behaviors presented in The Softer Side of Leadership and pair them with hard skills, they will become stronger, more well-rounded leaders.

Ron Schneemann

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