Leah M. Omilion-Hodges is Associate Professor in the School of Communication at Western Michigan University, USA. Her research fuses organizational communication with health communication, allowing her to explore questions that are relevant to academics and practitioners within applied communication contexts. Jennifer K. Ptacek is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Dayton, USA. Her research examines intersections of health and organizational communication, specifically in contexts of relationships in healthcare workplaces, stress and social support, leadership, and organizational identification.

• Part 1: Setting the Foundation: Understanding the Role of Communication in Leader-Member, Peer, and Team Relationships.- What is Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) Theory?.- Leadership and Communication: Demystifying the Steps to Success.- Coworkers: Sources of Support or Relationships Gone Sour.- Fitting into the Workgroup: Relationships within the Team.- Part 2: Exploring the Various Intersections of Communication and Leadership.- Leadership in Different Organizations and Sectors.- Diversity and Ethics in LMX.- Leadership and Context: Reading the Room.- When Good People are Bad Leaders: When and Why Leadership Fails.- Self-Reflection: Identifying the Leader in You.- Closing Thoughts and Additional Resources.

“Omilion-Hodges and Ptacek offer a unique take on LMX through their communication framework. Their book teaches the value of LMX relationships and trains readers in effective communication. I recommend it for a general applied audience who would like to expand their leadership repertoire. So often we get comfortable with a particular approach to leadership, be it transactional, transformational, path-goal, and so forth. If practitioners want to expand their leadership skills with LMX, then this book is an approachable start.” (Reed Priest, Personnel Psychology, Vol. 74 (4), 2022)