(McGraw-Hill: New York) -- Artists put their work on display for everyone to judge, accepting a position of vulnerability to comment on the human condition and contribute to the common good. Artists bring people closer together by providing a forum for shared experiences. They challenge, excite, comfort, and motivate people, and they don’t learn their craft by reading about it in a book; they practice, push themselves and their means of expression, and execute, execute, execute. These are exactly the same things effective business leaders do day in and day out.

In Every Leader Is an Artist (McGraw-Hill, 2012) leadership experts Michael O’Malley and William Baker employ the “leadership as an art” metaphor to its conceptual limits: Leadership is an art. Literally. And leaders are artists; they just happen to work in a different medium.

This groundbreaking look at leadership offers a completely new perspective on the age-old question: What separates the effective leader from the ineffective leader? O’Malley and Baker reveal 12 key characteristics shared by great artists and leaders, including:

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