Read This: Leadership 2.0

I have become a big fan of Bradberry and Greaves' work over the past several years. As I dove into the ideas of Emotional-Social
​Intelligence (as most theorists label it) in order to add some theoretical foundations to my work as an adventure educator and pro-social skills development advocate, I read Emotional Intelligence 2.0 (Bradberry & Greaves, 2009). 

I liked the idea of taking an assessment (included in the purchase of the book) to measure my "EQ" (emotional intelligence) and the material in the book that helped guide me towards strengthening my weaker areas - I had something specific to improve and knew I had specific strengths I could speak to when talking about EQ. The material wasn't overwhelming so it was easy to recommend to anyone interested in the topic and who doesn't like taking an assessment to see where they fall on the scales? 

Leadership 2.0 (2012) is the latest by Bradberry & Greaves (get your copy HERE). After extensive research the authors identified 22 Core and Adaptive Leadership Skills found in exceptional leaders from a large cross section of industries around the globe. And, like the Emotional Intelligence 2.0 publication, Leadership 2.0 also has a self assessment that will give you a score for each of the 22 leadership skills the authors discovered in exceptional leaders. (Note: The authors do point out the limitations of the self assessment because the results only show one perspective and not the perspective of those the assessment taker leads. There is, of course, a more comprehensive assessment, but it'll cost you!)

The authors found through their research 10 core leadership skills that are the "foundation of effective leadership" and 12 adaptive leadership skills that "represent the otherwise intangible qualities that great leaders have in common." Among these adaptive leadership skills are the emotional intelligence aspects of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management (all of which are detailed in the book Emotional Intelligence 2.0). 

How is this read helping me as an adventure educator? In a majority of the programs I facilitate, leadership development is one of the goals my groups like to work on. I'm finding the language in Leadership 2.0 fits into my program style of working on the skills and abilities of particular concepts (like leadership) with my groups. First we seek to understand what is needed in a particular area (e.g., being a leader) and then we spend some time practicing (through experiential activities) the specific skills. 

Since working through Leadership 2.0 I've been able to reference current research findings related to leadership and be more specific with my groups about some of the skills we can work on through adventure activities. Some of the core skills we can practice include planning, courage to lead, decision making, communication, risk taking and results focused skills. Some of the adaptive leadership skills we can work on together include self-awareness, self-management, relationship management, integrity, information sharing, and outcome concern. 

I have also taken the opportunity to recommend the book to a wide range of clients as a way to front load our work together. Many have used the book with their leadership teams, taken the assessment and shared their results with me so I could specifically focus the program activities that can touch on certain skill development areas they wanted to work on. 

If you are a leader within your organization and/or work with leaders from other organizations I highly recommend Leadership 2.0. It's a skill-based practical guide to effective leadership in todays ever-changing work environment.

​(Disclaimer - I have not been paid for sharing this information with you! And, I don't get any royalties for any Leadership 2.0 book sales. But then again, maybe there's a revenue stream here......?)

What are your go-to leadership development resources? Share them with us in the comments below! I'd love to hear from you. 

All the best, 

​Chris Cavert, Ed.D.