Peter G. Northouse, Introduction to Leadership: Concepts and Practice. Sage Publications, 2008.
Referenced in: Leadership Theories and Approaches
LifeandLeadership.com Summary
Northouse is a best-selling author in the field of leadership studies. Introduction to Leadership is an excellent guide to help leaders become more effective through self-assessment and interactive exercises. Another volume by Northouse, Leadership: Theory and Practice provides a thorough and readable overview of all major leadership theories. Both could be very helpful for ministry leaders who want to understand leadership more comprehensively and know their own orientation and skill set.
From the Publisher
Providing practical strategies for becoming a better leader, this bestselling book includes interactive elements to help students apply leadership concepts to their own lives. The book examines one quality of leadership per chapter, enabling students to apply concepts and skills to their leadership development. It provides self-assessment questionnaires, observational exercises, and reflection and action worksheets in each chapter. A new chapter on handling conflict has been added to the Second Edition, giving a multi-faceted view of conflict and methods for resolving conflict in leadership situations. Case studies have been added to the end of each chapter, including more global examples, and followed by questions to stimulate class discussion.
Reviews
“I found Northouse’s style of writing to be unambiguous, complex but wonderfully understandable. His writing style stoked the fires of my imagination regarding my own approach to leadership. It also made complex concepts in leadership understandable without sullying the integrity of the academic discipline of leadership or leadership praxis. The content of the book flows seamlessly and logically. Northouse’s book gets a strong recommendation from this reviewer. Introduction to Leadership: Concepts and Practices demonstrates Northouse’s depth and breadth of experience as an academician and consultant. He is patently passionate about communicating not only the essence of leadership but the manner in which thoughtful leadership can transform people, communities, and organizations.” – Journal of Leadership Studies
“I have followed Peter Northouse’s work for years. He has written another excellent book, this time a perfect introductory book for the new student of leadership.” – Carl Larson
“In Northouse’s most recent publication, Introduction to Leadership: Concepts and Practices, he continues his impressive ability to render leadership theories and concepts extremely accessible. Despite the fact that this book is much lighter on theory than Northouse’s previous work, it is nonetheless better than most resources I have used in the past in addressing the personal and organizational implications of leadership in a matter-of-fact, nuts-and bolts manner. The content of the book flows seamlessly and logically. Northouse’s book gets a strong recommendation from this reviewer. He is patently passionate about communicating not only the essence of leadership but the manner in which thoughtful leadership can transform people, communities, and organizations. In this latest publication, he has done exactly that.” – Jeffrey D. Yergler
“For four editions and more than a decade, its concise, intelligent, insightful introduction to the study of leadership has made “Northouse” [Leadership: Theory and Practice, Fourth Edition, SAGE, ©2007] the go-to text for students and teachers. With this book, Peter Northouse has done the same for the practice of leadership.” – Richard A. Couto
“The theoretical concepts are brought to life through the readings and there’s more”how to” info to actually become a better leader as opposed to just studying the theories, all of which have many, many gaps anyway. Moreover, with only 10 chapters and a CLU 11 week term, the flow of the book makes it easy to cover 1 chapter per week (no cramming).” (Karen Hanen )
“I have been looking for a good intro to Leadership [book] with class exercises-this is it!” (Richard Bell )
“This text is critical, concise, theory based, and engages students with activities.” (Lauren Williams )
“Peter Northouse’s Introduction to Leadership is an excellent text that I have used for freshman/sophomore levels classes. It contains most of the major topics from his more comprehensive Leadership: Theory and Practice but omits much of the more academic content that we love but freshman don’t. It also has 3 excellent activities at the end of each chapter for self-reflection/ application on each topic, with abbreviated versions of many typical leadership assessments.” (Frank Markow)
About the Author
Peter G. Northouse, Ph.D, is a professor of communication in the School of Communication at Western Michigan University. For more than 20 years, he has taught leadership, interpersonal, and organizational communication on both the undergraduate and graduate levels. In addition to publications in professional journals, he is the author of Introduction to Leadership: Concepts and Practice and coauthor of Health Communication: Strategies for Health Professionals (3rd ed.). His scholarly and curricular interests include models of leadership, leadership assessment, ethical leadership, and leadership and group dynamics. He has worked as a consultant in a variety of areas, including leadership development, leadership education, conflict management, and health communication. He holds a doctorate in speech communication from the University of Denver and a master’s and bachelor’s degree in communication education from Michigan State University.
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