Woodbury University Business School Professors Team on Ambitious Leadership Anthology

In their most extensive publishing effort to date, Woodbury University School of Business professors Joan Marques, Interim Dean of the Business School, and Satinder Dhiman, have collaborated on Leadership Today: Practices for Personal and Professional Performance (Springer International Publishing, 2016), the university announced today.

The new textbook includes essays from 33 contributing authors in 23 chapters, all on leadership but each addressing that discipline from a distinctive angle.  The text is believed to be the first to integrate hard and soft leadership skills, approaching leadership from both a personal and a professional perspective.  Leadership Today incorporates practical cases, interactive questions, experiential exercises and reflection pages, and reviews conventional as well as non-conventional leadership qualities.

Drawing on scholars and practitioners from around the world, the textbook counts among its contributors Dr. Michelle C. Bligh, Associate Professor in the Division of Behavioral and Organizational Sciences, Claremont Graduate University; Richard Barrett, founder and chairman of the Barrett Values Centre, Former Values Coordinator at the World Bank; Dr. Iris Berdrow, Associate Professor of Management, Bentley University; and Dr. Ruth H. Axelrod, Granite State College, among others.

Leadership Today defines leadership needs in today’s business world, explained within the scope of such qualities and skills as spirituality, empathy, moral behavior, mindfulness, empathy, problem solving, self-confidence, ambition, knowledge, global understanding, and information technology.  Soft skills are reflective in nature, and entail qualities such as empathy, motivation, self-awareness, self-regulation, and social skills; in leadership performance, the application of soft skills entails a combination of interpersonal and social skills.  Hard skills are more subject to measurement, and encompass analytical and technical skills.

The text provides guidelines to implement each skill and includes examples from contemporary and historical leaders inviting the reader to consider each quality and engage in self-reflection.

Dr. Marques earned an MBA from Woodbury and an educational doctorate (Ed.D.) in Organizational Leadership from Pepperdine University.  In addition to degrees from Woodbury and Pepperdine, Prof. Marques has a Ph.D. in Social Sciences from the University of Tilburg in the Netherlands and a B.S. in Business Economics from MOC, Suriname.  She also holds an AACSB Bridge to Business Post Doctoral Certificate from Tulane University’s Freeman School of Business.  She is cofounder of The Business Renaissance Institute, president and cofounder of the Academy of Spirituality and Professional Excellence, and a member of the Academy of Management, the Organizational Behavior Teaching Society and the Phi Delta Kappa National Honor Society.

Dr. Marques is the author or co-author of more than a dozen books on management and leadership topics, including most recently, Leadership: Finding Balance between Ambition and Acceptance (Routledge, 2016), in which she lays the foundation for understanding the need to develop both ambition and acceptance, and provides the context for what performance means in modern times; Spirituality and Sustainability: New Horizons and Exemplary Approaches (Springer, 2016), with School of Business colleague Dr. Satinder Dhiman; Business and Buddhism (Routledge, 2015), in which Buddhism is approached as a leadership psychology, and Leadership and Mindful Behavior Action, Wakefulness (Palgrave-McMillan, 2014), in which she provides directives to leaders to adopt a wakeful mindset and abstain from the sleepwalking mode.  She is also the author of Courage in the Twenty-First Century (2013) and The Awakened Leader (2007), and co-author of, among others, Leading Spiritually (2014), Business Administration Education (2012), Laughter is the Best Teacher (2011), Stories to Tell Your OB Students (2011), From Me to We (2011), Managing in the 21st Century (2011), The Workplace and Spirituality (2009), and Spirituality in the Workplace (2007).

Satinder Dhiman, PhD, EdD, serves as a Professor of Management and as the Associate Dean, Chair, and Director of the MBA Program at the School of Business.  He has served as the Chair for a special MBA Program for Mercedes-Benz executives, China. He also consults as Accreditation Mentor and Site Visit Team Leader for the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP) for various universities in America, Canada, Europe, and India. He has been elected as the President of International Chamber for Service Industry (ICSI), 2014-2016.  He has completed advanced Executive Leadership Programs at Harvard, Stanford, and Wharton.

Dr. Dhiman’s work has been published in multiple national and international journals, and he has authored, co-authored, and co-edited more than ten books on management and leadership during the last seven years, including most recently, Holistic Leadership: A New Paradigm for Today’s Leaders (Palgrave MacMillan, USA—in press).  His current research on fulfillment, which is also the theme of his book, Seven Habits of Highly Fulfilled People (2012/2014), is focused on transformative habits of mind for attaining lasting joy and fulfillment in both personal and professional life.  In his innovative book, Gandhi and Leadership (Palgrave MacMillan, USA, 2015), he offers perceptive insights into the spiritual and moral mainstay of Gandhi’s exemplary leadership and its abiding influence on the world today.

The recipient of several national and international academic and professional honors, Dr. Dhiman won the Woodbury University Ambassador of the Year Award in 2015, the Steve Allen Excellence in Education Award in 2006, and the prestigious ACBSP International Teacher of the Year Award in 2004.  In 2013, he was invited to be the opening speaker at the prestigious TEDx Conference @ College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, Calif.  He is the founder and Director of Forever Fulfilled, a Los Angeles-based Wellbeing Consultancy, which focuses on workplace wellness and self-leadership.

About Woodbury University

Founded in 1884, Woodbury University is one of the oldest institutions of higher education in Southern California. The university ranks 15th among the nation’s “25 Colleges That Add the Most Value,” according to Money Magazine, was voted “Best Graduate School” in the Los Angeles Daily News 2018 Readers Choice Awards, and is a 2018-19 College of Distinction. Woodbury was a finalist for the General Community Service Award, a part of the 2015 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll recognition program. With campuses in Burbank/Los Angeles and San Diego, the university offers bachelor\\’s degrees from the School of Architecture, School of Business, School of Media, Culture & Design, and College of Liberal Arts, along with a Master of Business Administration, Master of Architecture, Master of Interior Architecture and Master of Science in Architecture. The San Diego campus offers Bachelor of Architecture and Master of Architecture, Master of Interior Architecture and Master of Landscape Architecture degrees, as well as a Master of Science in Architecture, Real Estate Development. Visit woodbury.edu for more information.