The Oz Principal

A decade ago, The Oz Principle took the business world by storm. At its root, the principle works like this: Like Dorothy and the gang in The Wizard of Oz, most businesspeople have the tools to succeed, but when things go wrong they blame circumstance or others instead of looking within for the true cause of unsatisfactory results. Once individuals learn to accept responsibility, they can use the Oz Principle to become better leaders. Now, with corporate scandals in the headlines and the culture of victimization running rampant at every level of the business world, Roger Connors, Tom Smith, and Craig Hickman return with a new edition of The Oz Principle. Fully revised, this edition will update the statistics, concepts, and relevant companies through fresh, timely anecdotes and stories. BookList The 'Land of Oz' has come to stand as a symbol for things not being as they seem. The three authors here, though, go to the basic theme of L. Frank Baum's classic: the trip to see the wizard is a journey of self-awareness and discovery, wherein the characters learn that only they themselves possess the power to fully realize or change their lives. The authors extend the metaphor of Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, and the Cowardly Lion by describing the heart, courage, and wisdom needed to acknowledge, accept, and deal with circumstances and events as they are. The result is a willingness to accept responsibility, which leads to individual (and organizational) accountability. Connors and Smith head Partners in Leadership, a management consulting business that conducts seminars based on the Oz characterizations, and Hickman has written several management books, most recently Mind of a Manager, Soul of a Leader.