It is common practice to study leaders who succeed. In his latest book, "Derailed," Dr. Tim Irwin challenges us to study leaders who fail.

The book opens with profiles of 6 leaders who failed spectacularly and publicly; Robert Nardelli at Home Depot, Carly Fiorina at Hewlett-Packard, Durk Jager at Proctor & Gamble, Steven Heyer at Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Frank Raines at Fannie Mae and Dick Fuld at Lehman Brothers. Using the experiences of these leaders as a stepping-off point, he then goes on to examine why they failed and what others can do to prevent falling victim to a similar fate.

The process starts, according to Dr. Irwin, by recognizing the 5 stages of the derailment process:

1. Failure of self/other awareness
2. Hubris: Pride before the fall
3. Missed early warning signals
4. Rationalizing
5. Derailment

He goes on to examine the five key character traits that are instrumental in keeping us from falling victim to the derailment process:

1. Character
2. Self Awareness
3. Self Management
4. Humility
5. Courage

Finally, Dr. Irwin addresses the five critical lessons we can take from the examples of the 6 leaders discussed in the book's opening chapters:

1. Character trumps competence
2. Arrogance is the Mother of all derailers
3. Lack of self/other awareness is a common denominator of all derailments
4. We are always who we are...especially under stress
5. Derailment is not inevitable, but without attention to development, it is probable.

All in all, this book doesn't cover any new ground for anyone who has studied leadership and self-development. What it does well, though, is to bring us to look at common leadership issues from a different perspective; that's it's just as important - and instructional - to study failure and its causes as it is to study success. It is for that reason that I can highly recommend it to anyone interested in developing the traits of a successful leader.

Full Disclosure Notice: I received a review copy of "Derailed" from Thomas Nelson Publishing as a participant in their Book Review Bloggers program.