Media Releases

New Book from Rotman-UTP Publishing Develops Framework for Successful Leadership

October 3, 2016

Toron­to, ON – Lead­er­ship is a qual­i­ty that is dif­fi­cult to define. Some believe that it is innate, the gift of a select­ed few. Oth­ers believe that it is a skill that can be learned but don’t agree on what, exact­ly, should be taught.

In a new book from Rot­man-UTP Pub­lish­ing, The Thought­ful Leader, A Mod­el of Inte­gra­tive Lead­er­ship, author Jim Fish­er pro­vides an invig­o­rat­ing, inclu­sive and pos­i­tive frame­work for teach­ing cur­rent and aspir­ing lead­ers in all walks of life.  Fish­er, a pro­fes­sor emer­i­tus at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toronto’s Rot­man School of Man­age­ment, has incor­po­rat­ed var­i­ous appar­ent­ly oppos­ing lead­er­ship ideas into an inte­grat­ed mod­el. In order to suc­cess­ful­ly meet the chal­lenges of a fast chang­ing world, lead­ers can no longer choose between man­ag­ing, direct­ing or engag­ing. The thought­ful leader is some­one who simul­ta­ne­ous­ly, con­sis­tent­ly and coher­ent­ly man­ages, directs and engages their fol­low­ers. The frame­work pro­vides a way for any­one who is moti­vat­ed to lead, has the courage to act and is will­ing to think about their actions to become more effec­tive. Thought­ful lead­ers can main­tain integri­ty in their actions and activ­i­ties regard­less of the sit­u­a­tions that they encounter day-to-day.

“Lead­er­ship today is dif­fi­cult, but I remain very opti­mistic about the state of lead­er­ship in the world,” says Fish­er. “Those with ambi­tion and courage who are already lead­ing can be bet­ter. Those with great ideas can take the leap and make the world a bet­ter place.”

Fish­er devel­oped his frame­work at the Rot­man School as a Pro­fes­sor teach­ing lead­er­ship as a course in the MBA pro­gram and in skills devel­op­ment pro­grams in a wide range of exec­u­tive pro­grams. He was able to test the most pop­u­lar the­o­ries against his own expe­ri­ence as strat­e­gy con­sul­tant and busi­ness exec­u­tive as well as the issues and chal­lenges faced by his stu­dents. He has become con­vinced that lead­er­ship is more about what you do than what skills and attrib­uted you might have.

The Thought­ful Leader offers a fresh and for­ward think­ing frame­work that allows active and emerg­ing lead­ers to be bet­ter pre­pared to live as a leader day to day.

Select Advance Praise for The Thought­ful Leader

“Knowl­edge upon which pos­i­tive action can be tak­en is rarely pro­vid­ed and hence pre­cious. By this stan­dard, The Thought­ful Leader by Jim Fish­er is a gold mine of val­ue for the prac­tice of lead­er­ship. Sim­ply put, it is the most action­able book on lead­er­ship I have yet read. Any­body who wants to become a bet­ter leader would be wise to read it.” — Roger Mar­tin, for­mer Dean and Insti­tute Direc­tor of the Mar­tin Pros­per­i­ty Insti­tute at the Rot­man School of Man­age­ment, Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to

“Jim has mas­ter­ful­ly demys­ti­fied ‘Lead­er­ship’ for those who think not every­one is meant to be a leader. He seam­less­ly takes the read­er through the jour­ney of man­ag­ing, direct­ing, and engag­ing to build con­fi­dence in any­one aspir­ing to be a leader. A must read for any­one in a lead­er­ship role or aspir­ing to move up the lad­der.” — Deep­ak Chopra, Pres­i­dent & Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer, Cana­da Post Cor­po­ra­tion

“Jim Fisher’s mix of the­o­ry, sto­ries, per­son­al jour­neys, and real cas­es offers a wealth of infor­ma­tion that show­cas­es his broad and deep com­mand of the many facets of lead­er­ship. By impres­sive­ly pulling togeth­er lead­er­ship the­o­ries and con­cepts into a coher­ent frame­work, Jim suc­cess­ful­ly con­vinces us lead­er­ship can be learned.” — Rose Pat­ten, Spe­cial Advi­sor to the Pres­i­dent and CEO, BMO Finan­cial Group, and Adjunct Pro­fes­sor and Exec­u­tive in Res­i­dence at the Rot­man School of Man­age­ment

The Thought­ful Leader
A Mod­el of Inte­gra­tive Lead­er­ship
ISBN 9781442647985
Hard Cov­er
$32.95
Pur­chase online.

Jim Fish­er is Pro­fes­sor Emer­i­tus and the for­mer Vice Dean of the Rot­man School of Man­age­ment. He start­ed his career with McK­in­sey before found­ing The Cana­da Con­sult­ing Group, which became the Cana­di­an office of The Boston Con­sult­ing Group. He joined George West­on Ltd. in 1986 and served as Exec­u­tive Vice Pres­i­dent of West­on Foods, Chair­man and Pres­i­dent of William Neil­son Lim­it­ed and Pres­i­dent of George West­on North Amer­i­can Bak­eries. He con­tin­ues to teach lead­er­ship, strat­e­gy and orga­ni­za­tion­al design in sev­er­al pro­grams at the Rot­man School.

Found­ed in 1901, Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to Press (UTP) is Canada’s lead­ing schol­ar­ly pub­lish­er and one of the largest uni­ver­si­ty press­es in North Amer­i­ca, releas­ing over 200 new schol­ar­ly, ref­er­ence, and gen­er­al-inter­est books each year, as well as main­tain­ing a back­list of over 3500 titles in print. For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it utppublishing.com.

Books from Rot­man-UTP Pub­lish­ing, a joint imprint of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to Press and the Rot­man School, bridge research and prac­tice, offer­ing action­able learn­ing for pro­fes­sion­als, stu­dents, and gen­er­al read­ers striv­ing to nav­i­gate today’s com­plex busi­ness envi­ron­ment.

The Rot­man School of Man­age­ment is locat­ed in the heart of Canada’s com­mer­cial and cul­tur­al cap­i­tal and is part of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to, one of the world’s top 20 research uni­ver­si­ties. The Rot­man School fos­ters a new way to think that enables our grad­u­ates to tack­le today’s glob­al busi­ness and soci­etal chal­lenges. For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it www.rotman.utoronto.ca.