Forced to read for class. Not a bad book, but there really is nothing new in here if you know anything about leadership skills. If you are not, this is a great place to start. Mainly focusing on theory, Northouse walks you through trait, skill, style, and situational approaches as well as many different theories related to leadership. great assessments inside as well.

I found this book well structures, full of practical information and tools to better understand my leadership style, capabilities and development areas. I would recommend it
to all leaders or those who strive to become one :)

Very thorough!

Very thorough never knew that leadership was such an analytic. Covers pretty much all needed to know about how leadership works!

An excellent book that explores leadership theory and studies on differing leadership approaches

School book!

For grad school! Not for pleasure!

I appreciated this book as a historical literature review on the different researched styles of leadership. The beginning chapters leave much to be desired if you have read books that narrow in their focus on a particular kind of leadership. I also did not like how so many chapters were leadership "styles" that were essentially personality-tests. These should not have held near the same weight as those skill- and value-based styles of leadership that aren't discussed until further along in the book. I understand that they were included because people definitely do consider heavily those styles as what leadership is, and it can definitely be viewed as "the book lists the most simplistic and vain styled ways of talking about leadership to the more complex and skill and value styles." It doesn't change my mind that I felt my time was wasted by reading those beginning chapters.

The case studies that MOST interested me were the ones that were linked to famed leadership writers and historical characters like Betty Ford.

My "go to" leadership book!

I read this as an introductory textbook for my Master's of Organizational Leadership program. This book is a really clear, effective summation of the various academic theories and approaches to leadership. Each chapter is structured the same way, which is very helpful, and the writing is really concise and clear. This book was a great way to give a broad overview of the field of leadership studies, and was filled with many thought provoking ideas and insights and perspectives about leadership. I enjoyed reading it and I learned a lot! This book really helped me determine what areas of leadership studies I want to focusing on during my program.

A textbook.

Excellent overview of theories in leadership with a thoughtful analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of each. I specifically enjoyed the latter chapters of the book, including those on authentic leadership, the psychodynamic approach, and women and leadership.

I taught in the leadership departments at Purdue University Fort Wayne and Indiana Wesleyan University. Peter's book is one of the standards we used to teach our students at all levels of higher education. He does an excellent job of summarizing the research on key leadership theories and regularly updates the book. It is a book every leader should read so they gain a depth of understanding about leadership--not jubs the latest fad.