Synopses & Reviews
PRAISE FOR BOUNDARY SPANNING LEADERSHIP
Fostering a culture of teamwork among business units and partners is crucial for bottom-line success. This groundbreaking book, packed with practical examples and based on solid research, shows us how to get started. -- Marc Noel, Chairman, Noel Group LLC
In this deeply insightful look at the demands on 21st-century leaders, Ernst and Chrobot-Mason outline six boundary spanning leadership practices derived from case studies and research with thousands of participating managers. This work is bound to be one of the most important management books of the decade. -- David A. Thomas, Ph.D., H. Naylor Fitzhugh Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School
Few books capture the needs and narrative of today's business and so elegantly lay out a plan to address its challenges. Boundary Spanning Leadership nails this . . . Consume it and play your role -- Andy Stefanovich, Chief Curator and Provocateur, Prophet
Boundary Spanning Leadership draws on rigorous global research and real-world experience to help leaders move into new frontiers where they can find answers and practices for creating success. -- Jack Stahl, former CEO, Revlon, and President /COO, Coca-Cola
The future will be punctuated by new spans across old boundaries. This book shows you how to improve your span ability. -- Bob Johansen, Ph.D., Distinguished Fellow, Institute for the Future, and bestselling author of Get There Early and Leaders Make the Future
Catalyze collaboration, drive innovation, transform your organization--with Boundary Spanning Leadership you can put it ALL together
We live in a world of vast collaborative potential. Yet all too often, powerful boundaries create barriers that can splinter groups. And this can lead to uninspiring results. To transform borders into frontiers in today's global, multistakeholder organizations, you need Boundary Spanning Leadership.
Powered by a decade of global research and practice by the top-ranked Center for Creative Leadership (CCL), this book takes you from rural towns in the United States to Hong Kong's skyline and from a modernizing South Africa to the bustling streets of India, showing you how to build bridges across boundaries.
Through compelling stories and practical tools and tactics, you'll learn how to apply the six boundary spanning practices that occur at the nexus where groups collide, intersect, and link: Buffering defines boundaries to create safety Reflecting creates understanding of boundaries to foster respect Connecting suspends boundaries to build trust Mobilizing reframes boundaries to develop community Weaving interlaces boundaries to advance interdependence Transforming cross-cuts boundaries to enable reinvention
Together, these practices combine to create what authors Chris Ernst and Donna Chrobot-Mason call the Nexus Effect. The Nexus Effect allows groups to be more agile in response to changing markets; be more flexible in devising and deploying cross-functional learning and problem-solving capabilities; work with partners in deeper, more open relationships; empower virtual teams; and create a welcoming, diverse, and inclusive organization that brings out everybody's best.
Boundaries exist. What matters most is how you work to bridge these divides and transform your organization's wide-ranging talents and knowledge to deliver value. With Boundary Spanning Leadership, the possibilities are limitless.
For more about the book and free resources, visit www.spanboundaries.com.
Synopsis
The most effective tools and techniques for managers who need to drive innovation across cultural, organizational, and geographic boundaries
Boundaries exist, whether among cultures or across physical distances. What matters most is how you work to bridge these divides to leverage their team's wide-ranging talents and abilities to deliver value. Powered by data from the Leadership Across Differences project, a global research initiative of The Center for Creative Leadership (CCL), Boundary Spanning Leadership provides a world of vital guidance, tools, and knowledge that lets you resolve conflicts, eliminate miscommunication, and foster collaboration among diverse teams.
Built around Six Key Practices:
- Buffering: Creating Safety
- Reflecting: Fostering Respect
- Connecting: Building Trust
- Mobilizing: Developing Community
- Weaving: Advancing Interdependence
- Transforming: Catalyzing Reinvention
. . .
Boundary Spanning Leadership will help you transform borders from flashpoints for conflict and limitation into the frontiers of break-through ideas and solutions, and ways to reinvent your organization.
Inside: The Shifting Leadership Landscape: Don't Look Now • Identity Groups: Work in a World of Us and Them • Boundary Mapping and Boundary-Setting Tactics: Drawing the Line • The Leader's Role: Fostering Collaboration • Toward a Creative, Collaborative Future
About the Author
Author Profiles Chris Ernst is currently Director–APAC Research & Innovation for the Center for Creative Leadership, the leading global nonprofit institution dedicated exclusively to leadership. Chris has led the start-up of CCLs Research and Innovation group in Asia, which creates cutting-edge innovations in the practice and development of leadership within the Asia-Pacific context. Since joining CCL in 1997, Chris's work has centered on advancing leadership across boundaries in a diverse and interconnected world. As a researcher, he is an author of over twenty articles, a frequent presenter and commentator on global issues, and is coauthor of the book Success for the New Global Manager: How to Work Across Distances, Countries, and Cultures (Jossey-Bass).
Donna Chrobot-Mason is an associate professor with the Center for Organizational Leadership at the University of Cincinnati. She is the Graduate Director for the Masters in Labor and Employment Relations program at UC and oversees the educational development of graduate students each quarter. She has coauthored five book chapters on the topic of managing diversity, presented at nearly fifty conferences, and published eleven peer-reviewed articles in journals such as the International Journal of Human Resource Management, the Journal of Cross-Cultural Management, the Journal of Organizational Behavior, Group and Organization Management, and the International Journal of Conflict Management. Donna also serves on the editorial review board for Personnel Psychology and the Journal of Management.
Table of Contents
Introduction;
Chapter 1. The Shifting Leadership Landscape: Don't Look Now;
Chapter 2. Identity Groups: Work in a World of Us and Them;
Chapter 3. Boundary Mapping: Making the Invisible, Visible;
Chapter 4. Intergroup Fault Lines: The Great Divide;
Chapter 5. Boundary-Setting Tactics: Drawing the Line;
Chapter 6. Boundary-Spanning Tactics: Bridging the Gap;
Chapter 7. The Leader's Role: Fostering Collaboration;
Chapter 8. Epilogue: Toward a Creative, Collaborative Future;
Appendix