Leadership Is Learnable: the Super-Cube® book is now available in paperback on Amazon

By Dr Craig R. Muller, founder of Big Five Group

Leadership is not a gift handed to a lucky few. It is a set of skills that can be learnt, practised and measured. That belief has shaped most of my working life, and today I am proud to say that the book which sets out the evidence for it is now available in paperback on Amazon, and as a Kindle e-book: Leadership Is Learnable: The Super-Cube® model, the evidence behind it, and how to develop leaders at every level, published by Big Five Group.

Earlier this week I gave away the short, free edition of the Super-Cube® book: no sign-up, no payment. Leadership Is Learnable is the comprehensive edition: 312 pages in full colour with the full research, the evidence and the tools to put the model to work, from the classroom to the boardroom.

Built on doctoral research

The Super-Cube® model grew out of my Doctor of Business Administration at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (thesis 2020, degree conferred 2021). It rests on three foundations: a review of more than a century of leadership science, a survey of 132 people in an African FMCG business network, and face-to-face interviews with ten of its directors. Together they produced a practical model of six interconnected faces of leadership: Choices, Principles, Mental, Emotional, Physical and Spiritual. The research was published in peer-reviewed journals in 2022.

What the evidence shows

When leaders at Imana Foods and Kerry Foods completed a 12-week accredited Super-Cube® leadership intervention, their average assessment scores rose by 32.2 percentage points across the six faces, with gains on every face, including Principles (+45.1 points), Emotional (+39.5 points) and Spiritual (+24.6 points). Those gains come from the intervention, not from the thesis, and they describe those cohorts rather than promise a result for every reader. The book is candid about what the results can and cannot show, and about how a stronger study could test the model further.

What is inside

• A full chapter on each face: a story, the research evidence, frameworks from the accredited Super-Cube® programmes, practices, common traps, a self-check and one thing to do today.
• Every research figure traced to its source, with endnotes for each chapter.
• Examples from African workplaces, with lessons that apply anywhere.
• The ripple effect: how leadership development spreads from one leader to teams, businesses, supply chains and communities.
• A step-by-step guide for HR directors, boards and facilitators to building a leadership programme.
• Appendices: the survey as administered, the interview schedule, full statistical tables, a glossary, references and a facilitator guide.

Leaders for the Global Goals

One chapter asks a simple question: who will deliver the UN Sustainable Development Goals? Every one of the 17 Goals, from zero hunger to quality education to decent work, needs leaders to turn plans into progress. The chapter uses the official SDG icons with the permission of the United Nations and makes my case for leadership skills as an enabling goal: if we build leaders, we build the capacity to deliver all the others.

Who it is for

I wrote it for leaders at every level and for the people who develop them: managers, HR and learning professionals, coaches, boards, educators, and those who run leadership programmes for young adults. There are three ways to read it. Busy executives can follow a two-hour route through the essentials. Facilitators and HR professionals get frameworks they can teach on Monday. Students and researchers can judge the method and the evidence for themselves.

Get your copy

• Paperback: $17.99 on Amazon (R299 in South Africa), 312 pages in full colour, 6 × 9 in, ISBN 978-1-0483-6161-2.
• Kindle e-book: $8.99 on Amazon, ISBN 978-1-0483-6160-5.

Prices may differ between Amazon stores.

Buy the paperback on Amazon · Buy the Kindle e-book on Amazon · Download the free edition (PDF) · Explore Big Five Learn

Start free, then go deeper

If Super-Cube® is new to you, start with the free short book, The Super-Cube® Leadership Model (71 pages, PDF), on our Big Five Learn page or at super-cube.me/book. Then take the free Super-Cube® baseline at super-cube.me to see where your own six faces stand.

Our mission is Feed. Educate. Empower. Big Five Learn is how the Group educates, and Super-Cube® is at its heart. This book is for anyone who believes that better leaders build a better Africa, and a better world.

Feed. Educate. Empower.