Given that 202 million individuals were unemployed globally by the end of 2013 and that the global economy suffered a $38 trillion loss in the economic crisis, people’s continuing decline in confidence in our public leaders is neither an accident nor a surprise. The subject of creating high-quality leaders has never been as paramount in its importance and widespread as it is now.

To create high-quality public leaders, we must first begin with constructing effective personal leaders. Even though self-leadership is a critical step in becoming an effective leader of others, many have completely neglected this foundational stage. Effective personal leadership, among other things, encourages people to deeply examine and truly understand themselves so that they can make the right decisions — those that benefit not only themselves but also others who depend on their leadership.

Few books and training courses on leadership give attention to the significance of being a personal leader. In fact, many only emphasize self-awareness, which is just one of the five crucial behaviors required to become an effective self-leader.” Traditional leadership methods also, unfortunately, have not provided the promised return on investment, leaving us unfulfilled of the leaders we had hoped to generate. The author, as a result, urges for a new approach in which an individual becomes a powerful personal leader before taking the path of public leadership. And even if one is already a public leader, cultivating the personal leadership behaviors can be immediately applied into exercising their leadership of others, therefore making him/her a more impactful individual. Becoming that effective personal leader can then help people turn into valuable public leaders we so desperately need today and for many generations thereafter.

The key benefits of the five behaviors (based on author’s own experiences and research) talked about in this book include learning how to 1) become deeply self-aware and to look inward for guidance; 2) become skillful at taking bad experiences and turning them into positive learning and growth opportunities; 3) improve your focus on mind, body, and spirit; 4) make a written plan for improvement (which has been shown to increase your chances of success by 42%); and 5) persevere. In addition, these behaviors can be used throughout your life at any age or stage. Ultimately, learning to be an effective self-leader will position you to become a useful public leader.

Today, we literally find ourselves standing at the crossroads. We can either continue our inadequate, traditional ways or employ a sensible approach to leadership development by becoming effective personal leaders first. Our collective future rests on the decision each person will make. Which one are you ready to choose?