Aug. 16, 2021 – Chicago, IL – Vantage Leadership Consulting, the global expert in selecting, integrating, and developing world-class leaders, is proud to announce the release of Best Boss! The Impact of Extraordinary Leaders, written by Vantage Senior Consultant Duncan Ferguson, Toni M. Pristo, PhD, and John Furcon. The work is published by Business Expert Press.
Distilled from individual stories, research and author experience, this book pinpoints the one-on-one people leadership behaviors of extraordinary managers and provides strategies for developing the reader into a “Best Boss.”
“If you ask someone about their best boss, most people will usually single out just one person who meets their definition,” says Ferguson. “In doing so, this makes great leadership something unexpected. Our goal in writing this book is to make having a great boss the rule, and not the exception.”
Embedded in a model containing five dimensions, the Best Boss Approach presents a self-reinforcing and self-sustaining system of interaction, built upon a foundation of mutual trust and respect. Moving beyond the individual leader, the work concludes by examining various factors — some obvious and some not — that help explain the rare occurrence of a Best Boss.
The Best Boss study, as well as the personal stories, validated a shared viewpoint on leadership that the authors hold based on their collective 100-plus years of human resources, consulting, and management coaching experience.
“People yearn for compassion, support, authenticity, and respect in their work and their lives,” say Pristo and Furcon. “Our research shows when employees receive these things from their managers, the individual, the organization and our overall society benefits.”
The authors’ own intrigue with this topic, coupled with years of discouraging data on individual engagement and work satisfaction, motivated Ferguson, Pristo, and Furcon to develop a better understanding of what differentiates a “best boss” from all other types of leaders. The inspirational stories and interesting connections of their findings to the thinking of other researchers culminated in Best Boss! and its mission to encourage a new look at the promise of leading people well.
About the authors:
Duncan Ferguson has an extensive background in both corporate human resources, having held senior leadership roles at BP Amoco and GATX Corporation, and organizational and leadership consulting at BPI group. Ferguson is a Senior Consultant at Vantage Leadership Consulting, where he provides leadership development coaching and counsel, career advice and thought leadership to an array of clients and colleagues.
Toni M. Pristo, PhD, assists organizations in leadership and development. Founder of Pristo Consulting in 1996, her mission is to develop moral leadership that optimizes the potential of employees, business, and society.
John Furcon assists business and governmental organizations in achieving successful transformation and executive development. He has served as a principal at Harbridge House, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Buck Consultants, and as program director at the University of Chicago.
ABOUT VANTAGE LEADERSHIP CONSULTING
Vantage Leadership Consulting is the global leader in partnering with organizations to select, onboard and develop world-class leaders who can drive their companies’ business and talent strategies. From selection assessments and succession planning to executive coaching and high-performance team development, Vantage has spent over four decades focused on a single mission: ensuring their clients have the leadership required to win in their marketplace. Founded in 1976, Vantage is based in Chicago, IL with additional offices nationally.
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