by David Rubenstein.
In this book, the author interviewed 30 contemporary leaders, putting them into six categories: visionaries, builders, transformers, commanders, decision-makers, and masters. Among the objectives of the interviews was to extract from each the answer to the question: What does it take to be a leader?
This format distinguishes from most, if not all, of the numerous books on leadership, which typically feature the authors expositing their knowledge and experience about leadership.
Although leadership is the central theme, the interviews also reveal interesting episodes of each interviewee’s life experiences, as well as reflections, some of which may resonate with the readers’ own experiences. A couple of examples:
Bezos: Interesting Episode: Before “Amazon”, he named his company “Cadabra”. It did not work well. Success Secret: Among his secrets to success is “not making key decisions too early or too late in the day.” Reflection: “When I’m eighty, I want to have minimized the number of regrets that I have in my life.” Oprah: Interesting Episode: Oprah’s name was the result of “Orpah” misspelled the first day she went to school, and it stayed that way. “Orpah” came from a biblical source. It was the name on her birth certificate. Success Secret: “My skill comes from my listening ability, and trying to understand the impact of what was being said.” Reflection: Many times, getting demoted or getting fired is an opportunity for something else to show up. While almost all of the leadership attributes enunciated in this book are not new, in the sense that they can be found in other leadership books, it is nonetheless refreshing that they were gleaned directly from present-day leaders, many, if not all, are household names and TV personalities. As mentioned, the author puts his interviewees into six categories. Missing from the six is the category “Academic Leaders”. It should be noted that, although Condolezza Rice served as Provost of Stanford University, she was interviewed in the "Commanders" category, on account of her service as former Secretary of State and National Security Advisor. As someone whose entire career is in higher education, this reviewer would be interested in the secret(s) of successfully leading a group of professors, who typically see themselves as prima donnas. If the author happens to be reading this, perhaps he would take this into consideration if and when he contemplates a second edition.
In summary, a witty and insightful book into the life and work of some of the contemporary leaders.
(Source: Wikipedia)
Renee Fleming performs at We are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial on January 18, 2009 (Source: Wikipedia)
Antony Fauci and President Joe Biden in February 2021 (Source: Wikipedia)
Link of review in amazon.com.
3rd among 83 reviews as of 4/4/23
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