Finding the Best and the Brightest: A Guide to Recruiting, Selecting, and Retaining Effective Leaders

Peg Thoms challenges the popular trend toward "transformational" leadership, which focuses on identifying universal characteristics, arguing instead that leadership must be developed in context. Many organizations, for example, need "operational" leaders who can focus on present-day tasks, such as designing superior products and delivering exceptional customer service, and not inspirational or "visionary" leaders, whose otherwise admirable qualities might be ill- suited to the challenges at...