Building Character: Strengthening the Heart of Good Leadership
Building Character: Strengthening the Heart of Good Leadership Gene Klann Jossey-Bass (2007) 244 pages, Hardcover, $34.95 A person's character is not something that is given by parents, teachers, and community leaders, but rather it is something that is chiseled through certain consistent behaviors and positions that one takes in life to positively influence others toward becoming contributing members of the society. In other words, nobody is bom with a specific and predestined character. Character is built through one's day-to-day actions, reflections and personal beliefs. Building Character: Strengthening the Heart of Good Leadership, by Gene Klann, provides managers and leaders the means and methods of developing their characters through example, education, experience, evaluation, and environment. It benefits the organizations to develop their current and prospective managers and leaders using the realistic practices and guidelines mentioned in the book. The author's rich background and experiences have made the contents of the book to be of lasting value to the personnel who plan to be leaders of their organizations or for those who are leaders and want to develop behaviors that further make them shine. Reading this book can be an asset to the practicing managers and leaders of industry and governmental agencies. The following are some of the review statements and testimonials available on amazon.com by various leaders and experts who have read the book: * "Leadership successes, or failures, are the result of moral and ethical choices...the choices of character. All who lead-or want to lead-should open this book and dig in." General Hal M. Homburg, U.S. Air Force (Retired); partner, Strategic Message Solutions. * "There is no shortcut to building leadership character! However, Gene Klann's book Building Character is excellent at organizing one's behaviors and creating awareness of the best practices to achieve your desired character outcome." -Keith A. Holliday, vice president, First Citizens Bank. * "One only has to know Gene Klann for a short time to understand how deeply he cares about the positive effects of leadership qualities like character and integrity. When Gene speaks on these topics, I make the time to listen." -Michael Kleist, vice president of information engineering, WSI. * "Klann courageously confronts key challenges to personal integrity in this politically correct world of the new century with a book that should be read by any individual who wishes to be considered a leader."-Lt. Col. Michael J. Barry, U.S. Army (Retired). * "Klann correctly identifies the learning process for leaders and the necessary tools of leaders in all walks of life. If you want a practical model for leaders and leadership training, read this book!" -Major General William F. Bums, U.S. Army (Retired); Distinguished Fellow, U.S. Army War College. Gene Klann has provided examples of strong and deficit leadership characters and has generally supported his means and methods of the character development by providing the results of surveys and interviews, which make the book very interesting to read. …