Leadership Books : A Core Collection: Leadership

It could happen today. You are called into the office, and the boss tells you that due to unforeseen circumstances, starting today you will be in charge of a team, a project, an office, a committee, or a business unit. Without any warning (or preparation on your part) you've become an accidental leader. If you have been thrust into a position of sudden responsibility, you need The Accidental Leader. This book is a first aid kit that gives you the information and inspiration you need to: Know what you bring to the challenge— your pluses and minuses; Define success and achieve it; Get other people on your side; Overcome your natural shortcomings; Get organized— right now; See through the apparent system to the culture within; Direct people and get them to act. The Accidental Leader is your lifeline to leadership success. It is filled with practical answers to the many leadership questions that you will face.

Effective leadership is more crucial than ever before. In fact, the link between effective leadership and corporate health is backed up by hard data, as best-selling author Judith M. Bardwick explains in her contributed article to The AMA Handbook of Leadership. Study after study shows that leadership quality directly impacts employee commitment and employee commitment predicts an organization's financial success. You'll learn about this and other important research, trends, and perspectives in this one-of-a-kind compendium of original writings from some of the leading thinkers and doers in the field. There's not a single "system" for sale here, but a gathering of twenty-three succinct, on-target articles on what it means to be an effective leader today, as well as proven strategies for leading people and organizations to success.Packed with real-life examples, researched-based assessments, and probing analysis, The AMA Handbook of Leadership's brisk, stimulating articles give you a broad perspective on new leadership challenges and strategies including some refreshingly contrarian opinions and observations. Browse the book for a thorough overview or pick the best possible ideas for you and your organization.

What separates the wannabes from the great achievers? For internationally renowned management experts Jim Champy and Nitin Nohria, the key ingredient is ambition. Showcasing the experiences of dozens of contemporary and historical figures from all walks of life, The Arc of Ambition is a practical and inspirational guide to harnessing your ambition and leaving a legacy of accomplishment.

In this book Keith Grint, who has been studying and teaching leadership for over a decade, investigates the notion of leadership in a series of historical case studies and rich essay portraits of some of the world's most famous leaders. The first part considers four sets of parallel cases where leadership appears to be a major explanation of success and failure. The second takes the four critical issues arising from these parallel cases and explores them. This is an excellent book that deserves to be considered as one of the reference points in the contemporary literature on leadership.

A who's who of gurus in the leadership field, The ASTD Leadership Handbook is an exciting compilation of insights, ideas, and tools that will enable individuals, teams, and organizations to develop their leadership capabilities. This handbook sets itself apart in a crowded field by emphasizing development and by providing practical approaches to development. Topic areas covered in the book are leadership competencies, leadership development, attributes of successful leaders, contemporary leadership challenges, and broadening the leadership discussion.

For seventeen years this Handbook has been the indispensable "bible" for every serious student of leadership. This third edition reflects the growth and changes in the study of leadership since the 1981 edition. There have been shifts in both content and method. Senior managers, for example, have become an increasing subject of inquiry. Distinctly separate fields of inquiry, such as political science and psychology, have been joined in this edition to build a broader appreciation of the phenomenon of leadership. The contributions from cognitive social psychology and the social, political, communications, and administrative sciences have been expanded. As in the second edition, Bernard Bass begins with a consideration of the definitions and concepts used, and a brief review of some of the better-known theories. He then focuses on the personal traits, tendencies, attributes, and values of leaders and the knowledge, intellectual competence, and technical skills required for leadership. Next, he looks at leaders' socioemotional talents, interpersonal competencies, and the differences in these characteristics in leaders who are imbued with ideologies, especially authoritarianism, Machiavellianism, and self-aggrandizement. The many developments in theory and research about charisma since 1974 have now made possible an entire chapter devoted to charismatic and inspirational leadership. Bass argues that a new paradigm of leadership, transformational leadership, has arisen that makes possible the inclusion of a much wider range of phenomena than when theory and modeling are limited to reinforcement strategies.

The United States Army is one of the most complex, best run organizations in the world, and central to the Army's success are strong leadership and exceptional leadership development. Army leaders must be able to act decisively and effectively in challenging situations. But the Army, despite its organizational structure, does not train leaders in a hierarchical manner. Dispersed leadership is the key to the success of the Army leadership model. Now, for the first time, you can have access to the Army's successful leadership philosophy and the principles that are outlined in Be Know Do the official Army Leadership Manual. Be Know Do makes this critical information available to civilian leaders in all sectors--business, government, and nonprofit--and gives them the guidelines they need to create an organization where leadership thrives.

Leadership is a balancing act. It requires communicating a compelling vision, convincing others to buy into that vision, and marshaling resources and talent to make it happen. This guide will help new and seasoned leaders master the complex art of the leadership role. Managers are under increasing pressure to deliver better results faster than the competition. But meeting today's tough challenges requires complete mastery of a full array of management skills, from communicating and coaching to public speaking and managing people. The Results-Driven Manager series is designed to help time-pressed managers hone and polish the skills they need most. Concise, action-oriented, and packed with invaluable strategies and tools, these timely guides will help managers improve their job performance today-and give them the edge they need to become the leaders of tomorrow.

You never dreamed being the boss would be so hard. You're caught in a web of conflicting expectations from subordinates, your supervisor, peers, and customers. You're not alone. As Linda Hill and Kent Lineback reveal in Being the Boss, becoming an effective manager is a painful, difficult journey. It's trial and error, endless effort, and slowly acquired personal insight. Many managers never complete the journey. At best, they just learn to get by. At worst, they become terrible bosses. This new book explains how to avoid that fate, by mastering three imperatives: Manage yourself: Learn that management isn't about getting things done yourself. It's about accomplishing things through others. Manage a network: Understand how power and influence work in your organization and build a network of mutually beneficial relationships to navigate your company's complex political environment. Manage a team: Forge a high-performing "we" out of all the "I"s who report to you. Packed with compelling stories and practical guidance, Being the Boss is an indispensable guide for not only first-time managers but all managers seeking to master the most daunting challenges of leadership.

Most business leaders can take only so much pressure before their performance slides. Yet some CEOs deliver their greatest successes when times get toughest—when customers’ preferences are shifting away from a company’s products, when new regulations are shrinking profit margins, when political unrest is destroying supply lines. In Better Under Pressure, Justin Menkes reveals the common traits that make these leaders successful. Drawing on in-depth interviews with sixty CEOs from an array of industries and performance data from two hundred other leaders, Menkes shows that great executives strive relentlessly to maximize their own potential—as well as stoke their people’s innate thirst for their own triumphs. Deeply personal, brimming with compelling stories from real-life CEOs, and packed with powerful insights, tools, and practices, this book is a potent resource for aspiring, emerging, and seasoned business leaders alike.

From Wall Street to Main Street, John Brooks, longtime contributor to the New Yorker, brings to life in vivid fashion twelve classic and timeless tales of corporate and financial life in America What do the $350 million Ford Motor Company disaster known as the Edsel, the fast and incredible rise of Xerox, and the unbelievable scandals at General Electric and Texas Gulf Sulphur have in common? Each is an example of how an iconic company was defined by a particular moment of fame or notoriety; these notable and fascinating accounts are as relevant today to understanding the intricacies of corporate life as they were when the events happened. Stories about Wall Street are infused with drama and adventure and reveal the machinations and volatile nature of the world of finance. John Brooks's insightful reportage is so full of personality and critical detail that whether he is looking at the astounding market crash of 1962, the collapse of a well-known brokerage firm, or the bold attempt by American bankers to save the British pound, one gets the sense that history repeats itself. Five additional stories on equally fascinating subjects round out this wonderful collection that will both entertain and inform readers . . . Business Adventures is truly financial journalism at its liveliest and best.

The second edition of best-selling Business Leadership contains the best thinking on leadership from the biggest names in the business. It offers leaders everything they need to know to prepare for today’s—and tomorrow’s—leadership challenges: how to understand the leadership process, identify opportunities, get things started right, avoid predictable pitfalls, and maximize success. Effective leaders use mind, heart, and spirit in their work, and this volume is designed to guide and support leaders in their efforts. With an introduction by Joan V. Gallos—editor of the highly praised Organization Development: A Jossey-Bass Reader—the author list for this invaluable resource reads like the who's who of business leadership.

The Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) is the world's largest institution devoted exclusively to leadership research and education. Since 1970, CCL has studied and trained hundreds of thousands of executives and worked with them to create practical models, tools, and publications for the development of effective leaders and leadership. This third edition of The Center for Creative Leadership Handbook of Leadership Development brings together the wealth of practical knowledge that CCL has gained from this experience. It explores the essence of leadership development, reveals how individuals can effectively enhance their leadership skills, and demonstrates what organizations can do to help build leaders and leadership capacity. The book also includes an ancillary Web site with additional tools and resources:

This book not only integrates the growing body of research and theory on charismatic leadership, but also pushes back the frontiers of our knowledge by introducing new theories and insights. The authors present a comprehensive model of the charismatic leadership process. The model is documented by extensive empirical research and richly illustrated with case examples of corporate leaders.

When it was published in 2000, Coaching for Leadership became an instant classic in the field of executive coaching. This second edition updates and expands on the original book and brings together the best executive coaches who offer a basic understanding of how coaching works, why it works, and how leaders can make the best use of the coaching process. This thoroughly revised edition reflects recent changes in coaching practices, includes well-researched best practices, and provides additional guidance and tools from the greatest leadership coaches from around the world. Each chapter in this important volume addresses a proven application, offers key principles of practice, and highlights critical learning points.

Is success simply a matter of money and talent? Or is there another reason why some people and organizations always land on their feet, while others, equally talented, stumble again and again? From the simplest ball games to the most complicated business and political situations, the common element in winning is a basic truth about people: They rise to the occasion when leaders help them gain the confidence to do it. Confidence is the new theory and practice of success, explaining why success and failure are not mere episodes but self-perpetuating trajectories. Rosabeth Moss Kanter shows why organizations of all types may be brimming with talent but not be winners, and provides people in leadership positions with a practical program for either maintaining a winning streak or turning around a downward spiral. Confidence is based on an extraordinary investigation of success and failure in companies such as Continental Airlines and Verizon and sports teams such as the University of North Carolina women’s soccer team and the New England Patriots. Packed with brilliant, practical ideas such as “powerlessness corrupts” and the “timidity of mediocrity,” Confidence provides fresh thinking for perpetuating winning streaks and ending losing streaks in all facets of life—from the factors that can make or break corporations and governments to the keys for successful relationships in the workplace or at home.

In this offbeat approach to leadership, college president Steven B. Sample-the man who turned the University of Southern California into one of the most respected and highly rated universities in the country-challenges many conventional teachings on the subject. Here, Sample outlines an iconoclastic style of leadership that flies in the face of current leadership thought, but a style that unquestionably works, nevertheless. Sample urges leaders and aspiring leaders to focus on some key counterintuitive truths. He offers his own down-to-earth, homespun, and often provocative advice on some complex and thoughtful issues. And he provides many practical, if controversial, tactics for successful leadership, suggesting, among other things, that leaders should sometimes compromise their principles, not read everything that comes across their desks, and always put off decisions.

A veritable who's who in leadership, Conversations on Leadership features Warren Bennis, Jim Kouzes, John Kotter, Noel Tichy, Peter Senge, James March, Howard Gardner, Bill George, and others. Since each leader has a distinctive approach, this book provides the multi-faceted truths of leadership to broaden and deepen the understanding of the readers. It is indeed time for Conversations on Leadership. It covers major leadership scholars and practitioners and gives them a place across cultures. Lan Liu also opens the way for us to think seriously about enriching our Western models and not about rejecting them.

A practical guide for building and sustaining top-performing teams. Readers will gain practical skills for navigating, from a group’s creation to maintaining highly effective teams. Packed with straightforward strategies for building and supporting well-managed, high performing teams, this book examines why teams are important, how they function, and what makes them productive.A bestseller in previous editions, Creating Effective Teams, Third Edition is intended for students and team leaders and members in organizational studies, management, human resources, social psychology, education, group studies, leadership, sociology and communication.

Leadership is personal. It's not about the corporation, the community, or the country. It's about you. If people don't believe in the messenger, they won't believe the message. If people don't believe in you, they won't believe in what you say. And if it's about you, then it's about your beliefs, your values, your principles."— from Credibility In this best-selling book, Kouzes and Posner (authors of The Leadership Challenge), explain why leadership is above all a relationship, with credibility as the cornerstone. They provide rich examples of real managers in action and reveal the six key disciplines and related practices that strengthen a leader's capacity for developing and sustaining credibility. Kouzes and Posner show how leaders can encourage greater initiative, risk-taking, and productivity by demonstrating trust in employees and resolving conflicts on the basis of principles, not positions. Based on surveys of more than 15,000 people, 400 case studies, and 40 in-depth interviews, Credibility shows why leadership is above all a relationship--with credibility as the cornerstone. The authors reveal the six key disciplines and related practices that strengthen a leader's capacity for developing and sustaining credibility.

From product defects to environmental disasters—almost every day a new corporate crisis hits the headlines. In the majority of cases the results are disastrous: costly and time-consuming efforts to establish a positive public image can be wiped out in seconds. The inadequate, and often damaging, response of American business to such adversity proves that we don’t need better crisis management—we need crisis leadership. Ian Mitroff offers a new proactive approach that focuses on doing everything humanly possible to prevent crisis before they happen, rather than merely putting the best possible spin on the aftermath. In easy-to-read, accessible language, Mitroff presents the critical, key lessons that will help managers lead the organization through a major crisis.

Culture and Leadership Across the World: The GLOBE Book of In-Depth Studies of 25 Societies is the second major publication of GLOBE (Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness), a groundbreaking, large-scale project on international management research featuring contributions from nearly 18,000 middle managers from 1,000 organizations in 62 countries, perhaps the largest project of its kind ever undertaken. This volume effectively presents a complex collection of global research addressing the culture of particular countries, leadership qualities within those countries, and recommendations on how managers should conduct business in countries other than their own. This book is a coherent and well-organized presentation of the findings of the GLOBE Project and will appeal to scholars in leadership, management, international business, cultural studies; and also to practicing managers.

Chip and Dan Heath, the bestselling authors of Switch and Made to Stick, tackle one of the most critical topics in our work and personal lives: how to make better decisions. Research in psychology has revealed that our decisions are disrupted by an array of biases and irrationalities: We're overconfident. We seek out information that supports us and downplay information that doesn't. We get distracted by short-term emotions. When it comes to making choices, it seems, our brains are flawed instruments. Unfortunately, merely being aware of these shortcomings doesn't fix the problem, any more than knowing that we are nearsighted helps us to see. The real question is: How can we do better? In Decisive, the Heaths, based on an exhaustive study of the decision-making literature, introduce a four-step process designed to counteract these biases. Written in an engaging and compulsively readable style, Decisive takes readers on an unforgettable journey, from a rock star's ingenious decision-making trick to a CEO's disastrous acquisition, to a single question that can often resolve thorny personal decisions. Along the way, we learn the answers to critical questions like these: How can we stop the cycle of agonizing over our decisions? How can we make group decisions without destructive politics? And how can we ensure that we don't overlook precious opportunities to change our course? Decisive is the Heath brothers' most powerful-and important-book yet, offering fresh strategies and practical tools enabling us to make better choices. Because the right decision, at the right moment, can make all the difference.

Retaining talented women in corporations is more critical than ever in light of recent research demonstrating that companies with the highest representations of women in leadership roles show better financial performance. This book helps to answer the question, “How do we best develop women leaders?” by uniquely translating the findings from social science research into strategies and tips that people in management can apply.

This book is based on a simple, obvious point: leadership roles should be filled by people who deliberately decide they want to be in them. Yet many executives and managers find that they have become leaders by default rather than as a result of a personal choice. In fact, a great many people drift into or away from being leaders simply because they have not done the work of matching their own honestly described self with the realities of the leadership role. Not until they are well into their careers do many individuals seriously explore their personal fit for leadership. But by then, it is often too late to prepare for more gratifying roles or to get out of situations that don't make sense for them as individuals. Discovering the Leader in You offers a planful approach to understanding how aspects of personality, character, vision, home life, values, and skills match with essential leadership activities. This unique system of self-discovery clearly shows what it looks like to fit or not to fit in leadership roles in organizations. Robert J. Lee and Sara N. King, who developed this approach from their experience at the widely renowned Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro, North Carolina, help leaders and potential leaders examine leadership commitments and development paths in the context of who they are as individuals. Discovering the Leader in You will help all executives gain more personal insight into what leadership really means to them, to retain more control over their career choices, and consequently to achieve more personal success as leaders.

Although Peter Drucker, “The Father of Modern Management,” died in 2005, his timeless teachings are studied and practiced by forward-thinking managers worldwide. His lessons and wisdom on the topic of leadership—the central element of management—are in constant demand, yet he wrote little under that actual subject heading. In Drucker on Leadership, William A. Cohen explores Drucker’s lost leadership lessons—why they are missing, what they are, why they are important, and how to apply them. As Cohen explains, Drucker was ambivalent about leadership for much of his career, making it clear that leadership was not by itself “good or desirable.” While Drucker struggled with the concept of leadership, he was well aware that it had a critical impact on the accomplishment of all projects and human endeavors. There is no book from Drucker specifically dedicated to leadership, but a wealth of information about leadership can be found scattered throughout his 40 books and hundreds of articles. Many of the leadership concepts revealed in this book will surprise and perhaps shock Drucker’s followers. For example, who would have thought that Peter Drucker taught that “leadership is a marketing job” or that “the best leadership lessons for business or any nonprofit organization come from the military”? Drucker on Leadership offers a deeper understanding of what makes an extraordinary leader.

Since time immemorial, relationships have determined the fate of leaders. But today they are more critical to success than ever. No longer can leaders count on long time horizons or sloppy competition to make up for the inefficiencies that poor relationships create. Leaders must make decisions and take actions quickly and well with others, even those with whom they share very little?perhaps not even a time zone. This new world puts relationships at the center of what leaders must understand and master to succeed. The authors uses in-depth observational studies and clinical research to explore how relationships at the top of organizations work, develop, and change and shows how to understand, strengthen, and transform these relationships, so they can withstand the most intense pressures and conflicts This important book features a Foreword by Peter Senge, author of The Fifth Discipline.

The Encyclopedia of Leadership brings together for the first time everything that is known and truly matters about leadership as part of the human experience. Developed by the award-winning editorial team at Berkshire Publishing Group, the Encyclopedia includes hundreds of articles, written by 280 leading scholars and experts from 17 countries, exploring leadership theories and leadership practice. Entries and sidebars show leadership in action - in corporations and state houses, schools, churches, small businesses, and nonprofit organizations.

"Looking over a lifetime of work, I see that certain themes have always fascinated me. Early on, I felt that bureaucracy was doomed and that something flatter and more collegial would triumph. The need for candor and transparency has been a frequent cry, because I saw how warped organizations become without them. I've long known that organizational decisions inevitably have a moral dimension. The vital role that great followers play in successful leadership has grown ever more obvious. I am increasingly aware how crucial rhetoric and other performing arts are in making a compelling leader—good or bad. That leaders are inevitably shaped by personal crucibles has been confirmed by hundreds of interviews. And it is clear to me now that the process of becoming a leader and the process of becoming a fully integrated human being are one and the same, both grounded in self-discovery." —from the Introduction by Warren Bennis

Is it possible to rescue your career and restore your reputation after a major professional setback? In an age rife with press accounts of disgraced CEOs, politicians, and celebrities - as well as courageous but beleaguered whistleblowers and victims of rivals or envious colleagues and bosses - this question has grown more important than ever. In Firing Back, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and Andrew Ward answer the question with a resounding "Yes." They go on to lay out a practical and an important five-step process for actually recovering from setbacks. Following these steps will help guide you through the difficult circumstances, rebuild your reputation, and chart a new future. The authors also explore strategies for surmounting common barriers to career recovery, including tricky corporate cultures and psychological stresses. Anchored in decades of research and scholarly studies across multiple fields, this book is packed with engrossing stories and first-hand accounts from humbled but restored CEOs and executives from firms as diverse as General Electric, The Home Depot, Morgan Stanley, Apple, Staples, and Hewlett-Packard. Firing Back offers a clear plan for anyone who needs to recover from a career setback and reclaim lost prestige and reputation - whether the setback stemmed from his own actions or forces outside her control.

Whether challenged with taking on a startup, turning a business around, or inheriting a high-performing unit, a new leader's success or failure is determined within the first 90 days on the job. In this hands-on guide, Michael Watkins, a noted expert on leadership transitions, offers proven strategies for moving successfully into a new role at any point in one's career. The First 90 Days provides a framework for transition acceleration that will help leaders diagnose their situations, craft winning transition strategies, and take charge quickly. Practical examples illustrate how to learn about new organizations, build teams, create coalitions, secure early wins, and lay the foundation for longer-term success. In addition, Watkins provides strategies for avoiding the most common pitfalls new leaders encounter, and shows how individuals can protect themselves-emotionally as well as professionally-during what is often an intense and vulnerable period. Concise and actionable, this is the survival guide no new leader should be without.

In A First-Rate Madness, Nassir Ghaemi, who runs the Mood Disorders Program at Tufts Medical Center, draws from the careers and personal plights of such notable leaders as Lincoln, Churchill, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., JFK, and others from the past two centuries to build an argument at once controversial and compelling: the very qualities that mark those with mood disorders- realism, empathy, resilience, and creativity-also make for the best leaders in times of crisis. By combining astute analysis of the historical evidence with the latest psychiatric research, Ghaemi demonstrates how these qualities have produced brilliant leadership under the toughest circumstances. Ghaemi's thesis is both robust and expansive; he even explains why eminently sane men like Neville Chamberlain and George W. Bush made such poor leaders. Though sane people are better shepherds in good times, sanity can be a severe liability in moments of crisis. A lifetime without the cyclical torment of mood disorders, Ghaemi explains, can leave one ill equipped to endure dire straits. He also clarifies which kinds of insanity-like psychosis-make for despotism and ineptitude, sometimes on a grand scale. Ghaemi's bold, authoritative analysis offers powerful new tools for determining who should lead us. But perhaps most profoundly, he encourages us to rethink our view of mental illness as a purely negative phenomenon. As A First-Rate Madness makes clear, the most common types of insanity can confer vital benefits on individuals and society at large-however high the price for those who endure these illnesses.

With Peter Drucker's five essential questions and the help of five of today's thought leaders, this little book will challenge readers to take a close look at the very heart of their organizations and what drives them. A tool for self-assessment and transformation, answering these five questions will fundamentally change the way you work, helping you lead your organization to an exceptional level of performance. These essential questions, grounded in Peter Drucker's theories of management, will take readers on a exploration of organizational and personal self-discovery, giving them a means to assess how to be—how to develop quality, character, mind-set, values and courage. The questions lead to action. By asking these questions, readers can focus on why they are doing what they are doing in their work, and how to do it better. Designed for today's busy professionals, this brief, clear and accessible book will challenge readers to ask these provocative questions and it will stimulate spirited discussions and action within any organization, inspiring positive change and new levels of excellence, helping all to envision the future of theirs' or any organization.

If you are a manager or a training and development professional, you need concrete suggestions for guiding your organization through rapidly changing conditions and difficult challenges. Flexible Leadership offers a comprehensive theory that integrates findings from different disciplines and more than a half century of research and explains how leaders can effectively enhance the bottom-line performance of their organizations. The authors provide illustrative examples of effective and ineffective leadership, including some from their own consulting experiences over the past 30 years in private and public sector organizations.

The author of the international bestseller Emotional Intelligence returns with a groundbreaking look at today's scarcest resource and the secret to high performance and fulfillment: attention. For more than two decades, psychologist and journalist Daniel Goleman has been scouting the leading edge of the human sciences for what's new, surprising, and important. In Focus, he delves into the science of attention in all its varieties, presenting a long-overdue discussion of this little-noticed and underrated mental asset that matters enormously for how we navigate life. Attention works much like a muscle: use it poorly and it can wither; work it well and it grows. In an era of unstoppable distractions, Goleman persuasively argues that now more than ever we must learn to sharpen focus if we are to contend with, let alone thrive in, a complex world. Goleman analyzes attention research as a threesome: inner, other, and outer focus. A well-lived life demands that we be nimble at each. Those who excel rely on what Goleman calls smart practice—such as mindfulness meditation, focused preparation and recovery from setbacks, continued attention to the learning curve, and positive emotions and connections—that help them improve habits, add new skills, and sustain excellence. Focus reveals what distinguishes experts from amateurs and stars from average performers. Ultimately, Focus calls upon readers not only to pay attention to what matters most to them personally, but also to turn their attention to the pressing problems of the wider world, to the powerless and the poor, and to the future, not just to the seductively simple demands of the here and now.

Our youngest leaders matured in the glow of computer screens; our oldest in the shadow of the Depression and World War II. In a groundbreaking study of these two disparate groups - affectionately labeled "geeks" and "geezers" - leadership experts Warren G. Bennis and Robert J. Thomas set out to find how era and values shape those who lead. What they discovered was something even more profound: the powerful process through which leaders of any era emerge." Geeks and Geezers will forever change how we view leadership, but also how we reflect on our own formative experiences. Illustrated by compelling interviews with extraordinary individuals under thirty-five and over seventy years of age, the authors present a new model that predicts who is likely to become and remain a leader - and explains why others fail to rise to the challenge. At its heart are what the authors call "crucibles" - utterly transformational experiences from which one can emerge either hopelessly broken or powerfully emboldened to learn and to lead.

Google Executive Chairman and ex-CEO Eric Schmidt and former SVP of Products Jonathan Rosenberg came to Google over a decade ago as proven technology executives. At the time, the company was already well-known for doing things differently, reflecting the visionary--and frequently contrarian--principles of founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. If Eric and Jonathan were going to succeed, they realized they would have to relearn everything they thought they knew about management and business. Today, Google is a global icon that regularly pushes the boundaries of innovation in a variety of fields. HOW GOOGLE WORKS is an entertaining, page-turning primer containing lessons that Eric and Jonathan learned as they helped build the company. The authors explain how technology has shifted the balance of power from companies to consumers, and that the only way to succeed in this ever-changing landscape is to create superior products and attract a new breed of multifaceted employees whom Eric and Jonathan dub "smart creatives." Covering topics including corporate culture, strategy, talent, decision-making, communication, innovation, and dealing with disruption, the authors illustrate management maxims ("Consensus requires dissension," "Exile knaves but fight for divas," "Think 10X, not 10%") with numerous insider anecdotes from Google's history, many of which are shared here for the first time. In an era when everything is speeding up, the best way for businesses to succeed is to attract smart-creative people and give them an environment where they can thrive at scale. HOW GOOGLE WORKS explains how to do just that.

In this must-read book for anyone striving to succeed, pioneering psychologist Angela Duckworth shows parents, students, educators, athletes, and business people—both seasoned and new—that the secret to outstanding achievement is not talent but a special blend of passion and persistence she calls “grit.” Drawing on her own powerful story as the daughter of a scientist who frequently noted her lack of “genius,” Duckworth, now a celebrated researcher and professor, describes her early eye-opening stints in teaching, business consulting, and neuroscience, which led to the hypothesis that what really drives success is not “genius” but a unique combination of passion and long-term perseverance. In Grit, she takes readers into the field to visit cadets struggling through their first days at West Point, teachers working in some of the toughest schools, and young finalists in the National Spelling Bee. She also mines fascinating insights from history and shows what can be gleaned from modern experiments in peak performance. Finally, she shares what she’s learned from interviewing dozens of high achievers—from JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon to New Yorker cartoon editor Bob Mankoff to Seattle Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll. Among Grit’s most valuable insights: *Why any effort you make ultimately counts twice toward your goal *How grit can be learned, regardless of I.Q. or circumstances *How lifelong interest is triggered *How much of optimal practice is suffering and how much ecstasy *Which is better for your child—a warm embrace or high standards *The magic of the Hard Thing Rule Winningly personal, insightful, and even life-changing, Grit is a book about what goes through your head when you fall down, and how that—not talent or luck—makes all the difference.

The last twenty-five years have witnessed an explosion in the field of leadership education. This volume brings together leading international scholars across disciplines to chronicle the current state of leadership education and establish a solid foundation on which to grow the field. It encourages leadership educators to explore and communicate more clearly the theoretical underpinnings and conceptual assumptions on which their approaches are based. It provides a forum for the discussion of current issues and challenges in the field and examines the above objectives within the broader perspective of rapid changes in technology, organizational structure, and diversity.

The Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice seeks to bridge this disconnect. Based on the Harvard Business School Centennial Colloquium "Leadership: Advancing an Intellectual Discipline" and edited by HBS professors Nitin Nohria and Rakesh Khurana, this volume brings together the most important scholars from fields as diverse as psychology, sociology, economics, and history to take stock of what we know about leadership and to set an agenda for future research. More than a means of getting ahead and gaining power, leadership must be understood as a serious professional and personal responsibility. Featuring the thinking of today's most renowned scholars, the Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice will be a catalyst for elevating leadership to a higher intellectual plane - and help shape the research agenda for the next generation of leadership scholars.

A lot of people talk about how great it is to start a business, but only Ben Horowitz is brutally honest about how hard it is to run one. In The Hard Thing About Hard Things, Ben Horowitz, cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz and one of Silicon Valley's most respected and experienced entrepreneurs, draws on his own story of founding, running, selling, buying, managing, and investing in technology companies to offer essential advice and practical wisdom for navigating the toughest problems business schools don't cover. His blog has garnered a devoted following of millions of readers who have come to rely on him to help them run their businesses. A lifelong rap fan, Horowitz amplifies business lessons with lyrics from his favorite songs and tells it straight about everything from firing friends to poaching competitors, from cultivating and sustaining a CEO mentality to knowing the right time to cash in. His advice is grounded in anecdotes from his own hard-earned rise--from cofounding the early cloud service provider Loudcloud to building the phenomenally successful Andreessen Horowitz venture capital firm, both with fellow tech superstar Marc Andreessen (inventor of Mosaic, the Internet's first popular Web browser). This is no polished victory lap; he analyzes issues with no easy answers through his trials, including demoting (or firing) a loyal friend; whether you should incorporate titles and promotions, and how to handle them; if it's OK to hire people from your friend's company; how to manage your own psychology, while the whole company is relying on you; what to do when smart people are bad employees; why Andreessen Horowitz prefers founder CEOs, and how to become one; whether you should sell your company, and how to do it. Filled with Horowitz's trademark humor and straight talk, and drawing from his personal and often humbling experiences, The Hard Thing About Hard Things is invaluable for veteran entrepreneurs as well as those aspiring to their own new ventures.

Leadership has never played a more prominent role in America's national discourse, and yet our opinions of leaders are at all-time lows. Private sector leaders are widely seen as greedy to the point of being corrupt. Public sector leaders are viewed as incompetent to the point of being inept. And, levels of trust in government have plummeted. As the title of this book conveys, leaders in America are experiencing hard times. Barbara Kellerman argues that we focus on leaders, and even on followers, while ignoring an essential element of leadership: context. This book is a corrective. It enables leaders to track the terrain that they must navigate in order to create change. Rather than a handy-dandy manual on what to do and how to do it, Hard Times is structured as a checklist. Twenty-four brief sections cover key aspects of the American landscape. They trace evolutions and revolutions that have revised our norms, transformed our populations and institutions, and shifted our culture. Kellerman's crash course on context reveals how significant it is to leadership. Clearer still is the fact that leadership is more difficult than it has ever been. It is context that explains why leadership is so fraught with frustration. And, it is context that makes evident why leadership will be better exercised if it is better understood. Calling out patterns that emerge from the checklist, Kellerman challenges leaders to do better. This fascinating read will change the way that all of us think about leadership, while compelling us to consider what it means for our future.

How do leaders view themselves? What thought processes govern their actions? In this insightful book, renowned leadership experts, including Warren Bennis and Daniel Goleman, probe the fascinating psychology of leadership. From the impact of narcissism on leaders' effectiveness to the crises and challenges that each stage of leadership brings, this book helps leaders gain a deeper understanding of their complex role.

Go from being a good manager to an extraordinary leader. If you read nothing else on leadership, read these 10 articles. We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles on leadership and selected the most important ones to help you maximize your own and your organization's performance.

John Kotter's international bestseller Leading Change struck a powerful chord with legions of managers everywhere. It acknowledged the cynicism, pain, and fear they faced in implementing large-scale change—but also armed them with an eight-step plan of action for leaping boldly forward in a turbulent world. Now, Kotter and coauthor Dan S. Cohen delve deeper into the subject of change to get to the heart of how change actually happens. Through compelling, real-life stories from people in the trenches, in all kinds of organizations, the authors tackle the fundamental problem that underlies every major transformation: How do you go beyond simply getting your message across to truly changing people's behavior? Based on interviews within over 100 organizations in the midst of large-scale change, The Heart of Change delivers the simple yet provocative answer to this question, forever altering the way organizations and individuals approach change. While most companies believe change happens by making people think differently, Kotter and Cohen say the key lies in making them feel differently. They introduce a new dynamic—"see-feel-change"—that fuels action by showing people potent reasons for change that spark their emotions. For individuals in every walk of life and companies in every stage of change, this audiobook captures the heart—and the how—of successful change.

Frances Hesselbein was once a volunteer troop leader, made her way up to CEO of the Girl Scouts of America and is now the chairman of the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management. She obviously knows the intricacies of leadership, and in Hesselbein on Leadership, she shares specific leadership principles and her thoughts on innovation, change, diversity and being a female leader. The slim volume dishes out valuable tidbits of advice, such as "regularly acknowledge the contributions of those within and outside the organization" and "create organizations in which people know that it's their job... to care about the results." (Sept.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Dale Carnegie was a highly successful public speaker and author of books on public speaking and confidence development. How to Win Friends and Influence People provides practical advice on the universal challenges of face-to-face communication. As the familiarity of the title proves, the book has had a great impact. The first edition had a print run of a mere 5,000, but the book has since sold over 15 million copies. Carnegie holds it essential to handle people effecticvely, and to make them like you to ensure your own success. His book is littered with illustrative anecdotes from lives of the famous--Clark Gable, Marconi, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Mary Pickford--and the not so famous. Carnegie presented the fundamental techniques in handling people: don't criticize, condemn, or complain; give honest and sincere appreciation; arouse in the other person an eager want. He added advice on other ways to make people like you: become genuinely interested in other people; smile; remember that a person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language; be a good listener; encourage others to talk about themselves; talk in term's of the other person's interests; make the other person feel important, and do it sincerely.

Great business leaders possess more than celebrated traits like charisma and an appetite for risk. They have "contextual intelligence"-a profound ability to understand the zeitgeist of their times and harness it to create successful organizations. Based on a comprehensive Harvard Business School Leadership Initiative study, Anthony J. Mayo and Nitin Nohria present a fascinating collection of stories of the twentieth century's greatest leaders, from unsung heroes to legends like Sam Walton and Bill Gates. The book identifies three distinct paths these individuals followed to greatness: entrepreneurial innovation, savvy management, and transformational leadership. Through engaging stories of leaders in each category, the authors show how, by "reading" the context they operated in and embracing the opportunities their times presented, these individuals created, grew, or revitalized outstanding American enterprises. A canon of leadership success from the last century, In Their Time reveals insights for contemporary leaders hoping to build lasting legacies.

Will your next leader be insignificant-or indispensable?The importance of leadership and the impact of individual leaders has long been the subject of debate. Are they made 'by' history, or do they make it?In 'Indispensable', Harvard Business School professor Gautam Mukunda offers an enticingly fresh look at how and when individual leaders really can make a difference. By identifying and analyzing the hidden patterns of their careers, and by exploring the systems that place these leaders in positions of power, 'Indispensable' sheds new light on how we may be able to identify the best leaders and what lessons we can learn, from both the process and the result.Profiling a mix of historic and modern figures-from Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln to Winston Churchill and Judah Folkman-and telling the stories of how they came to power and how they made the most important decisions of their lives, 'Indispensable' reveals how, when, and where a single individual in the right place at the right time can save or destroy the organization they lead, and even change the course of history. 'Indispensable' will also help you understand this new model so you can use it in your own life-whether you're a citizen casting a ballot, an executive choosing your next CEO, or a leader trying to make your mark.

One American in ten tells the other nine how to vote, where to eat, and what to buy. They are The Influentials Who are they? The most influential Americans -- the ones who tell their neighbors what to buy, which politicians to support, and where to vacation -- are not necessarily the people you'd expect. They're not America's most affluent 10 percent or best-educated 10 percent. They're not the ""early adopters,"" always the first to try everything from Franco-Polynesian fusion cooking to digital cameras. They are, however, the 10 percent of Americans most engaged in their local communities...and they wield a huge amount of influence within those communities. They're the campaigners for open-space initiatives. They're church vestrymen and friends of the local public library. They're the Influentials...and whether or not they are familiar to you, they're very well known to the researchers at RoperASW. For decades, these researchers have been on a quest for marketing's holy grail: that elusive but supremely powerful channel known as word of mouth. What they've learned is that even more important than the ""word"" -- what is said -- is the ""mouth"" -- who says it. They've identified, studied, and analyzed influence in America since the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey (now Exxon) hired Elmo Roper himself to develop a model for identifying opinion leaders, and in The Influentials, they are finally ready to share their results.

Widely acknowledged as the world's foremost authority on leadership, John Kotter has devoted his remarkable career to studying organizations and those who run them, and his bestselling books and essays have guided and inspired leaders at all levels. Here, in this collection of his acclaimed Harvard Business Review articles, is an astute assessment of the real work of leaders, as only John Kotter can offer. To complement these articles, Kotter also contributes a new introduction, a thoughtful reflection on the themes that have developed throughout his work. Convinced that most organizations today lack the leadership they need, Kotter's mission is to help us better understand what leaders-real leaders-do. True leadership, he reminds us, is an elusive quality, and too often we confuse management duties and personal style with leadership, or even mistake unworthy leaders for the real thing. Yet without leadership, organizations move too slowly, stagnate, and lose their way. With John Kotter on What Leaders Really Do, readers will learn how to become more effective leaders as they explore pressing issues such as power, influence, dependence, and strategies for change. With the relentless change and escalating uncertainty that define our times, the need for strong leadership in business, government, and society has never been greater. Careers, customers, and communities all suffer in a poorly run enterprise. Sure to be eagerly embraced by Kotter's huge global following, John Kotter on What Leaders Really Do provides an invaluable opportunity to consider the core issues that lie at the heart of leadership and to rethink our own relationship to the work of leaders.

The Jossey-Bass Handbook of Nonprofit Leadership and Management offers a comprehensive and in-depth description of the most effective leadership and management practices that can be applied throughout a nonprofit organization. This second edition of the best-selling handbook brings together the leading experts in the nonprofit field to discuss the current knowledge and trends of effective practice in all phases of nonprofit organization leadership and management. This thoroughly revised edition is based on the most up-to-date research, theory, and experience. It offers practical advice on every aspect of managing nonprofit organizations, including board development, strategic planning, lobbying, marketing, government contracting, volunteer programs, fund-raising, financial accounting, compensation and benefits programs, and risk management. In addition, this new edition examines emerging topics of interest such as strategic alliances and finding and keeping the right employees.

Davenport and Brook Manville share 12 stories of organizations that have successfully tapped their data assets, diverse perspectives, and deep knowledge to build an organizational decision-making capability to develop a model for leaders to follow.

Since it was published in 1996, The Leader of the Future has become a standard in the field, breaking new ground in leadership literature to establish itself as one of the most widely distributed, bestselling edited collections on the topic. Now, ten years later, with all new contributions, The Leader of the Future 2 again gives voice to the most critical issues and transformative ideas of our day. This book features a Who's Who of today's top leadership thinkers from the private, public, and social sectors. A number of thought leaders from the first. Leader of the Future return, along with some exciting newcomers, to offer new insights, inspiration, and wisdom that will resonate for decades to come.

Since its premier issue, the award-winning journal Leader to Leader has presented the best thinking of leaders, for leaders. This first collection of articles from the journal brings together the timely but classic wisdom of world-renowned leaders, best-selling writers, legendary thinkers, and esteemed business philosophers. Though the authors write from diverse perspectives and present their own thoughts, they weave a coherent tapestry of themes. The chapters present a vital examination of mission, leadership, innovation, the discipline of transformation, and the building of effective, productive institutions.

Leader to Leader 2 brings together the best and most popular articles from the award-winning journal Leader to Leader by some of the best-selling authors and thought leaders of our day. With thirty-five new chapters not included in the previous volume, this book is designed as a resource for leaders at all levels. Each of the book’s five parts opens with guidance and ideas on how to enact the concepts discussed, practical action steps, thought-provoking questions, and handy tools.

Recently, the nation's top business researchers and practitioners gathered on the University of Southern California campus. They came together at the invitation of USC's Leadership Institute and the Center for Effective Organizations, two of the country's premier think tanks on leadership and change. Their mission: to collaborate on a book that would present the most advanced ideas about the role of leaders as they attempt to radically transform their organizations. This elite group of thinkers, influential authors, and business gurus shared their experiences and conspired to create the most up-to-date and authoritative work in the field. The result is The Leader's Change Handbook. The Leader's Change Handbook contains the best new thinking from each of its distinguished contributors on the twin challenges leaders face as they try to create leaner, more responsive organizations while empowering their workforces. This compilation of essays is a unique synthesis of wisdom and insight presented by a coterie of business luminaries'David Nadler, Richard Pascale, Bob Quinn, Christopher Bartlett, Ron Heifetz, and Susan Mohrman among them'working toward a common vision. Each chapter offers specific solutions for executives, managers and human resource professionals struggling to implement change within their organizations. This comprehensive handbook outlines the key elements of effective change management, expands the traditional notions of leadership, and anticipates the future of organizational transformation.

This leadership classic continues to be a bestseller after three editions and 20 years in print. It is the gold standard for research-based leadership, and the premier resource on becoming a leader. This new edition, with streamlined text, more international and business examples, and a graphic redesign, is more readable and accessible to business readers than ever before, and will prove to be the best edition yet.

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian James MacGregor Burns has devoted his legendary career to the study of leadership in all its aspects from politics to business. Leadership, Burns's pioneering study, introduces the highly influential theory of "transformational leadership," stating that the best leaders are those who inspire others to come together toward the achievement of higher aims. Featuring fascinating case studies drawn from history, Leadership is the classic text for anyone seeking to understand executive decision-making, the dynamics of influence, and moral leadership.

Too many leadership failures. Too many career derailments. Too many toxic workplaces filled with disengaged, distrustful employees. Jeffrey Pfeffer, a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the author of Power, offers an incisive dissection of the multibillion-dollar leadership industry and presents ways to fix its many problems. In Leadership BS, Jeffrey Pfeffer pulls back the curtain, showing how leadership really works and why so many leadership development efforts fail. In this forthright and persuasive critique, Pfeffer argues that much of the oft-repeated wisdom about leadership is based more on hope than reality, on wishes rather than data, on beliefs instead of science. In an age when transparency is considered a virtue, Pfeffer makes the case that strategic misrepresentation isn't as harmful as you think, that breached agreements are a part of business, that immodesty is frequently a path to success, and that relying on the magnanimity of your boss is a bad bet. Using research findings from social psychology, sociology, and sociobiology, and filled with practical, actionable advice, Leadership BS encourages readers to finally stop accepting sugar-laced but toxic potions as cures and to understand the realities of organizations and human behavior. To make real change, Pfeffer argues, we need to get beyond the half-truths and self-serving stories that are so prominent in the mythology of leadership. In calling BS on so much conventional wisdom, Leadership BS offers both a provocative, scientific examination of how leadership actually works—and how it doesn't—and a prescription for leaders future and present.

What is leadership? Are leaders made or born? Are the characteristics and challenges of leadership the same across time and cultures? Do leaders "pull" or are they "pushed"? Are leaders driven by needs that may be dysfunctional to the organizations they lead? Do women leaders behave differently from men? Should we look for models of business and organizational leadership in military organizations? These are all just some of the many fascinating questions posed in this new collection, which ranges from key statements from classical philosophy (Plato, Sun Tzu, Machiavelli) to those of modern management writers (Barnard, Kets de Vries, Fiedler, Rosener). The latest in the new series Oxford Management Readers, the collection will be invaluable to a wide range of students, scholars, and practicing managers.

Executive coaching is an increasingly popular means for developing organizational leaders. This sourcebook provides a resource for both practioners and researchers interested in gaining or updating their understanding of the current state of the executive coaching field and to enable them to do so in a systematic manner. By focusing on key research and practice in the executive coaching literature, this sourcebook provides not only a mechanism for consolidating our thinking about leadership coaching issues but also a succinct reference for building future research efforts.

It's a question that has been tackled by many, many business thinkers. In fact, there are literally tens of thousands of leadership studies, theories, frameworks, models, and recommended best practices. But where are the clear, simple answers we need for our daily work lives? Are there any?" "Dave Ulrich, Norm Smallwood, and Kate Sweetman set out to answer these questions - to crack the code of leadership. Drawing on decades of research experience, the authors conducted extensive interviews with the thought leaders in this field - and heard the same five essentials repeated again and again. These five rules became The Leadership Code." In The Leadership Code, the authors break down great leadership into day-to-day actions, so that you know what to do on Monday morning. Crack the leadership code - and take your leadership to the next level.

Why do some companies consistently win in the marketplace while others struggle from crisis to crisis? The answer, says Noel Tichy, is that winning companies possess a "Leadership Engine" - a proven system for creating dynamic leaders at every level. Technologies, products and economies constantly change. To get ahead and stay ahead, companies need agile, flexible, innovative leaders who can anticipate change and turn on a dime to respond to new realities. Fortunately, says Tichy, just as everyone has untapped athletic potential, everyone has untapped leadership potential that can be developed. Winning leaders and winning organizations have figured out how to do it. Winning companies are successful because they can adapt and capitalize on their unique circumstances - so no two are alike. Yet, their Leadership Engines make them champions by developing leaders who have clear, teachable points of view that they use to foster the abilities of others in four critical areas: developing good business ideas, instilling values that support the successful implementation of those ideas, generating positive energy in themselves and others, and making tough decisions. Noel Tichy not only offers a major contribution to the understanding of how successful leadership works, but provides proven methods for leaders developing leaders in any company or organization. The "Handbook for Leaders Developing Leaders," located at the end of the book, provides hands-on development activities that you can use to improve your own leadership abilities and develop other leaders in your organization.

Leadership in Dangerous Situations provides in-depth coverage of the key psychological, social and organization factors that impact individual and organizational effectiveness for First Responders in dangerous environments. Leading scholars discuss how current theories and empirical research provides guidelines to help solve the challenges leaders are likely to face in dangerous contexts. This book is directed to First Responders leaders from the Military, Law Enforcement, Fire, Emergency Services and Not-for profit agencies working in dangerous areas. The purpose of this book is to assist the First Responders who risk their lives to serve the public, to prepare for the unique challenges of leading and operating in dangerous situations. Dangerous situations are environments where group members must routinely engage in events that place their physical and psychological well-being at risk to accomplish the organization’s objectives. International scholars and practitioners from the military, law enforcement, fire and rescue, teamed together to address the unique challenges facing dangerous context leaders. The contributing authors delve into the psychological, social, and physical factors that can impact the ability to lead, the ability of personnel to perform, and the organization’s ability to accomplish the mission. In the end, the leader will take away not only a understanding of how leading in dangerous contexts is different than leading in contexts where lives are not on the line, but also gain a deeper understanding of why it differs, where commonalities occur, and – perhaps more importantly – how to prepare leaders, whether military or civilian to guide their first responder organizations to perform successfully in dangerous situations.

The most comprehensive survey of major theories and research on leadership and managerial effectiveness in organizations with practical suggestions for improving skills. Balancing theory and research with applications, the book addresses controversies and differing viewpoints about leadership effectiveness with a focus on the question of what makes a person an effective leader. Covering charismatic and transformational leadership as well as influence processes, it asks readers to identify effective and ineffective behavior by managers and to suggest ways to handle the situation. The fourth edition of Leadership in Organizations has been revised to reflect the progress that has been made in understanding leadership since the first edition. It provides more guidelines and recommendations for improving effectiveness without prescribing how a manager must behave. And, it covers "hot" topics, such as charismatic and transformational leadership, influence processes, leading teams, and leading change. An essential reference on management and leadership for every professional manager.

"Your business can have all the advantages in the world; strong financial resources, enviable market position, and state-of-the-art technology, but if leadership fails, all of these advantages melt away." - Manfred Kets de Vries Organizations are like automobiles. They don't run themselves, except downhill. Leadership now, requires very different behavior from the leadership tradition we are used to. It requires leaders who speak to the collective imagination of their people, co-opting them to join in the business journey; leaders who are able to motivate people to full commitment and have them make that extra effort. It's all about human behavior. It's about understanding the way people and organizations behave, about creating relationships, about building commitment, and about adapting your behavior to lead in a creative and motivating way. So, ask yourself what you're doing about the leadership factor. How do you execute your own leadership style? Whether you work on the shop floor or have a corner office on the top floor of a shimmering skyscraper, what have you done today to be more effective as a leader? There are no quick answers to leadership questions, and there are no easy solutions. In fact, the more we learn the more it seems there is to learn. InThe Leadership Mystique, management and psychology guru Manfred Kets de Vries unpicks the many layers of complexity that underlie effective leadership, and gets to the heart of the day-to-day behavior of leading people in the human enterprise.

Thirty leaders, researchers, academics, and consultant—all but one from the U.S.—contribute to a selection of the latest work available on leadership in various sectors, current and future challenges faced by today's organizations, and numerous methods for responding to those challenges. Twenty chapters are organized into sections on leadership in for-profit, not-for-profit, and government organizations; leadership across multiple organizational contexts; and global leadership issues and challenges. The collection offers practical recommendations to benefit leaders at all levels of an organization regardless of the sector.

Today a growing number of business schools, law schools, and continuing education programs in executive development and management training offer leadership classes. Despite the curricular recognition of this area, there is a shortage of strong college-level texts. Leadership, second edition-a completely up-to-date anthology of key writings by well-known contributors-meets the need for a textbook that encompasses the major theories in the field of leadership. Robert P. Vecchio has updated the second edition with eight new chapters. Aimed at upper-level undergraduate and graduate-level courses, Leadership continues to provide classic essays by the major figures in the field of leadership along with topical essays on current and emerging issues.

The economy uncertain, education in decline, cities under siege, crime and poverty spiraling upward, international relations roiling: we look to leaders for solutions, and when they don't deliver, we simply add their failure to our list of woes. In doing do, we do them and ourselves a grave disservice. We are indeed facing an unprecedented crisis of leadership, Ronald Heifetz avows, but it stems as much from our demands and expectations as from any leader's inability to meet them. His book gets at both of these problems, offering a practical approach to leadership for those who lead as well as those who look to them for answers. Fitting the theory and practice of leadership to our extraordinary times, the book promotes a new social contract, a revitalization of our civic life just when we most need it. Drawing on a dozen years of research among managers, officers, and politicians in the public realm and the private sector, among the nonprofits, and in teaching, Heifetz presents clear, concrete prescriptions for anyone who needs to take the lead in almost any situation, under almost any organizational conditions, no matter who is in charge, His strategy applies not only to people at the top but also to those who must lead without authority—activists as well as presidents, managers as well as workers on the front line.

In Leading Beyond the Walls, twenty-nine great thinkers examine leaders adept at establishing partnerships, alliances, and networks both within and outside their organizations. They address the challenge of leading in an age when the old rules and conventional boundaries no longer exist. Peter F. Drucker, Stephen R. Covey, Peter M. Senge, Jim Collins, Noel Tichy, Regina E. Herzlinger, C.K. Prahalad, and Sally Helgesen are among those who explore new ways of building relationships, new approaches to strategy and marketing, new models of employee relations, and other innovations. Their essays herald a new world where success comes to those willing to move beyond the walls of tradition and inertia.

In this second volume of The Drucker Foundation's Wisdom to Action Series, twenty-seven remarkable thought leaders help today's leaders meet the challenge of releasing the power of innovation. Leading for Innovation brings together Clayton M. Christensen, Jim Collins, Howard Gardner, Charles Handy, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, C. William Pollard, Margaret Wheatley, and other thought leaders to offer you practical guidance on leading your organization to a new dimension of performance. This unprecedented collection explores the unique qualities required to lead innovators, and shows you the way to develop a culture that promotes innovation. The contributors encourage you to take the time to think about innovation and describe how you must abandon practices that no longer work for advancing the practice of innovation. Filled with specific examples of the hands-on work needed to make innovation a reality for leaders and their organizations, Leading for Innovation offers a wealth of thoughtful and incisive essays that will help leaders everywhere take their organizations and communities to a new level of excellence.

Based on more than a thousand in-depth interviews with black executives as well as on the authors' own extensive experience in training leaders— and as leaders themselves— Leading in Black and White reveals the everyday reality for African American executives in the predominantly white world of American business, education, and government. Ancella Livers and Keith Caver— from the highly acclaimed Center for Creative Leadership— give a clear picture to all executives of the challenges black leaders face and offer solid recommendations to both white and black managers on how to work together more effectively.

In Leading Minds, Gardner and his research associate at Harvard Project Zero, Emma Laskin, apply a cognitive lens to leadership, drawing on Gardner’s groundbreaking work on intelligence and creativity to offer fascinating revelations about the minds of leaders and those who follow them. This reissue includes a new introduction by the author.

Most of us think of leaders as courageous risk takers, orchestrators of major events - in a word, heroes. Yet while such figures are inspiring and admirable, Harvard Business School Professor Joseph Badaracco argues that their larger-than-life accomplishments are simply not what makes the world work. What does, he says, is the sum of millions of small yet consequential decisions that men and women working far from the limelight make every day: how a line worker for a pharmaceutical company responds when he discovers a defect in a product's safety seal; how a manager deals with a valued employee suspected of stealing; how a trader handles a transaction error that will cost a client money. Badaracco calls them "quiet leaders" - people who choose responsible, behind-the-scenes action over public heroism to resolve tough leadership challenges. These individuals don't fit the stereotype of the bold and gutsy leader, and they don't want to. What they want is to do the "right thing" for their organizations, their coworkers, and themselves. They do so by being baldly realistic about the complexities of their own motives and those of the dilemmas they face. In today's fast and fluid business world, nothing is as it seems. And they know it. Badaracco presents eight practical and counterintuitive guidelines for confronting situations in which right and wrong seem like moving targets. He shows how these "non-heroes" succeed by managing their political capital, buying themselves time, bending the rules, and more.

Thirty years after women became 50 percent of the college graduates in the United States, men still hold the vast majority of leadership positions in government and industry. This means that womens voices are still not heard equally in the decisions that most affect our lives. In "Lean In, " Sheryl Sandberg examines why womens progress in achieving leadership roles has stalled, explains the root causes, and offers compelling, commonsense solutions that can empower women to achieve their full potential. Sandberg is the chief operating officer of Facebook and is ranked on "Fortune"s list of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business and as one of "Time"s 100 Most Influential People in the World. In 2010, she gave an electrifying TEDTalk in which she described how women unintentionally hold themselves back in their careers. Her talk, which became a phenomenon and has been viewed more than two million times, encouraged women to "sit at the table," seek challenges, take risks, and pursue their goals with gusto. In "Lean In, " Sandberg digs deeper into these issues, combining personal anecdotes, hard data, and compelling research to cut through the layers of ambiguity and bias surrounding the lives and choices of working women. Sandbergs book is an inspiring call to action and a blueprint for individual growth. "Lean In" is destined to change the conversation from what women cant do to what they can.

From the bestselling authors of The Leadership Challenge and over a dozen award winning leadership books, James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner have written a new book that examines a fundamental question: How do people learn leadership?  How do they learn to become leaders?   Learning Leadership: The Five Fundamentals of Becoming an Exemplary Leader (ISBN: 978-1-119-14428-1; Wiley; May 2016) is a comprehensive guide to unleashing the inner-leader in us all and to building a solid foundation for a lifetime of leadership growth and mastery.  The book offers a concrete framework to help individuals of all levels, functions, and backgrounds take charge of their own leadership development and become the best leaders they can be. Arguing that all individuals are born with the capacity to lead, Kouzes and Posner provide readers with a practical series of actions and specific coaching tips for harnessing that capacity and creating a context in which they can excel., Supported by over 30 years of research, from over seventy countries, and with examples from real-world leaders, Learning Leadership is a clarion call to unleash the leadership potential that is already present in today''s society.   According to Kouzes and Posner, "Leadership makes a significant difference in levels of engagement and commitment and is perhaps the most important asset in every organization, yet recent research points to a shortage of leaders. It is a serious global concern. The world needs more exemplary leaders in order to promote high-performing workplaces and inspire feelings of greater self-worth and meaningfulness. The shortage, however, is not because of the lack of potential talent. The people are out there, the eagerness is out there, and the capability is out there. The shortage results from prevailing myths--myths about talent, strengths, position, self-reliance, and effort--that inhibit the vast majority of leaders from shining and organizations from realizing the full benefits of the talent they already have."   Learning Leadership provides readers with evidence-based strategies to ignite the habit of continuous improvement and the mindset of becoming the best leaders they can be. Emerging leaders, as well as leadership developers, internal and external coaches and trainers, and other human resource professionals will learn from first-hand stories and practical examples so that they can deeply understand and apply the fundamental for becoming the best leaders they can be.   Learning Leadership: The Five Fundamentals of Becoming an Exemplary Leader is divided into digestible bite-sized chapters that encourage daily actions to becoming a better leader. Key takeaways from the book include:   Believe in Yourself.  Believing in oneself is the essential first step in developing leadership competencies. The best leaders are learners, and they can''t achieve mastery until and unless they truly decide that inside them there is a person who can make and difference and learn to be a better leader than they are right now. Aspire to Excel. To become an exemplary leader, people have to determine what they care most about and why they want to lead. Leaders with values-based motivations are the most likely to excel. They also must have a clear image of the kind of leader they want to be in the future--and the legacy they want to leave for others.   Challenge Yourself. Challenging oneself is critical to learning leadership. Leaders have to seek new experiences and test themselves. There will be inevitable setbacks and failures along the way that require curiosity, grit, courage, and resilience in order to persist in learning and becoming the best. Engage Support. One can''t lead alone, and one can''t learn alone.It is essential to get support and coaching on the path to achieving excellence. Whether it''s family, managers at work, or professional coaches, leaders need the advice, feedback, care, and support of others. Practice Deliberately. No one gets better at anything without continuous practice. Exemplary leaders spend more time practicing than ordinary leaders. Simply being in the role of a leader is insufficient. To achieve mastery, leaders must set improvement goals, participate in designed learning experiences, ask for feedback, and get coaching. They also put in the time every day and make learning leadership a daily habit.   Kouzes and Posner offer unrivaled insights into what it means to become an exemplary leader in today''s world with their original research and over 30 years of experience studying the practices of extraordinary leadership. They show that anyone can become a better leader if they believe in themselves, aspire to excel, challenge themselves, to grow, engage the support of others, and practice deliberately.  Learning Leadership challenges readers to do the meaningful and disciplined work necessary to becoming the best they can, using a new mindset and toolkit that can make extraordinary things happen.  It''s not the once-in-a-while transformational acts that demonstrate leadership. It''s the little things that one does day in and day out that pave the path to greatness.

Over his distinguished career Warren Bennis has shown that leaders are made, not born. In Learning to Lead, written in partnership with management development expert Joan Goldsmith, Bennis provides a program that will help managers transform themselves into leaders. Using wise insights from the world’s best leaders, helpful self-assessments, and dozens of one-day skill-building exercises, Bennis and Goldsmith show in Learning to Lead how to see beyond leadership myths and communicate vision to others. With updates throughout, Learning to Lead is both a workbook and a deeply considered treatise on the nature of leadership by two of its finest and most experienced practitioners—and teachers.

John Whitehead began life in Montclair, New Jersey, as a child of the Depression and went on to lead an exemplary life in the years of the Greatest Generation. In this intimate, charming autobiography, he shares his stories and the lessons he’s learned about quiet leadership.He describes how on D-Day he commanded one of the landing crafts at Omaha Beach, and witnessed one of the greatest battles in American military history. Later, in his role as co-chair of Goldman Sachs, he was one of the pioneers of the globalization of international finance that was to change the face of American business. In 1985, Whitehead was appointed Deputy Secretary of State under President Ronald Reagan and became the architect of the Reagan administration’s successful efforts to wean the countries of Eastern Europe from the Soviet Union and to open up space there for the democratic movements that eventually resulted in the fall of the Berlin Wall.Most recently, he was appointed by New York Governor George Pataki as Chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, which is charged with the task of rebuilding Ground Zero. Whitehead provides a first-hand account of the difficult decisions the LMDC has made in meeting its goals of re-developing lower Manhattan and honoring the victims of 9/11 as the capstone of his remarkable career.

A practical guide to navigating workplace conflicts by better understanding the power dynamics at play in every interaction Conflicts at work are as inevitable as they are frustrating. In Making Conflict Work, Peter Coleman and Robert Ferguson's leading experts in the field of conflict resolution address the key role of power in workplace tension. Whether you're butting heads with your boss or addressing a direct report's complaint, your relative position of power affects how you approach conflict. Coleman and Ferguson explain how power dynamics function, with step-by-step guidance to determining your standing in a conflict and identifying and applying the strategies that will lead to the best resolution. Drawing on the authors' years of research and consulting experience, the book gives readers effective strategies for negotiating disputes at all levels of an organization. Making Conflict Work includes self-assessment exercises and action plans to guide managers, mediators, consultants, and attorneys through any conflict. This powerful approach can turn workplace tensions into catalysts for creativity, innovation, and meaningful change.

Management Skills contains the best thinking from the biggest names in business management on a wide range of subjects including leadership, shaping the work environment, change, communicating, hiring and motivating employees, leading teams, and much more. The author list of this invaluable resource reads like a who's who of business management. This extraordinary collection features chapters from Robert R. Albright, David Batstone, Warren Bennis, Lee G. Bolman, Richaurd Camp, David R. Caruso, Terrene E. Deal, Christina A. Douglas, Peter Drucker, Deborah L. Duarte, Michael Finley, J. Davidson Frame, Bill George, T. George Harris, Todd D. Jick, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, James M. Kouzes, Edward E. Lawler III, Patrick Lencioni, Clinton O. Longenecker, David H. Maister, Marick F. Masters, Cynthia D. McCauley, Patrick J. McKenna, Henry Mintzberg, Dana M. Muir, David A. Nadler, Mark B. Nadler, Burt Nanus, Parker J. Palmer, Terry Pearce, Jeffrey Pfeffer, Barry Z. Posner, Robert E. Quinn, Kathleen Kelley Reardon, Harvey Robbins, Peter Salovey, Steven B. Sample, Jack L. Simonetti, Douglas K. Smith, Nancy Tennant Snyder, Barry A. Stein, Robert I. Sutton, and Mary E. Vielhaber.

One of the great challenges any business or organization can face is how to deal with the unexpected. While traditional managerial practices such as planning are designed to manage unexpected threats, they often make things worse. How do you organize for high performance in a setting where the potential for error and disaster is overwhelming? In this book, the ninth in the University of Michigan Business School Management Series, Karl Weick and Kathleen Sutcliffe look to high reliability organizations (HROs)? aircraft carriers, nuclear power plants, fire-fighting crews, and others-for the answer. HROs have developed ways of acting that provide a template for all organizations that want to be more reliable in managing the unexpected. Managing the Unexpected shows executives and upper level managers how to manage under trying conditions. The authors reveal how HROs create a collective state of mindfulness that produces an enhanced ability to discover and correct errors before they escalate into a crisis. Through a discussion of this principle and the practices that can be used to apply it, the authors show how to anticipate and respond to threats with flexibility rather than rigidity. Their practical, solutions-oriented approach includes numerous case studies demonstrating "mindful" practices and enables readers to assess and implement mindfulness in their own organizations.

In The Many Facets of Leadership, more than 40 top leadership experts share their insights on every aspect of leadership in the 21st century. This book brings together new ideas and techniques for leading change, promoting learning and innovation, handling complexity and crisis, overcoming blind spots, managing knowledge workers, coaching tomorrow's leaders, increasing value, retaining customers, and much more.

Porter, Bigley, and Steers' 7th edition of Motivation and Work Behavior is a scholarly reader/text designed for upper-level and MBA courses in Motivation and Organizational Behavior. The 7th Edition's new title and content demonstrates the text's concentration on the major contemporary theories, research, and applications specifically related to the topic of motivation and work behavior.The vast majority of the material in the revision is entirely new and several articles were written specifically for inclusion in the 7th Edition of Motivation and Work Behavior. The readings and cases nature of the text encourages critical thinking and applied learning of major academic theories.

Tracing her development as a leader, Frances Hesselbein reveals her remarkable personal story and the principles that have served and guided her well throughout her extraordinary life. Written in an intimate and compelling voice, this book delivers key leadership lessons applicable to leaders in every walk of life. My Life in Leadership offers a look at what shaped Frances Hesselbein personally and as a leader, from her youth in the hills western Pennsylvania to her professional journey with the Girl Scouts of the USA where she went from troop leader to transformational CEO, to how Peter Drucker handpicked her to found and lead the Drucker Foundation, and how she later transitioned the Foundation to the Leader to Leader Institute. With excitement and humility, she relives the key moments that have shaped her life of leadership including the day she received the country’s highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. This remarkable book also includes stories about her world travels to deliver her message of leadership and her notable experiences with as well as what she has learned from some of the most distinguished leaders of our time including Peter Drucker, John Gardner, Max DePree, Presidents Clinton and Reagan, General Eric Shinseki, Jim Collins, Warren Bennis and Marshall Goldsmith. As inspirational as it is practical, My Life in Leadership is filled with Frances Hesselbein’s universal leadership lessons that will serve any leader, of any age, in any sector.

With a new introduction by the authorWarren Bennis's formative years, in the 1930s and '40s, were characterized by severe economic hardship and a world war that showcased the extreme depths and heights to which leaders could drive their followers. Today's environment is similarly chaotic, turbulent, and uncertain. On Becoming a Leader has served for nearly fifteen years as a beacon of insight, delving into the qualities that define leadership, the people who exemplify it, and the strategies that anyone can apply to become an effective leader. This new edition features a provocative introduction on the challenges and opportunities facing leaders today, with additional updates and current references throughout.

On Becoming a Woman Leader is a groundbreaking book that focuses on the experiences of ten extraordinary women leaders in higher education. The book explores how these women developed the knowledge, skills, and core competencies that helped them obtain and maintain positions of influence within the academy. Based on years of research, this book provides an analysis of the data gathered from extensive interviews with university presidents. These women offer candid information about their lifelong journey to becoming leaders. They reveal their childhood and adolescent experiences including facts about their personality, schooling, leadership positions, influential individuals, opportunities, awards, college plans, and goals. The discussion about the leaders' college years provides insight into what influenced their leadership development, decisions, and perspectives. The book examines the leaders' career paths from first professional jobs to their current positions, placing particular emphasis on the skills developed at each level. The book reveals the experiences—activities, situations, and opportunities—that the presidents believe were most beneficial for their growth as leaders. At the conclusion of the book, the presidents offer their personal leadership development advice. On Becoming a Woman Leader offers a guide for personal growth as well as a wealth of ideas that can help develop the kind of women leaders that will truly make a difference in their communities.

For over 50 years, James G. March has made a sustained and innovative contribution to the study of organizations. In his renowned course on leadership at Stanford University he explores the problems of leadership using works of great literature, such as War and Peace and Don Quixote. These essays are based on March's notes for his course lectures. The notes have been interpreted by Thierry Weil, and translated here from his original French interpretation. March uses literature to examine a set of dilemmas related to leadership - questions concerning the balance between private life and public duties, between ingenuity and innocence, between diversity and integration, and between the expression and the control of sexuality. He encourages us to explore ideas that are sometimes subversive and unpalatable, but may allow organizations to adapt in a rapidly changing world.

On Leading Change features the best thinking from top experts on strategies for change, sustaining growth, and leading transition. Written in a concise style that is ideal for the busy executive with little spare time, the book presents a stellar roster of contributors. On Leading Change is one title in the Leader to Leader Guides, which draw from the most compelling articles that have appeared in Leader to Leader, the Drucker Foundation's award-winning journal.

In this third edition of his classic book first published in 1985, Edgar Schein shows how to transform the abstract concept of culture into a practical tool that managers and students can use to understand the dynamics of organizations and change. Organizational pioneer Schein updates his influential understanding of culture--what it is, how it is created, how it evolves, and how it can be changed. Focusing on today's business realities, Schein draws on a wide range of contemporary research to redefine culture, offers new information on the topic of occupational cultures, and demonstrates the crucial role leaders play in successfully applying the principles of culture to achieve organizational goals. He also tackles the complex question of how an existing culture can be changed--one of the toughest challenges of leadership. The result is a vital resource for understanding and practicing organizational effectiveness.

From Harvard Business School Professor and Co-Director of the Harvard Kennedy School's Center for Public Leadership: A guide to making better decisions, noticing important information in the world around you, and improving leadership skills. Imagine your advantage in negotiations, decision-making, and leadership if you could teach yourself to see, and evaluate, information that others overlook. The Power of Noticingprovides the blueprint for accomplishing precisely that. Max Bazerman draws on three decades of research and his experience instructing Harvard Business School MBAs and corporate executives to teach you how to notice and act on information that may not be immediately obvious. Bazerman diagnoses what information went ignored in these situations, and why. Using many of the same case studies and thought experiments designed in his executive MBA classes, he challenges readers to explore their cognitive blind spots, identify any salient details they are programmed to miss, and then take steps to ensure it won't happen again. While many bestselling business books have explained how susceptible to manipulation our irrational cognitive blindspots make us, Bazerman helps you avoid the habits that lead to poor decisions and ineffective leadership in the first place. His book provides a step-by-step guide to breaking bad habits and spotting the hidden details that will change your decision-making and leadership skills for the better, teaching you to: pay attention to what didn't happen; acknowledge self-interest; invent the third choice; and realize that what you see is not all there is. With The Power of Noticing at your side, you can learn how to notice what others miss, make better decisions, and lead more successfully.

Powerful Conversations breed a powerful organization. POWERFUL CONVERSATIONS is packed with goal-oriented strategies, tools, and real-life examples from great leaders. Use its deliberate, directed techniques to achieve exceptional levels of performance, create and maintain valuable relationships, and forward the goals of both yourself and your organization with every word you speak. Mastering the three stages of a Powerful Conversation—from shared feelings and beliefs, to an exchange of wants and needs, closing with action steps and mutual commitments—will help you exercise more control over your interactions, and greatly enhance both your leadership skills and your success.

What qualities make a leader succeed in business or politics? In an era when the information revolution has dramatically changed the playing field, when old organizational hierarchies have given way to fluid networks of contacts, and when mistrust of leaders is on the rise, our ideas about leadership are clearly due for redefinition. With The Powers to Lead, Joseph S. Nye offers a sweeping look at the nature of leadership in today's world, in an illuminating blend of history, business case studies, psychological research, and more. As he observes, many now believe that the more authoritarian and coercive forms of leadership—the hard power approaches of earlier military-industrial eras—have been largely supplanted in postindustrial societies by soft power approaches that seek to attract, inspire, and persuade rather than dictate. Nye argues, however, that the most effective leaders are actually those who combine hard and soft power skills in proportions that vary with different situations. He calls this smart power. Drawing examples from the careers of leaders as disparate as Gandhi, Churchill, Lee Iacocca, and George W. Bush, Nye uses the concept of smart power to shed light on such topics as leadership types and skills, the needs and demands of followers, and the nature of good and bad leadership in terms of both ethics and effectiveness. In one particularly instructive chapter, he looks in depth at contextual intelligence—the ability to understand changing environments, capitalize on trends, and use the flow of events to implement strategies. Thoroughly grounded in the real world, rich in both analysis and anecdote, The Powers to Lead is sure to become a modern classic, a concise and lucid work applicable to every field, from small businesses and nonprofit organizations to nations on the world stage. This paperback edition includes a new preface by the author.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER The author of the legendary bestseller Influence, social psychologist Robert Cialdini shines a light on effective persuasion and reveals that the secret doesn’t lie in the message itself, but in the key moment before that message is delivered. What separates effective communicators from truly successful persuaders? Using the same combination of rigorous scientific research and accessibility that made his Influence an iconic bestseller, Robert Cialdini explains how to capitalize on the essential window of time before you deliver an important message. This “privileged moment for change” prepares people to be receptive to a message before they experience it. Optimal persuasion is achieved only through optimal pre-suasion. In other words, to change “minds” a pre-suader must also change “states of mind.” His first solo work in over thirty years, Cialdini’s Pre-Suasion draws on his extensive experience as the most cited social psychologist of our time and explains the techniques a person should implement to become a master persuader. Altering a listener’s attitudes, beliefs, or experiences isn’t necessary, says Cialdini—all that’s required is for a communicator to redirect the audience’s focus of attention before a relevant action. From studies on advertising imagery to treating opiate addiction, from the annual letters of Berkshire Hathaway to the annals of history, Cialdini draws on an array of studies and narratives to outline the specific techniques you can use on online marketing campaigns and even effective wartime propaganda. He illustrates how the artful diversion of attention leads to successful pre-suasion and gets your targeted audience primed and ready to say, “Yes.”

Daniel Goleman's international bestseller "Emotional Intelligence" forever changed our concept of "being smart," showing how emotional intelligence (EI) - how we handle ourselves and our relationships - can determine life success more than IQ. Then, "Working with Emotional Intelligence" revealed how stellar career performance also depends on EI. Now, Goleman teams with renowned EI researchers Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee to explore the role of emotional intelligence in leadership. Unveiling neuroscientific links between organizational success or failure and "primal leadership," the authors argue that a leader's emotions are contagious. If a leader resonates energy and enthusiasm, an organization thrives; if a leader spreads negativity and dissonance, it flounders. This breakthrough concept charges leaders with driving emotions in the right direction to have a positive impact on earnings or strategy. Drawing from decades of analysis within world-class organizations, the authors show that resonant leaders - whether CEOs or managers, coaches or politicians - excel not just through skill and smarts, but by connecting with others using EI competencies like empathy and self-awareness. And they employ up to six leadership styles - from visionary to coaching to pacesetting - fluidly interchanging them as the situation demands.The authors identify a proven process through which leaders can learn to: assess, develop, and sustain personal EI competencies over time; inspire and motivate people; cultivate resonant leadership throughout teams and organizations; and, leverage resonance to increase bottom-line performance. The book that no leader in any walk of life can afford to miss, this unforgettable work transforms the art of leadership into the science of results.

A provocative examination of the essential – and widely misunderstood--personality type of today's most innovative leaders. What is it that Oprah Winfrey, Jack Welch, Martha Stewart, and Bill Gates all have in common? According to psychoanalyst, anthropologist, and consultant Michael Maccoby, it’s not just enormous success and celebrity – it’s narcissism. In The Productive Narcissist, Maccoby proposes a new paradigm of modern leadership and zeros in on one common character trait: the narcissistic personality. Challenging prevailing leadership theories, Maccoby argues that today’s most innovative leaders are not consensus-building bureaucrats; they are “productive narcissists” with the interrelated set of skills -- foresight, systems thinking, visioning, motivating, and partnering – that he terms “strategic intelligence.” Rejecting the negative stereotype of the individual who is destroyed by a pathological preoccupation with himself, Maccoby redefines the productive narcissist as the personality type who is best suited to lead during times of rapid social and economic change. At the same time, he makes clear that narcissistic leadership doesn’t always mean successful leadership and that narcissists lacking strategic intelligence are fated to crash and burn. Beginning with an examination of the crucial role personality plays in the workplace and an analysis of the primary personality types (a questionnaire allowing readers to evaluate their own personalities is included), Maccoby makes an eye-opening case for how narcissism has been misunderstood and how throughout history narcissists havealways emerged to inspire people and to shape the future. While narcissism can be extraordinarily useful—even necessary—for effective leadership, Maccoby shows how it also has a distinct downside when narcissists become unrealistic dreamers and harbor the illusion that only circumstances or enemies block their success. Strategic intelligence is the hallmark of the productive narcissist, and by elucidating its key qualities – and how they can be developed – Maccoby illuminates both what it takes for narcissists to truly succeed and how to work with them most effectively . Based on over thirty years of first-hand experience consulting with business leaders around the world, The Productive Narcissist redefines the way we understand and relate to today’s leaders.

When designer and computer scientist John Maeda was tapped to be president of the celebrated Rhode Island School of Design in 2008, he had to learn how to be a leader quickly. He had to transform himself from a tenured professor—with a love of argument for argument's sake and the freedom to experiment—into the head of a hierarchical organization. The professor is free to speak his mind against "the man." The college president is "the man." Maeda has had to teach himself, through trial and error, about leadership. In Redesigning Leadership, he shares his learning process. Maeda,writing as an artist and designer, a technologist, and a professor, discusses intuition and risk-taking, "transparency," and all the things that a conversation can do that an email can't. In his transition from MIT to RISD he finds that the most effective way to pull people together is not social networking but free food. Leading a team? The best way for a leader to leverage the collective power of a team is to reveal his or her own humanity. Asked if he has stopped designing, Maeda replied (via Twitter) "I'm designing how to talk about/with/for our #RISD community." Maeda's creative nature makes him a different sort of leader—one who prizes experimentation, honest critique, and learning as you go. With Redesigning Leadership, he uses his experience to reveal a new model of leadership for the next generation of leaders.

Reflections on Character and Leadership is the first of the three books in the Manfred kets de Vries on the Couch series. Here, Kets de Vries looks at entrepreneurship, the pathology of leadership, and the personality of the leader. The reader will visit the disturbed inner worlds of leaders like Alexander the Great, Shaka Zulu and Robert Maxwell, discover how to distinguish between a cold fish and a live volcano, and identify impostors, despots, organizational fools and global leaders. The book highlights the basic principles of the clinical paradigm—the process of putting organizations and the individuals who lead them on the psychoanalyst’s couch. It includes studies of personality archetypes and the effects they have on organizational life and culture—and the effects that organizations have on them. Referring frequently to key management concepts, Kets de Vries looks not only at what happens when things go wrong, but also at how to create the psychological and organizational space to make sure that things go right.

In the books in this series Manfred Kets de Vries-failed engineer, entrepreneur manqué, reluctant economist, international management guru, psychoanalyst, wit, and outdoorsman-offers an overview of his work spanning four decades, a period in which he has established himself as the leading figure in the clinical study of organizational leadership. At a key point in his career, working as he puts it, 'in the twilight zone of economics, management, and psychoanalysis," he decided to strike out on a little-trodden path and "bring the person back into the organization." Now Kets de Vries occupies a unique position in the academic business world, putting leaders and companies of the couch and working at the often intimate interface where the inner theater of the individual meets the outer world of the organization. The second book in this series, Reflections on Leadership and career development, takes different perspectives on the intimate connection between the personality or "inner theater" of individuals and the organizational context in which they work-how different personality types, in positions of leadership or as members of management teams, affect the functioning and success of organizations. Kets de Vries looks at the way basic psychological processes operate on individual and corporate performance and analyzes them in the context of case studies of leaders and organizations. he examines narcissism, dysfunctional collusion between leaders and followers, some new leadership archetypes, and the roles that "organizational therapists" (coaches or consultants) can play in their interventions. The book includes a lengthy study of Vladimir Putin, as "CEO of Russia, Inc.," an assessment of the former Russian president's performance as an organizational leader. the final part of the book examines the career life cycle and how executives cope (or fail to cope) with rites de passage like succession and retirement. "For the first time this book provides a glimpse of Manfred Kets de Vries' own "inner theater' as the wellspring of his success as psychoanalyst, mentor and inspiration to a generation of leaders. Reflections on Leadership and Career Development offers a rare opportunity to observe Manfred on his own legendary couch, a personal perspective not to be missed." - Paul McMorran, HR Director, TNK-BP

Since 1970, Robert Greenleaf's (1904-1990) writings on servant leadership have powerfully influenced every imaginable field of endeavor, from management training and education to corporate ethics and religious missions. Scores of books and articles expanding on or using his concept of applying humanist values to life and work have appeared since then, but less has been written about the man himself. Authorized by Greenleaf's surviving children, this biography covers his early years in Indiana, where he was born, and the great inspiration his father provided as the prototype "servant leader." The book details the sources of his thought, describes his experiences as a businessman and a Quaker, highlights his friendships with dozens of luminaries - including Eleanor Roosevelt, Aldous Huxley, and the Menninger brothers - and shows how he changed business history long before his first book was published at age 73.

This book focuses on the behavioral and personality areas that can be used to strengthen one's skills and to make wise decisions about when and how to lead. It was written for the working professional who wants to learn what he or she can do by working with their personality to become more satisfied with and masterful in their leadership roles. Good leaders have learned to succeed over time by acquiring the needed range of personal skills, much like one learns a second language. Geared for entry and mid-term leaders, this book is an empirically based training guide to acquire knowledge and implement a plan to help increase one's leadership skills.

Most organizational change initiatives fail spectacularly (at worst) or deliver lukewarm results (at best). In his international bestseller Leading Change, John Kotter revealed why change is so hard, and provided an actionable, eight-step process for implementing successful transformations. The book became the change bible for managers worldwide. Now, in Urgency, Kotter shines the spotlight on the crucial first step in his framework: creating a sense of urgency by getting people to actually see and feel the need for change. Why focus on urgency? Without it, any change effort is doomed. Kotter reveals the insidious nature of complacency in all its forms and guises. In this exciting new book, Kotter explains how to go beyond "the business case" for change to overcome the fear and anger that can suppress urgency, ways to ensure that your actions and behaviors -- not just your words -- communicate the need for change as well as how to keep fanning the flames of urgency even after your transformation effort has scored some early successes

Twenty-five years ago Robert Greenleaf published these prophetic essays on what he coined servant leadership, a practical philosophy that replaces traditional autocratic leadership with a holistic, ethical approach. This highly influential book has been embraced by cutting edge management everywhere. Yet in these days of Enron and what VISA CEO Dee Hock calls our "era of massive institutional failure," Greenleaf's seminal work must reach the mainstream now more than ever. Servant Leadership helps leaders find their true power and moral authority to lead. It helps those served become healthier, wiser, freer, and more autonomous. This book encourages collaboration, trust, listening, and empowerment. It offers long-lasting change, not a temporary fix and extends beyond business for leaders of all types of groups.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the author of The Power of Habit comes a fascinating book that explores the science of productivity, and why, in today's world, managing how you think--rather than what you think--can transform your life. At the core of Smarter Faster Better are eight key concepts--from motivation and goal setting to focus and decision making--that explain why some people and companies get so much done. Drawing on the latest findings in neuroscience, psychology, and behavioral economics--as well as the experiences of CEOs, educational reformers, four-star generals, FBI agents, airplane pilots, and Broadway songwriters--this painstakingly researched book explains that the most productive people, companies, and organizations don't merely act differently.   They view the world, and their choices, in profoundly different ways. A young woman drops out of a PhD program and starts playing poker. By training herself to envision contradictory futures, she learns to anticipate her opponents' missteps--and becomes one of the most successful players in the world. A group of data scientists at Google embark on a four-year study of how the best teams function, and find that how a group interacts is more important than who is in the group--a principle, it turns out, that also helps explain why Saturday Night Live became a hit. A Marine Corps general, faced with low morale among recruits, reimagines boot camp--and discovers that instilling a "bias toward action" can turn even the most directionless teenagers into self-motivating achievers. The filmmakers behind Disney's Frozen are nearly out of time and on the brink of catastrophe--until they shake up their team in just the right way, spurring a creative breakthrough that leads to one of the highest-grossing movies of all time. What do these people have in common? They know that productivity relies on making certain choices. The way we frame our daily decisions; the big ambitions we embrace and the easy goals we ignore; the cultures we establish as leaders to drive innovation; the way we interact with data: These are the things that separate the merely busy from the genuinely productive. In The Power of Habit, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Charles Duhigg explained why we do what we do. In Smarter Faster Better, he applies the same relentless curiosity, deep reporting, and rich storytelling to explain how we can improve at the things we do. It's a groundbreaking exploration of the science of productivity, one that can help anyone learn to succeed with less stress and struggle, and to get more done without sacrificing what we care about most--to become smarter, faster, and better at everything we do.

The breakthrough work of Harvard's Howard Gardner has legitimized the notion that human intelligence is not just a single trait (IQ) but a constellation of capabilities. More recently, Daniel Goleman popularized this notion with the best-selling Emotional Intelligence. Now, in this groundbreaking book, business thinker and futurist Karl Albrecht shows how the dimension of social intelligence—perceptiveness, situational savvy, and interaction skill—is key to success at work and in life. Karl Albrecht defines social intelligence (SI) as the ability to get along well with others while winning their cooperation. SI is a combination of sensitivity to the needs and interests of others, sometimes called your "social radar," an attitude of generosity and consideration, and a set of practical skills for interacting successfully with people in any setting. Social Intelligence provides a highly accessible and comprehensive model for describing, assessing, and developing social intelligence at a personal level. This book is filled with intriguing concepts, enlightening examples, stories, cases, situational strategies, and a self-assessment tool all designed to help you learn to navigate social situations more successfully. Karl Albrecht takes you on a guided tour of the five dimensions of social intelligence ("S.P.A.C.E."): 1) Situational Awareness: The ability to read situations and to interpret the behaviors of people in those situations. 2) Presence: Often called "bearing," it's a whole range of verbal and nonverbal behaviors that define you in the minds of others. 3) Authenticity: The behaviors that cause others to judge you as honest, open, and "real." 4) Clarity: The ability to explain your ideas and articulate your views. 5) Empathy: The ability to "connect" with others. Karl Albrecht defines, explores, and interrelates all of these key dimensions and shows how to use his S.P.A.C.E. formula as an effective diagnostic and development model.

An intimate look at the founding father of the modern leadership movement Warren Bennis is an acclaimed American scholar, successful organizational consultant and author, and an expert in the field of leadership. His much awaited memoir is filled with insights about the successes and failures from his long and storied life and career. Bennis' life and career have traversed eight decades of first-hand experience with tumultuous episodes of recent history-from Jewish child in a gentile town in the 30's, a young army recruit in the Battle of the Bulge to a college student in the one of the first progressive precursors to the civil rights movement to a patient undergoing daily psychoanalysis for five years, and later a university provost during the Vietnam protests. This is first book to examine the extraordinary life of Warren Bennis by the man himself.

This book integrates and assesses the vast and rapidly growing literature on strategic leadership, which is the study of top executives and their effects on organizations. The basic premise is that in order to understand why organizations do the things they do, or perform the way they do, we need to deeply comprehend the people at the top— their experiences, abilities, values, social connections, aspirations, and other human features. The actions—or inactions—of a relatively small number of key people at the apex of an organization can dramatically affect organizational outcomes. The scope of strategic leadership includes individual executives, especially chief executive officers (CEOs), groups of executives (top management teams, or TMTs); and governing bodies (particularly boards of directors). Accordingly, the book addresses an array of topics regarding CEOs (e.g., values, personality, motives, demography, succession, and compensation); TMTs (including composition, processes, and dynamics); and boards of directors (why boards look and behave the way they do, and the consequences of board profiles and behaviors). Strategic Leadership synthesizes what is known about strategic leadership and indicates new research directions. The book is meant primarily for scholars who strive to assess and understand the phenomena of strategic leadership. It offers a considerable foundation on which professionals involved in executive search, compensation, appraisal and staffing, as well as board members who evaluate executive performance and potential, might build their tools and perspectives.

Conversation-powered leadership How can leaders make their big or growing companies feel small again? How can they recapture the “magic”—the tight strategic alignment, the high level of employee engagement—that drove and animated their organization when it was a start-up? As more and more executives have discovered in recent years, the answer to this conundrum lies in the power of conversation. InTalk, Inc., Boris Groysberg and Michael Slind show how trusted and effective leaders are adapting the principles of face-to-face conversation in order to pursue a new form of organizational conversation. They explore the promise of conversation-powered leadership—from the time-tested practice of talking straight (and listening well) to the thoughtful adoption of social media technology. And they offer guidance on how to balance the benefits of open-ended talk with the realities of strategic execution. Drawing on the experience of leaders at diverse companies from around the world,Talk, Inc., offers provocative insights and user-friendly tips on how to make organizational culture more intimate, more interactive, more inclusive, and more intentional—in short, more conversational.

 What's the worst thing you can hear when you have a good idea at work? "That's not how we do it here!"   In their iconic bestseller Our Iceberg Is Melting, John Kotter and Holger Rathgeber used a simple fable about penguins to explain the process of lead­ing people through major changes. Now, ten years later, they're back with another must-read story that will help any team or organization cope with their biggest challenges and turn them into exciting opportunities.   Once upon a time a clan of meerkats lived in the Kalahari, a region in southern Africa. After years of steady growth, a drought has sharply reduced the clan's resources, and deadly vulture attacks have increased. As things keep getting worse, the har­mony of the clan is shattered. The executive team quarrels about possible solutions, and sugges­tions from frontline workers face a soul-crushing response: "That's not how we do it here!"   So Nadia, a bright and adventurous meerkat, hits the road in search of new ideas to help her trou­bled clan. She discovers a much smaller group that operates very differently, with much more teamwork and agility. These meerkats have developed innova­tive solutions to find food and evade the vultures. But not everything in this small clan is as perfect as it seems at first.   Can Nadia figure out how to combine the best of both worlds--a large, disciplined, well-managed clan and a small, informal, inspiring clan--before it's too late?   This book distills Kotter's decades of experi­ence and award-winning research to reveal why organizations rise and fall, and how they can rise again in the face of adversity.

Why do smart and experienced leaders make flawed, even catastrophic, decisions? Why do people keep believing they have made the right choice, even with the disastrous result staring them in the face? And how can you be sure you're making the right decision—without the benefit of hindsight? Sydney Finkelstein, Jo Whitehead, and Andrew Campbell show how the usually beneficial processes of the human mind can become traps when we face big decisions. The authors show how the shortcuts our brains have learned to take over millennia of evolution can derail our decision making. Think Again offers a powerful model for making better decisions, describing the key red flags to watch for and detailing the decision-making safeguards we need. Using examples from business, politics, and history, Think Again deconstructs bad decisions, as they unfolded in real time, to show how you can avoid the same fate.

Leadership is essential to collective human endeavor, from setting and accomplishing goals for a neighborhood block association, to running a Fortune 500 company, to mobilizing the energies of a nation. Political philosophers have focused largely on how to prevent leaders from abusing their power, yet little attention has been paid to what it actually feels like to hold power, how leaders go about their work, and how they relate to the people they lead. In Thinking about Leadership, Nannerl Keohane draws on her experience as the first woman president of Duke University and former president of Wellesley College, as well as her expertise as a leading political theorist, to deepen our understanding of what leaders do, how and why they do it, and the pitfalls and challenges they face. Keohane engages readers in a series of questions that shed light on every facet of leadership. She considers the traits that make a good leader, including sound judgment, decisiveness, integrity, social skill, and intelligence; the role that gender plays in one's ability to attain and wield power; ethics and morality; the complex relationship between leaders and their followers; and the unique challenges of democratic leadership. Rich with lessons and insights from leaders and political thinkers down through the ages, including Aristotle, Queen Elizabeth I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Nelson Mandela, Thinking about Leadership is a must-read for current and future leaders, and for anyone concerned about our prospects for good governance.

Pundits have been forecasting the demise of the hierarchical corporation for decades. We denigrate those authoritarian structures as controlling, territorial, bureaucratic, and slow-and we celebrate "alternatives" that are flatter, more democratic, and networked. But renowned organizational behavior expert Harold J. Leavitt argues that such alternative structures have not proven viable-or even desirable-and that despite its human failings, hierarchy remains the foundational shape of every large human organization. Why? Because it works. Top Down neither defends nor attacks the much-maligned hierarchy. Rather, this counterintuitive book convincingly shows that even the "flattest" of today's organizations are really just hierarchies in disguise-and, to improve the ways hierarchies function, we must first acknowledge their inevitability. Exploring both the benefits and shortcomings of top-down structures, Leavitt shows how leaders can reshape hierarchies to incorporate the human values and motivations that enable employees to thrive. He then offers middle managers suggestions about how best to negotiate the way through those authoritarian mazes, while maintaining their personal integrity and even finding satisfaction in their work. Top Down is a refreshing "get real" examination of the true state of today's workplace-and an important step toward creating organizations that are efficient and productive, but also egalitarian and humane.

Most leaders feel the inevitable interruptions in their jam-packed days are troublesome. But in TouchPoints, Conant and Norgaard argue that these—and every point of contact with other people—are overlooked opportunities for leaders to increase their impact and promote their organization's strategy and values. Through previously untold stories from Conant's tenure as CEO of Campbell Soup Company and Norgaard's vast consulting experience, the authors show that a leader's impact and legacy are built through hundreds, even thousands, of interactive moments in time. The good news is that anyone can develop "TouchPoint" mastery by focusing on three essential components: head, heart, and hands. TouchPoints speaks to the theory and craft of leadership, promoting a balanced presence of rational, authentic, active, and wise leadership practices. Leadership mastery in the smallest and otherwise ordinary moments can transform aimless activity in individuals and entropy in organizations into focused energy—one magical moment at a time.

Unlike other books written on "toxic leaders," this book takes issue with the predominant view that "toxic leaders are bad" and destructive to their companies. Rather, the author argues that even highly productive leaders have some toxic qualities central to their success story. The book redirects the conversation about toxicity in a more productive direction, as toxic leaders are not just viewed as villains and liabilities, but are also considered as potential assets, innovators, and rebels. Working on the premise that "toxicity is a fact of company life," the book provides organizations with a model and blueprint on the advantages to be gained from skillful anticipation, control, and handling of troubled and difficult leaders. In contrast to dysfunctional organizations that ignore toxicity or dwell on the perceived destructive impact of toxic leaders, successful companies come up with resourceful, innovative strategies for turning seeming deficits into opportunities.

A tribe is any group of people, large or small, who are connected to one another, a leader, and an idea. For millions of years, humans have joined tribes, be they religious, ethnic, political, or even musical (think of the Deadheads). It’s our nature. Now the Internet has eliminated the barriers of geography, cost, and time. All those blogs and social networking sites are helping existing tribes get bigger and enabling new tribes to be born—groups of ten or ten million who care about a political campaign, or a new way to fight global warming. Who is going to lead all these tribes? The Web can do amazing things, but it can’t provide leadership. That still has to come from individuals—people just like you who have passion about something. Anyone who wants to make a difference now has the tools at their fingertips. If you think leadership is for other people, think again—leaders come in surprising packages. Ignore an opportunity to lead and you risk turning into a “sheepwalker”—someone who fights to protect the status quo at all costs, never asking if obedience is doing you (or your organization) any good. Sheepwalkers don’t do very well these days. Tribes will make you think (really think) about the opportunities for leading your fellow employees, customers, investors, believers, hobbyists, readers. . . . It's not easy, but it's easier than you probably imagine.

Any good manager feels an intuitive need to build trust inside his or her company and among employees. This guide shows managers how they can build trust within an organization, between manager and colleagues, bosses and employees. It lays out the different kinds of trust, gives diagnostic ways to determine whether trust is missing and where it needs to be supplemented, and ways to restore trust when it has been betrayed. The book contains exercises and quizzes, as well as formulas that quantify the economics of trust and show its importance in an organization. Stories of managers and employees working through issues of trust in many different real-life situations covering many different corporate situations and scenarios (acquisitions, slow-downs, and internal and external crises) are also included.

This bestselling pocket guide provides students with alternative ways of looking at leadership beyond prescriptive 'how to' approaches. It shows how leadership is a relational activity and encourages students to think about leadership in fresh and innovative ways. The first edition became a favorite among students for the pithy and engaging way in which it guided them through the cacophony of competing perspectives and models. The Second Edition includes expanded discussion of hot topics like followership, gender, ethics, authenticity, and leadership and the arts, set against the backdrop of the global financial crisis. In showing students how to critically appraise and work with leadership theories, this book will not just make readers into better students of leadership, but into better leaders too.

Successful leaders know that leadership is less often about having all the answers—and more often about asking the right questions. The challenge lies in being able to step back, reflect, and ask the key questions that are critical to your performance and your organization’s effectiveness. In What to Ask the Person in the Mirror, HBS professor and business leader Robert Kaplan presents a process for asking the big questions that will enable you to diagnose problems, change course if necessary, and advance your career. He lays out areas of inquiry, including questions such as: •Do I clearly articulate my vision and top priorities to my employees and key constituencies? Does the way I spend my time enable me to achieve my top priorities? •Do I give subordinates timely and direct feedback they can act on? Do I actively seek feedback myself? •Have I developed a succession roadmap? •Is my organization’s design aligned with the achievement of its objectives? •Is my leadership style still effective, and does it reflect who I truly am? Packed with real-life situations, this highly readable and practical guide helps you learn to ask the right questions—and work through the answers in ways that are right for you. By asking these questions, you can tackle the inevitable challenges of leadership as you craft new strategies for staying on top of your game.

Every day companies and their leaders fail to capitalise on opportunities because they misunderstand the real sources of business success. Based on his popular column in "Business 2.0", Jeffrey Pfeffer delivers wise and timely business commentary that challenges conventional wisdom while providing data and insights to help companies make smarter decisions. The book contains a series of short chapters filled with examples, data, and insights that challenge questionable assumptions and much conventional management wisdom. Each chapter also provides guidelines about how to think more deeply and intelligently about critical management issues. Covering topics ranging from managing people to leadership to measurement and strategy, it's good organisational advice, delivered by Dr. Pfeffer himself.

WHAT MAKES A LEADER? CAN YOU REALLY LEARN TO LEAD? You might believe that leaders are born, not made. Perhaps you think that you need to hold an important job to be a leader--that you need permission to lead. Leadership is one of the most important aspects of our society. Yet there is enormous disagreement and confusion about what leadership means and whether it can really be learned. As Harvard Business School professor Robert Steven Kaplan explains in this powerful new book, leadership qualities are not something you either have or you don’t. Leadership is not a destination or a state of being. Leadership is about what you do, rather than who you are, and it starts with an ownership mind-set. For Kaplan, learning to lead involves three key elements: * Thinking like an owner * A willingness to act on your beliefs * A relentless focus on adding value to others Kaplan compellingly argues that great organizations are built around a nucleus of people who think and act with an ownership mind-set. He believes that leadership is not a role reserved only for those blessed with the right attributes or situated in the right positions of power. Leadership is accessible to each of us--today. It requires a process of hard work, willingness to ask questions, and openness to learning. This book aims to demystify leadership and outlines a specific regimen that will empower you to build your leadership skills. Kaplan tells real-life stories from his own experience of working with various types of leaders seeking to improve their effectiveness and make their organizations more successful. He asks probing questions, provides exercises, and suggests concrete follow-up steps that will help you develop your skills, create new habits, and move you toward reaching your unique leadership potential. What You Really Need to Lead will help you develop your capacity to lead by unlocking your power to think and act like an owner.

In a breakthrough Organization Man for the twenty-first century, bestselling author Art Kleiner reveals that every organization is driven by a desire to satisfy a Core Group of influential individuals and explains why understanding this group’s expectations is the key to success. When corporate leaders announce, with seeming sincerity, “We make our decisions on behalf of our shareholders,” their words are taken at face value. But as recent news stories prove, this imperative is routinely violated. In Who Really Matters, Art Kleiner argues that the dissonance between a declared mission and actual operation can be seen at organizations large and small. All organizations have one motive in common. Every decision—which projects to back, who to promote, or how to spend money—is affected by the perceived wants and needs of a core group of people “who really matter.” The composition of the group can differ from organization to organization. Often, the most senior people in the hierarchy are members—but not always. Sometimes, the people who “matter” can extend far down the corporate ladder, or even reach outside the company to include key customers, labor union leaders, and stockholders. Kleiner gives readers clues about how to identify a core group’s real mission by observing its day-to-day actions, listening to the fundamental message it sends employees, examining its management of new members; understanding the ideas that shape its policies about management, money, and the way the world works; and avoiding the taboos governing the way it operates. Whether you’re a member of the Core Group—or want to be—this deft, engaging blend of argument and observation, anecdotes and advice, is the one guide you’ll need to achieve your career goals and aspirations by navigating the hidden pathways in any organization, large or small.

It is risky to be CEO of a corporation today. The average tenure of CEOs in major companies is growing increasingly short. The news media is filled with stories of "fallen idols." CEOs have gone from the lists of "most admired" to those of "least trusted." What happens when such clearly talented leaders also make poor decisions, alienate key people, miss opportunities, and ignore obvious trends and developments? What lessons can everyday leaders who aspire to be effective and move up an organization learn from the failures of those at the top? Written by David L. Dotlich and Peter C. Cairo, two of the country's top executive coaches, educators, and authors, Why CEOs Fail shows that even the best leaders can sabotage their own success by succumbing to certain flawed behaviors that are often closely tied to the factors that make for success. More important, the authors reveal how leaders at every level can become aware of their own negative behaviors and take steps to control them. Drawing on research and real stories based on their experience in educating and coaching thousands of leaders around the world, Dotlich and Cairo describe eleven derailers that can impact judgment and lead to business and career problems, even failure. The authors show how leaders who aspire to be successful can learn to identify the "shadow side" of their personality and take steps to control their impulses and increase their effectiveness and impact. Using a variety of tools and techniques based on their experience in coaching CEOs and senior executives, the authors provide specific steps to help individuals identify their own derailers and simple, practical methods that leaders can use to manage themselves effectively.

Rarely does a week go by without a well-known executive being indicted for engaging in a white-collar crime. Perplexed as to what drives successful, wealthy people to risk it all, Harvard Business School professor Eugene Soltes took a remarkable journey deep into the minds of these white-collar criminals, spending seven years in the company of the men behind the largest corporate crimes in history--from the financial fraudsters of Enron, to the embezzlers at Tyco, to the Ponzi schemersBernie Madoff and Allen Stanford. Drawing on intimate details from personal visits, letters, and phone calls with these former executives, as well as psychological, sociological, and historical research, Why They Do It is a breakthrough look at the dark side of the business world. Soltes refutes popular but simplistic explanations of why seemingly successful executives engage in crime. White-collar criminals, he shows, are not merely driven by excessive greed or hubris, nor do they usually carefully calculate the costs and benefits before breaking the law and see it’s worth the risk. Instead, he shows that most of these executives make decisions the way we all do--on the basis of their intuitions and gut feelings. The trouble is, these gut feelings are oftenpoorly suited for the modern business world. Based on extensive interaction with nearly fifty former executives--many of whom have never spoken about their crimes--Soltes provides insights into why some saw the immediate effects of misconduct as positive, why executives often don’t feel the emotions (angst, guilt, shame) most people would expect, and how acceptable norms in the business community can differ from those of the broader society.

In today’s new economy, business leaders are increasingly aware that government laws and regulations can determine the very viability of their businesses. The same Constitution that sets limits on government power and protects individual rights also gives federal, state, and local governments the authority to make the rules under which your business must operate. Make no mistake–the key to your business’s survival could depend on your ability to influence the officials who make and enforce the rules of the game. Winning the Influence Game is your must-have guide to navigating the morass of competing, overlapping jurisdictions and diverse legislators, regulators, and judges so you can help to shape the laws and rules that will affect your success. Here, a crackerjack author team from Harvard Business School and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government–who have access to the key players on this issue–reveal the latest tools, techniques, and thinking behind influencing government so businesses can take control. This timely book presents a model that can be applied to influence games at any level of government–local, state, national, or international. From diagnosing government’s impact on your business to organizing to influence to building coalitions to leveraging the power of the Internet, the authors provide specific guidelines and real-world strategies that will work for all types of businesses.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER From the visionary head of Google's innovative People Operations comes a groundbreaking inquiry into the philosophy of work-and a blueprint for attracting the most spectacular talent to your business and ensuring that they succeed. "We spend more time working than doing anything else in life. It's not right that the experience of work should be so demotivating and dehumanizing." So says Laszlo Bock, head of People Operations at the company that transformed how the world interacts with knowledge. This insight is the heart of WORK RULES!, a compelling and surprisingly playful manifesto that offers lessons including: Take away managers' power over employees Learn from your best employees-and your worst Hire only people who are smarter than you are, no matter how long it takes to find them Pay unfairly (it's more fair!) Don't trust your gut: Use data to predict and shape the future Default to open-be transparent and welcome feedback If you're comfortable with the amount of freedom you've given your employees, you haven't gone far enough. Drawing on the latest research in behavioral economics and a profound grasp of human psychology, WORK RULES! also provides teaching examples from a range of industries-including lauded companies that happen to be hideous places to work and little-known companies that achieve spectacular results by valuing and listening to their employees. Bock takes us inside one of history's most explosively successful businesses to reveal why Google is consistently rated one of the best places to work in the world, distilling 15 years of intensive worker R&D into principles that are easy to put into action, whether you're a team of one or a team of thousands. WORK RULES! shows how to strike a balance between creativity and structure, leading to success you can measure in quality of life as well as market share. Read it to build a better company from within rather than from above; read it to reawaken your joy in what you do.

Despite recent progress, women seeking leadership positions face persistent and pervasive barriers. These include gender bias in leadership opportunities, gender inequalities in family responsibilities, inflexibilities in workplace structures, and inadequacies in social polices. Women and Leadership brings together in one comprehensive volume preeminent scholars from a range of disciplines to address the challenges involving women and leadership. These experts explore when and how women exercise power and what stands in their way. This groundbreaking volume offers readers an informed analysis of the state of women and leadership and offers the most informed and current thinking on the perils of stereotypes, the importance of leadership style, gender differences in the decision to seek leadership roles, lessons from women leaders, “opt out” patterns and the need for flexible career paths, global inequalities and initiatives, and strategies that get women to the top. Women and Leadership is indispensable for understanding recent progress toward equal opportunity and the challenges that remain.

The authors provide a range of ideas on how to approach generational shifts in leadership so that the contributions of long-time leaders are valued, new and younger leaders' talent is recognized, and groups are better prepared to work across generational divides. Giving context to these differences, they explore the current assumptions about the upcoming transition between generations in the social sector; introduce new ideas or frames for thinking about generational leadership change; and examine how this change poses individual, organizational, and systemic challenges for those in the social sector. In addition, they provide numerous examples and practical exercises to show how to address these issues. The book concludes with critical advice on how to communicate across generations and key recommendations for future research and action.

You think you have a winning strategy. But do you? Executives are bombarded with bestselling ideas and best practices for achieving competitive advantage, but many of these ideas and practices contradict each other. Should you aim to be big or fast? Should you create a blue ocean, be adaptive, play to win--or forget about a sustainable competitive advantage altogether? In a business environment that is changing faster and becoming more uncertain and complex almost by the day, it’s never been more important--or more difficult--to choose the right approach to strategy. In this book, The Boston Consulting Group’s Martin Reeves, Knut Haanæs, and Janmejaya Sinha offer a proven method to determine the strategy approach that is best for your company. They start by helping you assess your business environment--how unpredictable it is, how much power you have to change it, and how harsh it is--a critical component of getting strategy right. They show how existing strategy approaches sort into five categories--Be Big,Be Fast,Be First,Be the Orchestrator, or simplyBe Viable--depending on the extent of predictability, malleability, and harshness. In-depth explanations of each of these approaches will provide critical insight to help you match your approach to strategy to your environment, determine when and how to execute each one, and avoid a potentially fatal mismatch. Addressing your most pressing strategic challenges, you’ll be able to answer questions such as: * What replaces planning when the annual cycle is obsolete? * When can we--and whenshould we--shape the game to our advantage? * How do we simultaneously implement different strategic approaches for different business units? * How do we manage the inherent contradictions in formulating and executing different strategies across multiple businesses and geographies? Until now, no book brings it all together and offers a practical tool for understanding which strategic approach to apply. Get started today.