Neck, Christopher P.

views updated

Neck, Christopher P.

PERSONAL: Education: Louisiana State University, M.B.A.; Arizona State University, Ph.D. Hobbies and other interests: Running.

ADDRESSES: Office—Department of Management, Pamplin 2102, Pamplin College of Business, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061-0233. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, associate professor of management.

AWARDS, HONORS: Students' Choice Teacher of the Year Award, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005, and 2006; Wine Award for Teaching Excellence, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2002.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

Medicine for the Mind: Healing Words to Help You Soar, McGraw-Hill (New York, NY), 1997.

(With James Mancuso, Charles C. Manz, and Karen P. Manz) For Team Members Only: Making Your Workplace Team Productive and Hassle-Free, American Management Association (New York, NY), 1997.

(With Charles C. Manz) Mastering Self-Leadership: Empowering Yourself for Personal Excellence, Prentice Hall (Upper Saddle River, NJ), 1998, 4th edition, 2007.

(With Charles C. Manz, Karen P. Manz, and Robert D. Marx) The Wisdom of Solomon at Work: Ancient Virtues for Living and Leading Today, Berrett-Koehler Publishers (San Francisco, CA), 2001.

(With Charles C. Manz, Emmet C. Thompson, and Tedd L. Mitchell) Fit to Lead: The Proven 8-Week Solution for Shaping Up Your Body, Your Mind, and Your Career, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2004.

Contributor to books and journals, including Journal of Organizational Behavior, Journal of Applied Behavior Science, Journal of Managerial Psychology, Journal of Leadership Studies, and Commercial Law Journal.

SIDELIGHTS: Christopher P. Neck is an associate professor of management at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. His primary research interest is executive/employee fitness, but he also focuses on research related to leadership, group decision-making processes, and self-managing team performance. Neck has developed a form of leadership called self-leadership. The idea behind this concept is that people can reach their potential by utilizing specific mental and behavioral strategies that help them control their own thoughts and actions.

Neck wrote Mastering Self-Leadership: Empowering Yourself for Personal Excellence with Charles Manz, the Nirenberg professor of business leadership at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. The book defines self-leadership and gives methods for achieving personal goals using self-assessment, self-reward, and self-punishment concepts and exercises. Reviewing the publication for the Journal of Leadership Studies, Anne Nelson wrote: "For anyone interested in achieving both employee and organizational effectiveness in the 21st century, Mastering Self-Leadership would be an excellent place to start."

Neck collaborated with Charles C. Manz, Karen P. Manz, and Robert D. Marx on The Wisdom of Solomon at Work: Ancient Virtues for Living and Leading Today. The premise of the book is that the wisdom of Solomon, an astute king and ruler who appears in the Bible, is still applicable to the problems found in the contemporary workplace. The authors discuss biblical accounts and follow them up with summaries about current-day leaders in the workplace who used Solomon's wisdom to overcome professional obstacles. A Publishers Weekly reviewer commented: "The book presents sound reasons for applying ancient wisdom to the modern workplace."

Neck worked with Charles Manz, Emmet C. Thompson, and Tedd L. Mitchell to write the book Fit to Lead: The Proven 8-Week Solution for Shaping Up Your Body, Your Mind, and Your Career. The authors base their program on the idea that physical fitness must be the foundation for any sort of personal excellence. They seek to inspire readers to begin taking fitness seriously, making dietary changes, and seeking out healthful exercise. If this is done, they say, the mind will automatically become stronger and leadership qualities will be strengthened. One chapter addresses all sorts of excuses for procrastinating, offering rebuttals for each one. The book is geared toward executives, but according to a Publishers Weekly reviewer: "Workers of all stripes will find it rewarding."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Defense Transportation Journal, September, 2003, Kent N. Gourdin, review of Mastering Self-Leadership: Empowering Yourself for Personal Excellence, p. 62.

HR Magazine, June, 1997, Stephen McIntosh, review of For Team Members Only: Making Your Workplace Team Productive and Hassle-Free, p. 173.

Journal of Leadership Studies, winter, 2000, Anne Nelson, review of Mastering Self-Leadership, p. 139.

Publishers Weekly, April 23, 2001, review of The Wisdom of Solomon at Work: Ancient Virtues for Living and Leading Today, p. 70; April 12, 2004, review of Fit to Lead: The Proven 8-Week Solution for Shaping Up Your Body, Your Mind, and Your Career, p. 59.

Wall Street Journal, July 30, 2001, Richard Miniter, "Bookshelf: Business Inspiration from a Higher Power," p. A17.