The Myth of Leadership PDF Download

Author: Jeffrey Nielsen
Publisher: Nicholas Brealey
ISBN: 0891063269
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
Nielsen presents the "peer-based" organization, which uses rotating peer leadership councils and cross-functional task forces to manage the organization's work

Author: Stanley McChrystal
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0525534385
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 480

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Book Description
An instant national bestseller! Stanley McChrystal, the retired US Army general and bestselling author of Team of Teams, profiles thirteen of history’s great leaders, including Walt Disney, Coco Chanel, and Robert E. Lee, to show that leadership is not what you think it is—and never was. Stan McChrystal served for thirty-four years in the US Army, rising from a second lieutenant in the 82nd Airborne Division to a four-star general, in command of all American and coalition forces in Afghanistan. During those years he worked with countless leaders and pondered an ancient question: “What makes a leader great?” He came to realize that there is no simple answer. McChrystal profiles thirteen famous leaders from a wide range of eras and fields—from corporate CEOs to politicians and revolutionaries. He uses their stories to explore how leadership works in practice and to challenge the myths that complicate our thinking about this critical topic. With Plutarch’s Lives as his model, McChrystal looks at paired sets of leaders who followed unconventional paths to success. For instance. . . · Walt Disney and Coco Chanel built empires in very different ways. Both had public personas that sharply contrasted with how they lived in private. · Maximilien Robespierre helped shape the French Revolution in the eighteenth century; Abu Musab al-Zarqawi led the jihadist insurgency in Iraq in the twenty-first. We can draw surprising lessons from them about motivation and persuasion. · Both Boss Tweed in nineteenth-century New York and Margaret Thatcher in twentieth-century Britain followed unlikely roads to the top of powerful institutions. · Martin Luther and his future namesake Martin Luther King Jr., both local clergymen, emerged from modest backgrounds to lead world-changing movements. Finally, McChrystal explores how his former hero, General Robert E. Lee, could seemingly do everything right in his military career and yet lead the Confederate Army to a devastating defeat in the service of an immoral cause. Leaders will help you take stock of your own leadership, whether you’re part of a small team or responsible for an entire nation.

Author: Archie Brown
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0465080979
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 482

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Book Description
From one of the world's preeminent political historians, a magisterial study of political leadership around the world from the advent of parliamentary democracy to the age of Obama. All too frequently, leadership is reduced to a simple dichotomy: the strong versus the weak. Yet, there are myriad ways to exercise effective political leadership -- as well as different ways to fail. We blame our leaders for economic downfalls and praise them for vital social reforms, but rarely do we question what makes some leaders successful while others falter. In this magisterial and wide-ranging survey of political leadership over the past hundred years, renowned Oxford politics professor Archie Brown challenges the widespread belief that strong leaders -- meaning those who dominate their colleagues and the policy-making process -- are the most successful and admirable. In reality, only a minority of political leaders will truly make a lasting difference. Though we tend to dismiss more collegial styles of leadership as weak, it is often the most cooperative leaders who have the greatest impact. Drawing on extensive research and decades of political analysis and experience, Brown illuminates the achievements, failures and foibles of a broad array of twentieth century politicians. Whether speaking of redefining leaders like Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, and Margaret Thatcher, who expanded the limits of what was politically possible during their time in power, or the even rarer transformational leaders who played a decisive role in bringing about systemic change -- Charles de Gaulle, Mikhail Gorbachev and Nelson Mandela, among them -- Brown challenges our commonly held beliefs about political efficacy and strength. Overturning many of our assumptions about the twentieth century's most important figures, Brown's conclusions are both original and enlightening. The Myth of the Strong Leader compels us to reassess the leaders who have shaped our world - and to reconsider how we should choose and evaluate those who will lead us into the future.

Author: Ron Edmondson
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
ISBN: 0718089243
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Pastor and popular blogger, Ron Edmondson exposes some of the common misunderstandings of leadership through stories from his own experiences, helping leaders develop healthier patterns of individual leadership. Being a leader involves much more than holding a title. And simply having a leader doesn't ensure success. This reality has never been more prevalent in the church than now, when so many churches are considered to be plateaued or dying. Pastor and popular blogger, Ron Edmondson believes this is due to a misunderstanding of what leadership is and what it isn't. In his work with hundreds of pastors and churches, the most common need he encounters is the need for more effective leadership in the local church. Seminaries may prepare pastors to preach, just as colleges may prepare teachers to teach, but who prepares pastors to lead? Simply stated: The church needs better leadership. In The Mythical Leader, Edmondson exposes some of the most common misunderstandings of leadership, shares stories from his own experiences, and will help church leaders develop healthier patterns to improve their individual leadership. While most people may have a preliminary understanding of many of these myths, they often are not lived out with a great degree of depth in the life of the church leader. Don't fall prey to these myths! If gone untreated they can be the very thing that prevents a good leader from leading well.

Author: Cedric J. Robinson
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469628228
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description
Do we live in basically orderly societies that occasionally erupt into violent conflict, or do we fail to perceive the constancy of violence and disorder in our societies? In this classic book, originally published in 1980, Cedric J. Robinson contends that our perception of political order is an illusion, maintained in part by Western political and social theorists who depend on the idea of leadership as a basis for describing and prescribing social order. Using a variety of critical approaches in his analysis, Robinson synthesizes elements of psychoanalysis, structuralism, Marxism, classical and neoclassical political philosophy, and cultural anthropology in order to argue that Western thought on leadership is mythological rather than rational. He then presents examples of historically developed "stateless" societies with social organizations that suggest conceptual alternatives to the ways political order has been conceived in the West. Examining Western thought from the vantage point of a people only marginally integrated into Western institutions and intellectual traditions, Robinson's perspective radically critiques fundamental ideas of leadership and order.

Author: Gerald C. Kane
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262366576
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
In this business bestseller, how companies can adapt in an era of continuous disruption: a guide to responding to such acute crises as COVID-19. Gold Medalist in Business Disruption/Reinvention. When COVID-19 hit, businesses had to respond almost instantaneously--shifting employees to remote work, repairing broken supply chains, keeping pace with dramatically fluctuating customer demand. They were forced to adapt to a confluence of multiple disruptions inextricably linked to a longer-term, ongoing digital disruption. This book shows that companies that use disruption as an opportunity for innovation emerge from it stronger. Companies that merely attempt to "weather the storm" until things go back to normal (or the next normal), on the other hand, miss an opportunity to thrive. The authors, all experts on business and technology strategy, show that transformation is not a one-and-done event, but a continuous process of adapting to a volatile and uncertain environment. Drawing on five years of research into digital disruption--including a series of interviews with business leaders conducted during the COVID-19 crisis--they offer a framework for understanding disruption and tools for navigating it. They outline the leadership traits, business principles, technological infrastructure, and organizational building blocks essential for adapting to disruption, with examples from real-world organizations. Technology, they remind readers, is not an end in itself, but enables the capabilities essential for surviving an uncertain future: nimbleness, scalability, stability, and optionality.

Author: Roger D. Launius
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 9780252066320
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
Setting the tone for the collection, NASA chief historian Roger D. Launius and Howard McCurdy maintain that the nation's presidency had become imperial by the mid-1970s and that supporters of the space program had grown to find relief in such a presidency, which they believed could help them obtain greater political support and funding. Subsequent chapters explore the roles and political leadership, vis-à-vis government policy, of presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan.

Author: Richard Gillis
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472907817
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
The War on the Shore, the Battle of Brookline, the Miracle of Medinah: the Ryder Cup is golf's – and arguably one of international sport's – most intense, high-profile tournaments. Two teams tussle through 28 matches over three days for no prize money but enormous national pride. And purportedly in charge of those two teams are the captains, whose reputations are shaped forever by their players' results out on the course. Justin Rose's unlikely 35-foot on the 17th green at Medinah Country Club set up Europe's triumph – and one of modern sport's most remarkable turnarounds – in the 2012 Ryder Cup. It also established Davis Love II as 'a bad captain' and saw José María Olazábal feted for a series of leadership masterstrokes. In reality, neither captain had much to do with that putt being sunk. Yet the pressure remains on the captains to lead their team to victory. As each Cup passes, more theories are put forward about how to win. Some of these combine traditional golfing nous with cutting-edge sports psychology. Others are red herrings that have led captains down any number of blind alleys. So what can a captain do to win the Ryder Cup? Using exclusive interviews and saturation reporting, Gillis shows how strategy has evolved since the very first match in 1927, exploring the enduring and often surprising role played by some of the game's greatest stars including Walter Hagen, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tony Jacklin, Seve Ballesteros and Paul Azinger. The Captain Myth uses golf's greatest event to examine some fundamental questions about leadership, teams and motivation.

Author: Jonathan Lopez
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1532080980
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 45

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Book Description
In this book, I broke down the idea and myths about the concept of creating a habit in 21 days. What does it takes to become a successful person and improve yourself? Discipline is the most common trait in a successful person or leader. By presenting you with scientific and medical facts and personal experiences, I opened myself up to you in this book to provide you guidance in your journey to success. By being a part of the military and law enforcement, I have seen some common mistakes of those who have failed in these arenas and how some of those people were able to get back on their feet and become a successful person. Regardless of your background or history, you should have no excuses because after reading this book, you will become a better asset to your company or agency, a better entrepreneur in your business, and you will have received important tools to better yourself and life of your family.

Author: John C. Maxwell
Publisher: Thomas Nelson Inc
ISBN: 140027561X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 19

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Book Description
Her husband had everything: wealth, privilege, position, and a royal title. Yet instead of him, Princess Diana won over the whole world. Why? She understood the Law of Influence.