Page 10 - How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations That Win

PREFACE

This book evolved out of a conversation between a business
professor/consultant (Dave) and a psychologist (Wendy),
a conversation that has seasoned more than 10 years of
morning walks along the riverways of Michigan, the neigh-
borhoods of Quebec, and the mountain trails of Utah. For
more reasons than one, this conversation often leaves us
breathless as we contemplate the challenges faced by lead-
ers who create the organizations we respectively encounter.
Theirs are the challenges we face as well: finding the why to
sustain the how of our daily living. This book focuses on a
simple question: How do great leaders create, for themselves
and others, a sense of abundance (meaning, purpose, hope,
pleasure) that not only engages employees but also delivers
value to customers, investors, and communities?
Dave works to help organizations create value for employ-
ees, customers, investors, and communities. He coaches
leaders on how to build corporate agendas, organizational
capabilities, and the human resource infrastructures to
achieve their goals and objectives Dave is also trained
as a taxonomist who looks for simple patterns in complex
phenomena. In these pursuits, Dave sometimes encoun-
ters leaders who formulate great strategies, structures, and
processes but may overlook the heart and soul that make
organizations meaningful places to work.
Wendy works to help people change and heal. With a
background in psychodynamic, cognitive, and family therapy

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