When concluding their book, they review some of the challenges discussed: "Blowing up your business model, turning green without bleeding red, leading an unfamiliar workforce, relying on what you believe in." These are indeed formidable challenges. How must whole leaders respond to them?
1. Act Authentically: "The more confusing and uncertain the world becomes, the more people want leaders who are real...[What helps] is knowing that their CEO will be exactly the person they expect, will respect them enough to be authentic, and will deserve their continuing respect."
2. Balance Money and Meaning: "Leaders are confronting what we refer to as the [begin italics] money-meaning gap [end italics], and the future will make this gap wider and more difficult." Therefore, "To win the war for talent, to build brands, to function effectively in a global environment - all this involves managing meaning."
3. Develop the Capacity to Connect: "The best leaders in the future will be connectors and collaborators, not just in terms of bringing people together but also allying disparate ideas and organizations. Interdependence is the watch word for he future, and people who can facilitate connections will have a huge advantage over those who can't." Organizations that develop and retain an abundance of such people have a hue advantage over those that don't. "This means being able to connect the [right] dots - to figure out how seemingly unrelated concepts or views can be brought together in a synergistic whole."
source from www.booko.org
Note my frequent use of the word "how." Those who read this book will especially appreciate the fact that David Dotlich, Peter Cairo, and Stephen Rhinesmith are diehard pragmatists who rely almost entirely on empirical, verifiable evidence when identifying the "what" of developing and executing whole leadership; they devote most of their attention to explaining how to achieve those separate but related, independent objectives.
Congratulations to them for collaborating so well on what I consider to be a brilliant achievement. Bravo! copyright by www.booko.org
Summary: They've Done It Again!
Rating: 5
my booko.org,my favourite website
I must admit . . . I'm a devotee of these guys and their work! From Unnatural Leadership to Why CEO's Fail, and then Head, Heart & Guts (and this text carries on the theme first articulated in that last book as it now applies to managing through a prolonged period of economic uncertainty), they have always managed to proffer timely and pragmatic counsel.
My only disappointment is seeing this book compared to Ram Charan's Leadership In An Era of Economic Uncertainty, which is a far inferior offering. While Charan deals with cost cutting, managing cash flow and pricing - Dotlich and company deal with the more strategic issues of reinventing your business model (which everyone in BigPharma, BigLaw, BigAuto and countless other industries are currently obsessing about); encouraging innovation, differentiation, and other important issues we all face in this economic climate.
The authors make a valuable contribution and I'm still busy marking up the margins of my copy.
copyright by www.booko.org
Patrick J. McKenna, co-author of First Among Equals source from www.booko.org
http://rapidshare.com/files/268965573/047040230X_Leading_in_Times_of_Crisis.rar