November 04, 2009 03:04 ET

Personal Development: The Connection Between Leadership and Quality Relationships

Vision.org Interviews Will Marre on His New Book, Which Focuses on the Success of Relationships Within Society and Culture

PASADENA, CA--(Marketwire - November 4, 2009) - In an interview with Vision.org editor Gina Stepp, author Will Marre addresses personal development topics from his new book, "Save the World & Still Be Home for Dinner." Cofounder and former president of the Covey Leadership Center and founder of the American Dream Project, Marre discusses a societal shift in attitudes in the area of leadership.

The perception of leadership being simply the "acquisition and mastery of a set of skills or competencies" is evolving. Marre states that "[t]he critical issue of leadership today is moral intent, and that's something we never touch on in business schools or in leadership training. So if we get very effective people at being leaders who don't have worthwhile moral intent, we get what we got."

This change is being driven, not at the corporate or institutional level, but by consumers and employees. "Institutions have created ways of working with the status quo that keep them prosperous, and it's the change in attitudes in consumers and employees," Marre notes, "that have shifted that dramatically so that the old ways of doing things are no longer prosperous."

As a result of this transformation in consumer attitude, businesses and their leaders have had to change their focus and practices. The result of these changes will be increased innovation with more of an emphasis on improving the lives of people who use the products and services offered. Marre believes that this leadership change is being led by the "new consciousness of up-and-coming employees" who will "make this transition permanent."

That new consciousness is in part fed by a desire to have more meaningful relationships. The connection between successful leadership and quality relationships is an outward focus in today's society and culture. Marre posits that individuals should be "doing the best thing that [they] can imagine doing." But of equal importance, Marre's research has indicated that people feel that "it all comes down to the quality of the intimacy in our relationships. There's no success that compensates for a lack of high quality, intimate relationships."

About Vision.org

Vision.org is an online magazine with quarterly print issues that feature in-depth coverage of current social issues, religion and the Bible, history, family relationship topics and insights into philosophical, moral and ethical issues in society today. For a free subscription to the Vision quarterly magazine, visit their web site at http://www.vision.org.