Appreciative Leadership ... Building Sustainable Partnerships for Health, Kathy Malloch and Tim Porter O'Grady, with 11 chapter contributors and 12 reviewers. Burlington, MA; Jones & Bartlett Learning; 2022. Soft Cover. 238 pages. $69.95 (Note: The Navigate Companion Web site can be accessed at http://www.jblearning.com. Access code provided at purchase).
Appreciative simply means valuing something in a way that is intentional and meaningful. Appreciation is not a condition; it is an action and in so being, it demands the convergence of conscious awareness and directly related action. - -Tim Porter O'Grady (p. 41)
The value of being grateful for our mental health and spirituality is front-page news in journals, newspapers, and even in cosmetic brochures. Most of us have probably learned how to practice gratefulness daily. We get it. How then do we show gratefulness and even more so incorporate it in our leadership practice? How do we become an Appreciative Leader?
This is not just another book by the dynamic duo of Malloch and O'Grady, well-recognized leadership scholars in nursing and health care. Appreciative Leadership is a continuation of their 35 years of work. Their thinking on topics such as Quantum Leadership and Shared Governance is integrated into the why and how of appreciation.
The content is challenging, while the organization of the learning is friendly to both teacher and the learner. At first glance, I saw this book at the graduate level (master's and above), but any part of the book could be gleaned for an undergraduate lecture. The Navigate Companion Web site that accompanies the book includes PowerPoint presentations, videos, case studies, and discussion questions. Even the Contents section is organized twice. Once as a brief listing and twice as a detailed outline of what is covered in each chapter. Readers will appreciate how the topics are outlined both in the chapter's Contents section and in an index! Reviewing a particular topic of interest is easy. The 12 chapters include exercises, questions, references, figures, tables, conclusions, and key concepts. I particularly liked the true/false questions at the end of every chapter. Any one of the true/false narratives could generate a rich class discussion. Leadership is not easy to teach, nor understand. Our future leaders are juggling full-time jobs, while raising families and managing nursing care at all levels during a pandemic, even those able to work from home? Our faculty are also trying to teach, do research, and publish. This book brings leadership to students and teachers, making it real and actionable, especially in a time of turmoil everywhere you turn. We should all be grateful to these authors for producing this book when fewer clinicians want to go into management and even fewer faculty members to become deans. You will be grateful you added this book to your personal and professional library. I appreciate both O'Grady and Malloch for, yet again, bringing order to a chaotic time in nursing, health care, and the country.
-Elizabeth (Betty) Falter, MS, BSN, RN, NEA-BC