The Citizen Leader: Be the Person You'd Want to Follow by Peter Alduino

Take a close look at the people around you who are in a position of leadership today or may be at sometime in the future. How do you know who will be a great leader?

In his new book The Citizen Leader: Be the Person You’d Want to Follow, author and leadership expert Peter Alduino takes a critical look at what it takes to be an effective and highly regarded leader at home, in your community, in your place of worship and at work.

“A citizen leader is someone who brings their character and courage to making a contribution on behalf of the community and the common good,” says Alduino. “In an era when we are being assaulted by others’ agendas and tempted with profit, prestige and personal gain, it is our job to be solidly grounded in who we are and how we want to be in the world and have the courage to stick by that.”

The Citizen Leader is a step-by-step guide to help parents, teens, community leaders and corporate executives alike explore and then put into action the answers to the questions “Who am I?” and “How do I want to be in the world?”

Peter challenges each of us to address personal and professional issues we face in life and deepen our commitment to being authentic and courageous so we can say with conviction, "I am a person I’d want to follow." Alduino identifies three roles that a person must fulfill to be a citizen leader:

Character

Put into words who you are and what you stand for, and then get some feedback from the people around you. Commit to do whatever it is you need to be doing differently to be your person, and emerge as someone you’d want to follow.

Courage

Strengthen your resolve to do the right thing — not the popular, profitable, prestigious, pandering, politically expedient, placating or even the palatable thing but the right thing that serves your highest values and the common good.

Contribution

Put to use a practical framework that both integrates the forces of your mind, body and spirit to make a positive contribution in your community — be that home, school, work, worship or play — and keeps you moving and motivated, even when you confront obstacles.