13: Bringing it all Together

This collection of stories, examples, and narratives about Exceptional Leadership by Design (ELBD) is meant to provide you with tangible, real, and heart-felt cases of how the design process can be applied to leadership. Each author in this book has lived these experiences and felt compelled to share them with you. Each author used design principles to craft his or her chapter, and each struggled with the same issues with which you have likely struggled.

Leadership, exceptional leadership, is not a science. Rather, we feel it is an art. Yet, we knew it was important to use evidence-based organizational, behavioral, and leadership science to inform this book. When our group of authors initially met and created the vision for this book, we knew that the organizational science existed that equips leaders and organizations to be more effective. As such, we used the design thinking principles to write this book. We lived the design process in creating these chapters for you.