Leadership Craft, Leadership Art (PDF)

Steven Taylor is Assistant Professor of Management at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA.

'Twenty-first century leaders need to be artists as well as analysts. They need to create sustainable options worthy of our humanity.Leadership Craft, Leadership Artgoes a long way toward supporting our understanding and practice of the type of leadership the world most needs.' - Nancy J. Adler, S. Bronfman Chair in Management, McGill University and author of Leadership Insight

'The notion of 'leadership as art' is increasingly being written about, but far too often the tantalizing possibilities of this idea are not realized. Steven Taylor has produced a book which both advances thinking about the relationship between leadership, craft, and art, and provides practical means by which leaders and those developing leaders might bring 'artful leading' alive through their own practices. Highly readable and incorporating many examples from his own experience in theater and as a leadership scholar, Taylor's work is a breath of fresh air and a must-read for those aspiring to leadership mastery.' - Donna Ladkin, professor of Leadership and Ethics, Cranfield School of Management, Cranfield University and author ofRethinking Leadership

'Steven Taylor offers leaders and leadership development practitioners a different way to think about leadership. Taylor is a scholar, artist, and craftsman who has spent his life thinking deeply about leadership, as well as practicing the art and craft of leadership. He clarifies for the reader, the majority of what has been written about the 'art of leadership' is really talking about the 'craft of leadership.' This rich piece of leadership scholarship helps us understand, as Taylor says, that leadership is a craft, at times an art, and always a creative effort. Taylor also courageously asks, what might leaders learn from the craftsman - especially when the system of apprenticeship is how many, if not most people, actually learn the craft of leadership.' - Nick Nissley, EdD, former executive director, Leadership Development