Debra J. Slover

Step-by-step exercises to create your own path to a "Leadership Garden" a set of principles and guidelines to move from being a confused and befuddled passive participant in life, to becoming a strong, self-confident leader who earns the respect of others, and who earns the harder-to-win respect of your own self. Designed especially to be used in conjunction with either of Slover's other books, U.N.I.Q.U.E.: Growing the Leader Within (print or audiobook) and U.N.I.Q.U.E. KIDS: Growing My Leadership Garden, yet also capable of standing alone, this workbook contains page after page of tools to develop leadership within yourself -and for parents, grandparents, colleagues, managers, coaches, clergy, and teachers to develop the leadership skills and inner strengths of their prot g s and mentees. With visual aids and written exercises, Slover walks the reader through empowerment of self and others, using these six leader-friendly gardening practices: being nonjudgmental, not enabling, using empathy, pruning gossip, eliminating blame, and eradicating victimization. Those who follow her instructions create fertile ground where they and others can flourish.

When you boil it down to its essence, leadership is about working with others to make a difference-in our family, school, community, business...or even our world. Combining an illustrated fable, practical exercises, and a solid gardening metaphor, author Debra Slover presents a new view of leadership based not only in our skills, but also in our self-confidence. U.N.I.Q.U.E. stands for the Understanding, Nurturing, Inventive, Quality, Unstoppable, Expression of leadership. We learn these attributes as we tour the Leadership Farm with the lost sheep Hugh. Other farm animals teach him (and us) how to rid our personal "Leadership Garden" of the toxic weeds of negative thinking-and how to plant and nurture the powerful, positively focused new seeds (thoughts, feelings, and behaviors) that enrich our lives and empower us to thrive. On the U.N.I.Q.U.E. tour, we learn how to: balance and blend four key leader behaviors and six leader-friendly gardening practices...create a unique purpose and aim...easily develop leadership attributes...remove barriers and commit to the future we desire...and how to express the true voice of the leader within us.