Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership

Chapter 17. Reframing Leadership

Rudy Giuliani could have shrunk from the awesome burdens created by the terrorist attacks of 9/11. He woke up that morning a virtual has-been, a wounded, end-of-term mayor whose ratings in New York and elsewhere had been in steady decline. New Yorkers were tired of his arrogance and bullying. A messy, very public divorce was beginning to turn him into an object of ridicule (his estranged wife and their children were living at Gracie Mansion, the mayor's official residence, while His Honor bunked in a friend's spare bedroom). Yet, as discussed in Chapter Fifteen, Giuliani seemed transformed on New York's bloodiest day. He sped to the scene, arriving in time to see smoke, chaos, and bodies falling from the sky. He ...