Genership

This groundbreaking book by the President and CEO of the Institute for Leadership Education (I-LEAD) promises to transform thinking within organizations and communities about the fundamental skills required for human progress. David explores the evolution of leadership skills within effective organizations, recognizing that leadership processes have been evolving into different and more promising practices. To capture this trend, David introduces a new concept and a new word, genership, which describes the skill set required for the practice of creativity in groups.

Distinguishing genership from its ancestor practices, David unmasks a series of dysfunctional fallacies underlying the more traditional concept of leadership. These include the Messiah Fallacy, the Hero Fallacy and the Fallacy of Leadership Nostalgia, a false triumvirate severely suppressing human creativity. David posits that human progress will ultimately require organizations to transcend leadership in favor of genership as a core practice within creative communities. With vivid and relevant examples, he surveys the fundamental capacities underlying genership, contrasting them with traditional leadership processes. Genership provides a practical guide to transcend outdated ways associated with traditional leadership cultures, while embracing emergent and demonstrably more effective practices.

As president and CEO of the Institute for Leadership Education, Advancement & Development (I-LEAD, Inc.), Dave is an accomplished leadership trainer and consultant with over 20 years of experience, including for major clients such as the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Texas Department of Transportation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and Ashoka.

Dave is the author of The Inward Sun: 7 Practices to Engage, Aspire and Achieve. Information about his leadership training can be found at i-leadusa.org/leadershiptraining.
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