The Future of Leadership: Today's Top Leadership Thinkers Speak to Tomorrow's Leaders

The Future of Leadership: Today's Top Leadership Thinkers Speak to Tomorrow's Leaders

by Thomas G. Cummings, Warren Bennis, Gretchen M. Spreitzer
Released May 2001
Publisher(s): Pfeiffer
ISBN: 9780470907450

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Book description

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—as well as from such young entrepreneurs as Michael Klein and Tara Church—no other book includes the caliber of authors and the range of thinking found in The Future of Leadership.

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Contents
  5. Preface
    1. Audience
    2. Overview of the Contents
    3. Acknowledgments
  6. Part One: Setting the Stage for the Future
    1. Chapter One: The Future Has No Shelf Life
    2. Chapter Two: The Era of Human Capital Has Finally Arrived
      1. Competitive Advantage
      2. Implications for Organizations
      3. Impact on Individuals
      4. Societal Implications
      5. Future Challenges
      6. Conclusion
  7. Part Two: The Organization of the Future
    1. Chapter Three: A World of Fleas and Elephants
      1. The Leadership of Fleas
      2. Can Fleas Become Elephants?
      3. Can Elephants Harbor Fleas?
      4. Can Fleas Be Developed? Or Is It Luck?
    2. Chapter Four: Knowledge Work and the Future of Management
      1. A Brief Look at the Old Model of Management
      2. The Rise of the Knowledge Worker
      3. What Are Knowledge Workers?
      4. What Will Management Become?
      5. The Difficulty of Finding and Keeping Knowledge Work Managers
      6. Management and Non–Knowledge Workers
    3. Chapter Five: Boundaryless
    4. Chapter Six: Trust Me On This
  8. Part Three: The Leader of the Future
    1. Chapter Seven: Bringing Leadership Lessons from the Past into the Future
      1. Lesson One: Leadership Is Everyone's Business
      2. Lesson Two: Leadership Is a Relationship
      3. Lesson Three: Leadership Starts with Action
      4. Lesson Four: Leadership Development Is Self-Development
      5. Keep On Learning
    2. Chapter Eight: Leadership as the Legitimation of Doubt
      1. The Value of Uncertainty
      2. Leading by the Compass
    3. Chapter Nine: Leading Yourself
      1. Are We Together On This?
      2. A Miracle of Coordination
      3. Micromanaging the Organism
      4. Who's the Boss Around Here?
      5. Ruled by an Idiot
      6. Evaluating Your Internal Leader
    4. Chapter Ten: The Context of Creativity
    5. Chapter Eleven: Why Do We Tolerate Bad Leaders?
      1. An Age of Magnificent Uncertitude
      2. Uncertitude, Anxiety, and Leaders
      3. A Different Option: Matriculating in the School of Anxiety
      4. Democracy, Personal Responsibility, and Organizational Leadership
      5. Leadership and the Search for Life's Meaning
      6. Ennoblement and “Victories for Humanity”
    6. Chapter Twelve: The Evolving Role of Executive Leadership
      1. Shared Leadership and the Devolving CEO
      2. Leading Across Generations
      3. Global Leadership: The Next Generation
      4. Summary
    7. Chapter Thirteen: When Leadership Is an Organizational Trait
      1. Using Leadership Data as an Objective Focus for Change
      2. Building Organizational Coherence and Agility
      3. A Distinction with Consequences
      4. The Role of Enabling Systems
      5. Different in Countless Ways
      6. The Moral Equivalent of Individual Leadership
      7. Case in Point: Enron
      8. Lessons for the Next Generation of Leaders
  9. Part Four: How Leaders Stay On Top of Their Game
    1. Chapter Fourteen: Just Say Yes!
      1. Thirty-One Ways Leaders Stay on Top of Their Game
      2. Weird Rules
    2. Chapter Fifteen: Heroic Leadership's Greatest Battle
      1. Creating Triumph from Tragedy
      2. Second Thoughts About Second Acts
      3. Bernstein and Bennis as Models for Leadership Resilience
      4. When Bad Things Happen to Good Leaders: Final Thoughts for Future Heroes
  10. Part Five: Insights from Young Leaders
    1. Chapter Sixteen: Where the Leaders Are
      1. The Tree Musketeers Story
      2. The Need: Inspire, Empower, and Support Young Leaders
      3. Overcoming Obstacles: Take Youth Leaders Seriously
      4. The Challenge: Trust the Youth-Led Process
    2. Chapter Seventeen: Seeking a Newer World
  11. Part Six: Some Closing Thoughts
    1. Chapter Eighteen: The Leadership Challenges of the Next Generation
      1. Setting the Stage for Leadership: Making Sense of the Context
      2. Who Is the Leader of the Future?
      3. Organizing for the Future
      4. How Leaders Stay On Top of Their Game
      5. What Young Leaders Have to Say: Hearing from the Generation Xers
      6. Unanswered Questions
    2. Postlude: An Intellectual Memoir
      1. Act I: The Academic Journey (1951–1967)
      2. Act II: Just Do It (1967–1978)
      3. Act III: USC (1979)
  12. Notes and References
  13. Index
  14. The Authors

Product information

  • Title: The Future of Leadership: Today's Top Leadership Thinkers Speak to Tomorrow's Leaders
  • Author(s): Thomas G. Cummings, Warren Bennis, Gretchen M. Spreitzer
  • Release date: May 2001
  • Publisher(s): Pfeiffer
  • ISBN: 9780470907450