Leadership Intelligence

This highly readable and compelling book aids students and would-be leaders in a wide variety of fields to understand leadership and become effective leaders.

Leadership Intelligence builds on the authors’ national prize–winning Leadership Matters (2012) and their two earlier highly praised books, The Paradoxes of the American Presidency (1999–2023) and American Politics Film Festival (2025). Political scientists and leadership scholars Tom Cronin and Michael A. Genovese provide a guide for navigating the contradictions, ambiguities, and nuances of leadership. They clarify the realities and competing definitions of leadership. They examine what we learn about leadership intelligence from the classics, war, business, politics, and film. They also examine the problems of toxic and dysfunctional power wielding. Finally, they examine how leadership intelligence differs from IQ, Emotional Intelligence, and Artificial Intelligence yet combines these with creativity and an entrepreneurial mindset.

Leadership Intelligence is essential reading for students of leadership, especially undergraduate students and young people entering business, the military, and politics.