This is a thoughtful and thought-provoking book on leadership development by a world renowned leadership guru. In "How to Grow Leaders: The Seven Key Principles of Effective Leadership Development", John Adair outlines the various theories, approaches and concepts of leadership development and training and distils them into seven key principles of leadership development. Using his wide and deep knowledge and expertise in the leadership field, he explains how organisations can recruit, select, train, and develop leaders who are capable of formulating and articulating a shared vision for their organisations or units, motivate people and facilitate the achievement of organisational, team and individual goals.



I was particularly impressed by the gracious and thorough acknowledgments in the book of the thinking and research of others. Even when the authors point out the weaknesses and limitations of a particular piece of work, they praise the positive aspects of that work in kind and thoughtful ways. This is one of the few academic books I have read that took such a considerate approach.



The book beautifully elaborates on the thinking processes that companies use to grow leaders so as to achieve competitive advantage I use the book as a quick reference guide and I find it very useful and helpful. This book carries pertinent information, but it is organised and written in such a way that is easily digestible. The book is recommended as a resource kit for the leadership trainer or aspiring leaders.