Amazon Best of the Month, November
2008: Now that he's gotten
us talking about the viral life of ideas and the power of gut reactions,
Malcolm Gladwell poses a more provocative question in Outliers: why do
some people succeed, living remarkably productive and impactful lives,
while so many more never reach their potential? Challenging our cherished
belief of the "self-made man," he makes the democratic assertion
that superstars don't arise out of nowhere, propelled by genius and talent: "they
are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary
opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard
and make sense of the world in ways others cannot." Examining the
lives of outliers from Mozart to Bill Gates, he builds a convincing case
for how successful people rise on a tide of advantages, "some deserved,
some not, some earned, some just plain lucky."
An organization's fate hinges
on its CEO—right? Not according to the authors of Senior Leadership
Teams. They argue that in today's world of neck-snapping change, demands
on leaders in top roles are rapidly outdistancing the capabilities of
any one person--no matter how talented. Result? Chief executives are
turning to their enterprise's senior leaders for help. Yet many CEOs
stumble when creating a leadership team. One major challenge is that
senior executives often focus more on their individual roles than on
the top team's shared work. Without the CEO's careful attention to setting
the team up correctly, these high-powered managers often have difficulty
pulling together to move their organization forward. Sometimes they don't
even agree about what constitutes the right path forward. Timely
and practical, this book enables you to create and sustain a leadership
team whose members learn from one another while collaborating to pursue
your company's objectives. - Amazon.com
product information
From the Inside Flap
No-Nonsense, Battle-Tested Program for Developing
Exceptional Leadership Skills—Both In Your Organization and Yourself.
The ability to lead, far more than just a natural gift, is a concrete
and learnable skill—one that can be acquired by studying and applying
specific proficiencies and attitudes. The Extraordinary Leader draws
on responses from 200,000 questionnaires to define the skills that comprise
effective leadership, and then provides a systematic and innovative program
for attaining, developing, and implementing those skills.
From Publishers Weekly
Readers who accept poet and Fortune 500 consultant
Whyte's invitation to enter into "an imaginative conversation about
life and work" are
likely to be challenged as well as delighted by the beauty of his writing
and the expansiveness of his views. Gracefully using the metaphor of
a sea voyage to depict the journey through the world of work, Whyte
views work not only as a means of support, but as a means for interacting
with the world and developing self-expression and identity. Interwoven
with and undergirding Whyte's philosophy are passages of memoir, detailing
his unique experiences as a naturalist in the Gal pagos Islands, for
example, together with poetic references from Whitman, Spender, Dickinson,
Rilke, Wordsworth and Whyte's own works. Even Whyte's friends are wise,
as evidenced by a monk who tells him that the antidote to exhaustion
is not rest but "wholeheartedness." Thoughtful
readers will wholeheartedly savor this book. Agent, Ned Leavitt. (Apr.
2) Copyright
2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Ken Blanchard, coauthor of The One Minute Manager® and The On-Time, On-Target ManagerThis book is brimming with great ideas for making our working lives better. And when work is working for us, that's when we can serve ourselves and others best.
Anxiety is an unfortunate fact of life, but can be a positive force in business success, says psychologist Rosen, contending that today's rapid rate of change is particularly anxiety provoking for businesses and those who work to build them. Rosen believes that business leaders can manage their own anxiety to yield positive company results. Though our minds try to protect us from anxiety by using ego defense mechanisms that can be productive or destructive, either too much or too little anxiety can be a hindrance to performance. But the right amount of anxiety can motivate and encourage. With checklists, questionnaires and self-evaluation forms, Rosen offers tools and guidelines to help readers assess and understand their personal reactions to the emotion. Concrete, real-life examples and explanations of anxiety's various forms, personal effects and potentially positive aspects teach managers how to work with the emotion and elicit its healthy side from employees. Rosen's insights are thought provoking and helpful. (Mar. 13) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Climbing Mount Everest: dangerous. Hitchhiking in Colombia: very dangerous. Leading through change: perilous. Perilous but possible, say Heifetz and Linsky in their encouragingly practical guide to putting yourself on the line and negotiating the hazards of leadership. As the authors acknowledge, many leadership books are "all about inspiration, but downplay the perspiration." This one doesn't. Leadership is always a risky business, but those risks can be understood and reduced. Heifetz and Linsky examine four forms of resistance--marginalization, diversion, attack, and seduction--before presenting a number of practical resistance-response skills to nurture and employ. Some are fairly obvious (like developing and maintaining perspective, and holding steady in the midst of change), and others more complex (like thinking politically when dealing with friends, foes, and fence sitters), but shimmering nuggets of insight and practical wisdom can be found in each. The dangers of leadership also spring from within, however, and the book's final section addresses ways to recognize and manage competing "hungers" and learn to distinguish one's roles from one's self. --S. Ketchum
Heifetz (Kennedy Sch. of Government, Harvard Univ.) presents a new theory of leadership for both public and private leaders in tackling complex contemporary problems. Central to his theory is the distinction between routine technical problems, which can be solved through expertise, and adaptive problems, such as crime, poverty, and educational reform, which require innovative approaches, including consideration of values. Four major strategies of leadership are identified: to approach problems as adaptive challenges by diagnosing the situation in light of the values involved and avoiding authoritative solutions, to regulate the level of stress caused by confronting issues, to focus on relevant issues, and to shift responsibility for problems from the leader to all the primary stakeholders. The theory is applied to an analysis of historical accounts of local, national, and international events. An innovative and thoroughgoing work; highly recommmended for graduate and undergraduate collections. Jane M. Kathman, Coll. of St. Benedict Lib., St. Joseph, Minn. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
