Head, Heart, and Guts:How the World's Best Companies Develop Complete Leaders

Today's most effective leaders are complete leaders. Partial leaders aren't enough, because they struggle during periods of rapid change and uncertainty. 

In earlier days, a partial approach to leadership might have worked. Many past leaders relied mainly on a single quality: either head, or heart, or guts. 

Unfortunately, if you do that, you are ignoring the other qualities you need to be successful in today's fast-moving business world. If you lead through your intellect alone, you may come across as insensitive and unethical. If you lead through compassion alone, you might come across as “soft.” If you lead through toughness alone, you may underestimate the impact on the people you lead.

The good news is that you can develop your cognitive abilities, emotional intelligence, and courage if you follow the approach that is presented in Head, Heart, and Guts, by David L. Dotlich, Peter C. Cairo, and Stephen H. Rhinesmith.

The authors are partners at Mercer Delta Consulting. Dotlich, president of the Mercer Delta Executive Learning Center, is a former executive vice president of several large corporations, including Honeywell International. Cairo is a former chairman of Columbia University's Department of Organizational and Counseling Psychology. Rhinesmith is a former president of Holland America Line.

Through teaching and coaching thousands of leaders around the world, they have identified the most important identified the most important traits that future leaders must develop in order to integrate head, heart, and guts.