Leadership theories and practices in organizational contexts

¶ … controversy with regard to personal development and the exact effects that theories concerning this concept have on the masses. Even with this, Dennis Waitley's book "The Psychology of Winning" is certainly one of the most persuading texts with regard to ideas that personal development entails. To a certain degree, Waitley can practically be considered a classic in the modern personal development era, considering that ideas he devised during the eighties are still effective in the contemporary society.

One of the most intriguing things about "The Psychology of Winning" is that it is not necessarily meant to make people become the best in the world. Instead, it is intended to help individuals reach their full potential by making use of their resources gradually and by acknowledging each of their qualities and defects.

This text can be especially valuable in the case of a leader or of a person wanting to become a leader. The fact that it promotes the thought that it would be in a person's best interest to concentrate on his or her goals rather than to be let down by problems that he or she has experienced in the past is the key to making a leader more effective and better-acquainted with his or her position.

Waitley emphasizes the fact that stress can motivate a person up to the point where he or she becomes the best as they can possibly be. A life without stress makes it difficult for the individual to be able to differentiate between right and wrong, as he or she is only accustomed to a limited set of ideas and is unable to attend higher states because he or she does not even know that it is possible to do so. While some people try to get away from stress, others such as top athletes live from it and actually come to reach greatness as a result of the fact that they concentrate on their pain.

Motivation is, in Waitley's opinion, one of the principal ideas that differentiate a successful person from one who keeps failing. Individuals who keep failing are likely to do so because they only focus on the road to a particular goal instead of also thinking at the goal itself. This keeps them from truly understanding what it is they are fighting for and is what makes it difficult and almost impossible to reach their goals.