Discovering Leadership: Designing Your Success

Discovering Leadership: Designing Your Success by Anthony Middlebrooks, Scott J. Allen, Mindy McNutt, and James Morrison provides a practical, engaging foundation and easy-to-understand framework for individuals to purposefully design leadership. This action-oriented text starts with the self and helps students understand their individual strengths, styles, and skills with numerous reflection opportunities. Next, the text explores the relational aspects of leadership and best practices for motivating and inspiring followers. Finally, the text concludes by examining how leaders can transform their communities and create lasting, positive change. Practical applications and activities in each chapter help students develop their confidence, optimism, resiliency, and engagement. Regardless of your students’ background or major, they will gain the knowledge and skills they need to become thoughtful, impactful leaders. 

Tony Middlebrooks, Ph.D. creates tools, explores and teaches at the intersection of leadership, innovation, creativity and design as Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Programs for Horn Entrepreneurship at the University of Delaware. Dr. Middlebrooks has created and taught more than 35 different courses for all collegiate levels, as well as numerous experiential abroad programs. He presently teaches leadership theory and practice, decision-making, creativity and innovation, and social entrepreneurship. He received both the University of Delaware Excellence in Teaching and Excellence in Advising Awards, and regularly helps faculty develop their teaching.

 

Previously Dr. Middlebrooks co-developed the Organizational and Community Leadership program at UD, the doctoral program in leadership as a professor at Cardinal Stritch University, and spent ten years prior in non-profit leadership positions.

 

Dr. Middlebrooks has published numerous articles and book chapters, and has delivered hundreds of presentations. He is co-author of Public Sector Leadership, co-creator of the Idea Fan Deck and Design Thinking Cards, and has served as Symposium Editor for the Journal of Leadership Studies since 2011.

 

A firm believer that leadership learning can benefit everyone and can make a difference, Dr. Middlebrooks consults and facilitates workshops for a wide variety of organizations and audiences.  His current scholarly interests focus on methods of leadership education and the integration of leadership, creativity, and design thinking.  Dr. Middlebrooks has a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He resides in Wilmington, Delaware with his wife and collaborator Dr. Jules Bruck.

Dr. Scott J. Allen is the Reid Chair in Management at John Carroll University, where he is an Associate Professor. He teaches courses in leadership, management, executive communication, and the future of work. He has published more than 50 book chapters and peer-reviewed journal articles. He presents at academic conferences and has written four books. His most recent book is Captovation: Online Presentations by Design. Outside his academic endeavors, Scott speaks, consults, coaches leaders, facilitates workshops, and leads retreats across industries.

Mindy S. McNutt, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Leadership at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. She earned her B.A. in Communication, M.S. in Personnel Counseling, and Ed.S. in Educational Leadership from Wright State; and her Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration from Bowling Green State University.  Currently she teaches in all three leadership programs at Wright State, the undergraduate program in Organizational Leadership, the Master of Science in Leadership Development, and the Doctorate in Organizational Studies.

 

Dr. McNutt has engaged in leadership curriculum development for over 30 years for high school youth, undergraduate curricular and extra-curricular programs, and most recently served with several faculty colleagues to write the proposal for the Doctorate in Organizational Studies. At Wright State and at several area community colleges, she has held a variety of leadership positions including, among others, academic vice president, campus dean, and dean of student services and institutional advancement. Additionally, Dr. McNutt is or has been involved in a number of boards and committees at the local, state, and national levels.

Among her varied research interests are leadership education, transformational leadership, women in leadership, leader values, and a current project examining the relationship between values and organizational culture.   She has been involved in several projects of significance: serving as an Associate Editor of the International Leadership Association Building Leadership Bridges book entitled LEADERSHIP 2050: Contextualizing Global Leadership Processes for the Future; and collaborating with a nation-wide team to create and serve as faculty for the international Leadership Education Academy.  

Dr. Morrison is currently a professor of Organizational and Community Leadership in the School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Delaware in Newark, DE. His research interest focuses on issues surrounding senior leadership accountability. Currently, he is researching the effectiveness of CEOs in preparing for the possibility of a natural disaster. He has published two books and over 80 manuscripts in a variety of professional journals. In addition, Dr. Morrison has presented over 90 papers at regional, national, and international conferences. He is currently serving on 3 refereed editorial boards for academic journals as well as the executive editor of the Journal of Education for Business. He has been the recipient of 7 outstanding teaching awards in the College of Education and the College of Human Resources at the University of Delaware. Within the leadership major at the University of Delaware, his teaching focuses on preparing future leaders to initiate change within organizations by adopting a new set of principles and practices that have emerged in recent years.