The Future of Leadership: Today’s Top Leadership Thinkers Speak to Tomorrow’s Leaders
by Warren Bennis, Gretchen Spreitzer, and Thomas Cummins

From time to time we’re offered an accumulation of great thoughts by great minds. The Future of Leadership would certainly fall into that category. Here is a collection of provocative insights on leadership from a “who’s who” of leadership thought including: Tom Peters, Charles Handy, and Jim Kouzes. A stellar cast of the world’s foremost leadership gurus comes together in one place to offer their thoughts on leadership in the new economy. Edited by renowned leadership expert Warren Bennis, the book addresses issues that Bennis identifies as the ones that “keep CEOs up at night,” including why we tolerate bad leaders, why leadership is everyone’s business, and how ethics will play into new leadership.

With contributions from Charles Handy, Tom Peters, Barry Posner, Jim Kouzes, and Warren Bennis, no other book includes the caliber of authors and the range of thinking found in The Future of Leadership.

Essays such as “The Future Has No Shelf Life,” written by Bennis, addresses some interesting questions. For example: What will the “world of organizations” look like in 2010? What will the New Leaders look like and where will they come from? What will (by then) have happened to so-called “high involvement” organizations? How will disparities in talent be resolved? Indeed, will they be? What will prove to be the impact of important demographic changes (e.g. ageism) now underway? What about the social contract between employers and employees, “that hollow implicit contract,” that usually offered some form of loyalty and responsibility to both parties? How do we keep our eyes and ears open to potentially disruptive inflection points? Finally, what is the proper role of business education for the next generation?

A total of 21 people (including Bennis himself) address several of these and related questions. Their primary audience consists of tomorrow’s leaders: in 2001, some are infants; others are completing college or have recently embarked on careers; and still others now occupy middle management levels. Think of the book as a “literary time capsule.” Those of us who examine the contents now can re-examine them in 2010. It will be interesting to learn which observations prove important and which do not.

The material is carefully organized within six parts: Setting the Stage for the Future, The Organization of the Future, The Leader of the Future, How Leaders Stay on Top of their Game, Insights from Young Leaders, and Some Closing Thoughts. It remains for each reader, of course, to determine which essays have the greatest value. All are so well-written that, I suspect, each will have special relevance at some point between now and 2010. And perhaps beyond. Essays include Handy’s “A World of Fleas and Elephants,” Kouzes and Posner’s “Bringing Leadership Lessons from the Past to the Future,” Lipman-Blumen’s “Why Do We Tolerate Bad Leaders?” O’Toole’s “When Leadership Is an Organizational Trait,” and Spreitzer and Cummings’ “the Leadership Challenges of the Next Generation.” All of the essays are outstanding. Whatever the “future of leadership” proves to be, it will have been guided and enriched by Warren Bennis as well as by those who honor him with the essays assembled in this book.

(This book review was originally published in 2001 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 9.)

Drive Your People Wild Without Driving Them Crazy: Leadership Lessons for a Chaotic World
by Jennifer White

I’m beginning to see more and more authors focus on the importance of “balance.” It obviously affects the peace of mind, progress and productivity of their employees. However, more and more leaders are recognizing the impact of employee balance on the bottom line as well.

Under pressure, some leaders become dictators believing that they have to drive performance from their people. What do they get? Long hours, more stress, more chaos, and mediocre performance. Jennifer White has created a unique seven-part process that will help business leaders produce the right results when it matters the most, show them how to inspire their employees to be high performers even if the economy is slowing, and convince them that it is possible for everyone to make it home in time for dinner without sacrificing company results.

In this revolutionary book, Jennifer White helps leaders marry two apparently conflicting ideas, success at work and success at home, with the aim of creating profitable companies that retain top-producing employees. Chapter titles alone set the tone for this comprehensive, realistic, and user-friendly manual for entrepreneurs, managers, and CEOs alike!

• Chapter #1: Transform Chaos into Sanity (timely, practical advice on walking the fine line between chaos, creativity and sanity by creating some elements of consistency)
• Chapter #2: Honor Your People (harnessing the collaborative power of your people to get results)
• Chapter #3: Maximizing Productivity (doing less to achieve more)
• Chapter #4: Use Speed to Your Advantage (the importance of speed—but not for speed’s sake)
• Chapter #5: Leverage Their Strength (stop focusing on skills your people don’t have and leverage those they do have)
• Chapter #6: Communicate with Power (develop a compelling message your people want to hear, never straying from the absolute truth)
• Chapter #7: Get a Life (the importance of getting your people home for dinner. How many books have you read with a chapter devoted to this goal?)

If you are interested in your growth as a leader and are up to the challenge presented by Jennifer and her team of coaches, this book should be on your shelf. You’ll be challenged by the exercises and educated by the case studies, quizzes and common-sense approaches to a long-time challenge for anyone trying to lead people. Yes, you will be asked to be honest with yourself and, if you are, you’ll benefit greatly.

(This book review was originally published in 2001 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 9.)