Professor Margarita Mayo Receives Prize at Business Book Awards

Margarita Mayo, Professor of Leadership at IE Business School, has received the Highly Commended award for ‘An Exceptional Book by a Woman 2019’ at the Business Book Awards 2019 for her book "Yours Truly: Staying authentic in leadership and life" (Bloomsbury 2018).

"Yours Truly" examines how executives can remain true to themselves – and thus lead effectively – while striving for business success and self-renewal. To demonstrate this core of authentic leadership, Professor Mayo draws on her decades of research and teaching, and a host of inspirational examples from executives of multinational corporations as well as political and sports leaders. In her book, Mayo contends that there are three characteristics – heart, habits and harmony – that differentiate authentic from non-authentic leaders.

“I decided to try to write something different from other management books, one that invites readers to develop their unique leadership style rather than follow the standard path. I worry that we are producing copy-cats when we need leaders with a more individual, humanistic approach. I want to inspire future leaders to express themselves freely and to tackle the world’s complex, technical, and social problems in their own way,” said Professor Mayo.

“It is a great honor to be recognized by the annual Business Book Awards,” she said upon receiving the award. “My aim is provide practical tools that help my students and executives everywhere find – and keep hold of – their own unique authentic leadership style.”

The Business Book Awards celebrates the work of authors who have shared their industry or market knowledge, experience, and expertise in published book form. The full list of the 2019 winners can be found here.