Book Review: Motivationally Intelligent Leadership: Emerging Research and Opportunities

This is the first review of my new book, Motivationally Intelligent Leadership: Emerging Research and Opportunities.

Introduction:
This book is about developing motivationally intelligent leaders who can inspire self and others. Dr. Brown does a wonderful job emphasizing the leader – follower relationship and stressing the importance of using resources such as emotional intelligence, employee engagement, inspiration and communication as ways to effectively connect. Dr. Brown also illustrates the importance of recognizing the fact that at any point in time, the leader could be the follower and the follower could be the leader making the need for a meaningful professional relationship even more important!

Organization & Content of the Book:
I applaud Dr. Brown’s approach to this leadership book. He introduced and defined leadership in the Preface so that the content of the book could be focused on the relationship aspect of leadership. In doing so, the layout of the book clearly illustrates the importance of connecting. Leaders must be able to connect with the people they lead, or they will be ineffective. Followers must feel leaders are authentic, engaged, and invested to be worthy of their loyalty. Let’s face it without loyal followers, leaders won’t succeed.

Below are some specific strengths and a weakness pertaining to organization and content of the book.

Strengths:
Organization
• Organization of the book is logical and easy to follow
• Chapter headings are concise
• Transition between chapters is seamless
• Introduction of teams then theories is the correct approach
• Sharing of tools then refining the team is appropriate
Content
• Well thought out content
• Information is relevant and pertinent
• Theories provided lend support for the selected content shared
• Tools serve as resources to help those applying the concepts succeed

Weakness:
Minor – I’m a visual person so I would like to see more professionally developed graphics. For instance, a pull-out chart of concepts for easy take-away would have been nice.
Although I shared a weakness, it is subjective. I do not think the absence of the graphics or chart makes the book less important. I think the book will do quite well in its current form!

Summary:
Highly Recommended
This book goes beyond a simple leadership “how to” approach to provide the reader with a thought-provoking guide on the vital concepts necessary to be a great leader that others want to follow.

Readership:
The readership potential for this book is wide. I believe the following groups would be drawn to a book of this nature:
Academia: Colleges/Universities – Administrators, Professors/Students, Career Services Professionals, etc.
Professional Journals
Organizations: Public & Private. Small – Large Businesses/Government. Purpose diverse: leadership training, staff professional development, etc.
Associations: Small Business Association, National Federation of Independent Business and others

Reviewer Information:
Name: Dr. Jeannine Bennett
Title: Founder & CEO, Vision to Purpose, LLC

Biography
Dr. Jeannine Bennett is both a trained scholar and a practitioner. She possesses a Ph.D. in Organization and Management from Capella University and an M.B.A in E-Business from Regent University. She has taught business, leadership and information technology centric courses at various universities for the past 14 years. She is currently serving as an adjunct faculty member at Liberty University where she has been teaching leadership and management courses to undergraduate and graduate students for the past three years.
As a practitioner, Dr. Bennett has 30 years of experience in diverse fields. Most recently, she was a federal government service civilian where she was and continues to be considered a proven expert in the field of strategic communications. She left government service to pursue a long-time desire to start her own business.
Dr. Bennett is currently the Founder and CEO of Vision to Purpose, an organization dedicated to helping individuals and businesses succeed through the offering of tailored career, life and business solutions.