Product Description

This revolutionary book signals a new paradigm in leadership. Author David M. Traversi, nationally known executive coach, entrepreneur, and former corporate chief executive and investment banker, has worked with thousands of leaders over the course of his career. With a thesis that leadership on average is failing in most forums, and failing at an increasing rate as technology accelerates and complicates our existence, Traversi explains how existing leadership literature provides checklists of the traits that an effective leader should possess (e.g., be self-defined, forward-thinking, credible, inspiring, focused, courageous) and the functions that a leader must perform (e.g., build a values-based core, generate ideas, form a vision, build a plan), but they don't explain how leaders and potential leaders can begin to embody the those traits and perform those functions. They describe the destination, but don't address the means - the engine - to get them there.

In The Source of Leadership, Traversi identifies and instructs how to develop eight personal drivers, energies deep within - presence, clarity (of thought, emotion, and behavior), openness, intention, personal responsibility, intuition, creativity, and connected communication - each of which drives several of the traits and functions of the effective leader. The leader who develops these personal energies will achieve maximum effectiveness as a leader, as well as a deep sense of contentment and fulfillment as a person.

With the burgeoning trend toward seeking a deeper grounding personally as a means of performing better professionally, The Source of Leadership is the early "defining voice" of this new trend in the leadership area.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #670385 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 213 pages

From the Publisher
In this pivotal book, business leader David Traversi examines the eight drivers common to all great leaders and offers advice on how readers can cultivate these powerful predictors of success and influence in their own professional lives.

About the Author
David M. Traversi is the founder and Managing Director of 2020 Growth Partners, LLC, which offers executive coaching, strategic advisory, merchant banking, and leadership development services to executives and companies across the United States. He has worked as a chief executive of operating companies, a trial lawyer, a commercial lender, an investment banker, private company investor. In addition, he has started several successful companies in diverse industries. He holds an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, and a JD from the King Hall School of Law at the University of California, Davis.

Customer Reviews

Stop smoking the hemp bracelets...
This book is really bad. It did not make any sense to me until I got to the part about the author making hemp bracelets. This is the type of book you write when you have been smoking marijuana all night and say "I got an idea!" This book is that convoluted.

The bizarre New Wage references are just odd. The author lifts everything from Laura Day's intuition exercises to ESP terminology. It is obvious the author did not grasp what he was writing.

Also, the author is very preoccupied with people's sex lives. Since the author is not a psychiatrist or psychologist, I cannot imagine a manager going up to her CEO to discuss her lack of a sex life. Does a lack of a sex life mean lack of leadership? If that is the case, why is "Bill," the sex addict, such a problem for the company? Bill should have been an asset by this author's reasoning. The author fails to explain why "Bill" was a problem for his company. Did "Bill" use company resources to pay for his habit? The author never explains any of his stories clearly or what his point is. There is very little coherent reasoning in this book.

The best part of the book is the author's chapter on "openness." The author suggests the reader do something illegal to "get out of the box." That will put the reader in a box called jail. The author never explains how this could help anyone be a better leader. This book's editor should have reined him in. The author was just throwing stuff in the book. I'm surprised he missed the kitchen sink.

I am eagerly awaiting this author's next book. I bet it will be titled, "How to Cast Horoscopes for Every Leader" or maybe "Feng Shui your Way to Success." I am always ready for a good laugh.

Find A Differnet Leadership Book This Isn't The One
When I started reading the introduction, I had high hopes for this book. I really like the way Traversi laid out his eight drivers. Then I started chapter one. That was it I couldn't get past it. As I started reading about being in the present, I kept thinking about Spencer Johnson's book The Present. If felt to me that Mr. Traversi was just repeating some of Johnson's stuff. Then I hit the section on mediation and that was it for me.

I know leaders need to find time to reflect on what they need to do and how then need to do it but I won't have any clients left if I advise them to meditate.

There may be some merit in this book but only for those who like Traversi already have enough money to live comfortably and find time to engage in the things he's suggesting. Those who are trying to get to the top will be hard pressed to follow the advice he's giving in this book.

If you're looking for a book to help you better understand leadership, find something else because this book isn't it.

In my opinion, The Nature of Leadership by B. Joseph White is a better book and much more practical than this one.

What looked interesting quickly became ridiculous
I was so intrigued with the introduction to this book that I couldn't wait to dive into it. However, the first chapter took a left turn into the strange world of transendental meditation and it got worse from there. This was a bizarre book to be purporting itself as the leadership how-to manual, it was more like a string of band-aid type gimics that this author applied to his life when in his 50's he found his world crumbling from a lack of balance. It wound up being so disappointing I couldn't even finish it, you would be better off saving your money.