Self-Leadership: The Definitive Guide to Personal Excellence

Written by the scholars who first developed the theory of self-leadership (Christopher P. Neck, Charles C. Manz, & Jeffery D. Houghton), Self-Leadership: The Definitive Guide to Personal Excellence offers powerful yet practical advice for leading yourself to personal excellence. Grounded in research, this milestone book is based on a simple yet revolutionary principle: First learn to lead yourself, and then you will be in a solid position to effectively lead others. This inclusive approach to self-motivation and self-influence equips readers with the strategies and tips they need to build a strong foundation in the study of management, as well as enhancing their own personal effectiveness.

Dr. Christopher P. Neck, PhD, is currently a Professor of management at Arizona State University, where he held the title “University Master Teacher.” From 1994 to 2009, he was part of the Pamplin College of Business faculty at Virginia Tech. He received his PhD in management from Arizona State University and his MBA from Louisiana State University. Neck is author and/ or coauthor of 30 books including Self-Leadership: The Definitive Guide to Personal Excellence (2017, Sage; 2nd ed., 2019; 3^rd ed., 2024); Get a Kick Out of Life: Expect the Best of Your Body, Mind, and Soul at Any Age (2017, Clovercroft Publishing); Fit to Lead: The Proven 8-Week Solution for Shaping Up Your Body, Your Mind, and Your Career (2004, St. Martin’s Press; 2012, Carpenter’s Sons Publishing); Mastering Self-Leadership: Empowering Yourself for Personal Excellence (6th ed., Pearson, 2013); The Wisdom of Solomon at Work (2001, Berrett-Koehler); For Team Members Only: Making Your Workplace Team Productive and Hassle-Free (1997, Amacom Books); and Medicine for the Mind: Healing Words to Help You Soar, (4th ed., Wiley, 2012). Neck is also the coauthor of the principles of management textbook Management: A Balanced Approach to the 21st Century (2013, Wiley; 2nd ed., 2017, Sage; 2021, 3rd ed., Sage); an introductory to entrepreneurship textbook, Entrepreneurship, (2017, Sage; 2nd ed., 2020); and an introductory to organizational behavior textbook, Organizational Behavior (2017, Sage; 2nd ed., 2019).

Dr. Neck’s research specialties include employee/executive fitness, self-leadership, leadership, group decision-making processes, and self-managing teams. He has over 200 publications in the form of books, chapters, and articles in various journals. Some of the outlets in which Neck’s work has appeared include Journal of Applied Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, The Journal of Organizational Behavior, The Academy of Management Executive, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, The Journal of Managerial Psychology, Executive Excellence, Human Relations, Human Resource Development Quarterly, Journal of Leadership Studies, Educational Leadership, and The Commercial Law Journal.

Neck is the editor of the journal, Administrative Sciences and the former deputy editor of the Journal of Leadership and Management. Due to Neck’s expertise in management, he has been cited in numerous national publications including The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The Houston Chronicle, and the Chicago Tribune.

Dr. Neck was voted as a semifinalist (out of 140 nominations) for the prestigious international 2020 Baylor University Cherry Award for Great Teaching. He finished in the top six of all nominations. Neck was also the recipient of the 2007 Business Week “Favorite Professor Award.” He is featured on Business Week as one of the approximately 20 professors from across the world receiving this award.

Dr. Neck has taught over 80,000 students during his career in higher education. He currently teaches a mega section of management principles to approximately 1,000 students at Arizona State University.

Neck was the recipient of the 2024 and 2020 John W. Teets Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award (voted by W. P. Carey students). Neck also received the 2024 W. P. Carey Huizingh Outstanding Undergraduate Teacher Award as well as the Order of Omega Outstanding Teaching Award for 2012. This award is granted to one professor at Arizona State by the Alpha Lamda Chapter of this leadership fraternity. His class sizes at Virginia Tech filled rooms of up to 2,500 students. He received numerous teaching awards during his tenure at Virginia Tech, including the 2002 Wine Award for Teaching Excellence. Also, Neck was the 10-time winner (1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009) of the “Students’ Choice Teacher of the Year Award” (voted by the students for the best teacher of the year within the entire university). Also, some of the organizations that have participated in Neck’s management development training include GE/Toshiba, Busch Gardens, Clark Construction, the United States Army, Crestar, American Family Insurance, Sales and Marketing Executives International, American Airlines, American Electric Power, W. L. Gore & Associates, Dillard’s Department Stores, and Prudential Life Insurance. Neck is also an avid runner. He has run the marathon distance over 100 times including the Boston Marathon, New York City Marathon, and the San Diego Marathon. In fact, his personal record for a single long-distance run is a 48-mile run.

Charles C. Manz, Ph.D. is a speaker, consultant, and bestselling author of over 200 articles and scholarly papers and more than 20 books including Mastering Self-Leadership, 6^th ed.; The New SuperLeadership; Share, Don’t Take the Lead; The Power of Failure; Fit to Lead; Business Without Bosses; The Leadership Wisdom of Jesus, 3^rd ed.; Foreword Magazine best book-of-the-year Gold Award winner Emotional Discipline; Stybel-Peabody National Book prize winning SuperLeadership, and the forthcoming Self-Leadership: The Definitive Guide to Personal Excellence. His work has been featured on radio and television and in The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, U.S. News & World Report, Success, Psychology Today, Fast Company and several other national publications. He is the Nirenberg Chaired Professor of Leadership in the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Formerly a Marvin Bower Fellow at the Harvard Business School his clients have included 3M, Ford, Xerox, General Motors, P&G, American Express, the Mayo Clinic, Banc One, the U.S. and Canadian governments, and many others.

Dr. Jeffery D. Houghton completed his PhD in management at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) and is currently a professor of management at West Virginia University. Dr. Houghton has taught college-level business courses at Virginia Tech, Abilene Christian University (TX), Lipscomb University (TN), The International University (Vienna, Austria), and the U.S. Justice Department Federal Bureau of Prisons. Prior to pursuing a full-time career in academics, he worked in the banking industry as a loan officer and branch manager.

A member of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, Dr. Houghton’s research specialties include human behavior, motivation, personality, leadership, and self-leadership. Dr. Houghton has published more than 80 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and books, and his work has been cited more than 9,000 times in academic journals. He currently teaches undergraduate, masters, and doctoral level courses in management, OB, and leadership. Dr. Houghton was named the 2013 Beta Gamma Sigma Professor of the Year for the John Chambers College of Business and Economics, awarded annually to one faculty member within the college as selected by a vote of the student members of Beta Gamma Sigma, and he received the 2008 Outstanding Teaching Award for the John Chambers College of Business and Economics, awarded annually to one faculty member for outstanding teaching.