Leadership is a journey. The book, The Student Leadership J.O.U.R.N.E.Y.: A Guide For Students Who Aspire To Become Legacy Leaders, describes the journey of leadership.
The author, Alec Zama is a Professor of Business Administration at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa.
He also teaches classes in the Organizational Leadership Master’s program. Formerly, Zama was also the director of the Viking Leadership Credential program. Zama’s book would fit under a personal growth or self-help genre. Specifically, this is an educational leadership development book with a twist. Zama wanted to create a leadership book that stood out from the typical leadership book.

However, there are plenty of self-help and leadership books on the shelves already. Why does this book matter now? The world is facing rapid change; leadership rooted in integrity and empathy is needed more than ever. With artificial intelligence on the rise, leadership skills, including emotional awareness, teamwork and empathy are essential for the future. Modern-day leadership is not about titles or hierarchy, but it is about inclusion, collaboration and service.
This book is extremely important to teach the upcoming generation the skills of empathy, emotional awareness, teamwork and service.
This book breaks down these concepts and more in a dialogue format. This conversation takes place between a senior college student, Aisha, and a first-year student, Emma. They are attending Green Valley University, which can be creatively connected with Grand View University in the acronym GVU. Aisha is the mentor for Emma within this mentoring relationship in the honors program. They are to meet 10 times over the course of the semester to talk about specific leadership skills and ideals.
Each chapter is divided into the letters that spell J.O.U.R.N.E.Y. The word journey itself is an acronym in this book. Judgement, Opportunity, Unity, Responsibility, Nurture, Excellence and Yield.
This acronym has a variety of meanings, phrases, sayings and even more acronyms built in. This book preaches a reflective tone in the sense that reflection is praised and given a high priority. Along with this detail, the book is inspirational. After most chapters, examples of leadership skills and/or actions are provided. This creates inspiration in the reader to get up and act on the leadership skills mentioned. These acts are inspirational but also motivational.
There are also assessments and discussion points at the end of the chapters. This helps readers establish where they are in their leadership journey and what skills they could work on. Discussions can help with group learning, promoting collaboration or guiding the individual through reflection.
This brings the instructional tone into the book. The overall theme of the book is influence. This book captures that there are many definitions of leadership. In relation to the vast definitions, there are a variety of tones of the book: Inspirational, motivational, instructional and reflective. These have been placed well throughout the book and throughout each letter of Journey.
The dialogue works extremely well in this book. It helps with the digestion of the content.
Humans communicate in conversation every day and applying this to book form makes it a smooth and comprehensible read. The Acronyms and short catchy phrases are extremely beneficial. It makes it easy to remember specific leadership techniques when readers are walking through life.
During the second meeting, Aisha explains the catchy phrase of who, what, where, how and why of leadership. Zama chose the dialogue frame specifically for this book. And it fits exceedingly well. Aisha continues to break down the short phrase and includes the research to back the information she is teaching Emma. This research does not stop with this simple phrase; It continues throughout the whole book. I think this is a vital piece of work to have the evidence provided in the dialogue. Zama also included metaphors to help readers learn and comprehend the book further. I think he truly understood his audience and nailed it with the dialogue, digestible literacy and creative visualizations.
College student leaders would enjoy this book, which is specifically tailored to them. However, I believe that students from high school to college would enjoy this book. It is tailored to college students because of the storyline of the book. After all, it is about two college students and their navigation of leadership with examples and situations that relate to most college students.
I would consider it a light read; however, there are dense subject points. By this, I mean there are key points that need to be articulated and highlighted.
Are the 206 pages worth reading? Yes. This book has made a significant impact on my view of leadership. I have learned about who I am as a leader, what skills I can improve on, how to improve, how other leaders may lead and how to work with different types of leadership. I plan on keeping this book on my shelf and using it for reference in my future of leadership.
Outside the benefits that are contained in the words of this book, when you purchase this book, all the profits go to charity. The specific 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization is called Wings of Hope International (WHI). This non-profit organization provides support for the improvement of lives in Moldova. Those who are children, sick, the elderly and any others in need.
There is absolutely no reason not to purchase this book. Readers will receive leadership benefits while helping other human beings in Moldova. Absolutely, no reason.