11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Leadership in a Time of Accelerating Change, July 8, 2000
This review is from: Great Leaders See the Future First: Taking Your Organization to the Top - In Five Revolutionary Steps (Hardcover)
This is the most thought-provoking book on leadership I have read in some time, and it makes a nice connection to the need to lead differently in the face of powerful, irresistible forces that are becoming stronger. The book offers many diagnostics to give you a sense of where and how you might become more effective. Having diagnosed where you need to improve, you will probably have to rely on other books to get you the details you need to make large improvements.
Ms. Corbin's focus is on "great leaders -- those special individuals who have ethical character, care about their followers, and have the courage to lead them into a positive future." She also says that the purpose of the book is "becoming a great leader under a new set of global rules."
Ms. Corbin heads a think tank called the Center for the 21st Century, and she draws on a lot of forecasts to describe important issues for the new century in terms of trends: more freedom, faster transportation, progressive world peace, advancing technology, increasing capitalism, growing world business trade, and more understanding of diversity. These trends will coalesce into four Dyna (her word) forces on the organization of the future: globalization; marketization (market forces determining resource allocations rather than governments); informatization (knowledge from data); and democratization.
The author reports having been very accurate with her forecasts over the last 15 years, so we should probably take her seriously. I have no ability to forecast the future in a similar way, and believe it cannot be forecast so accurately; but I leave it up to you to decide about her forecasts.
Basically, she is calling for a convergence of forces in a way that will make organizations uncomfortable places for many to work. She sees leadership as being the answer. "Leaders determine whether an organization succeeds or fails." This will require a new model of leader who is more of a strategist, innovator, seer, speeder-upper, and user of new technologies in a more free form environment with mostly project workers involved.
I thought that the book was more of a visionary statement of the ideal, rather than a guide that leaders will specifically follow. For example, it seems to me that a leader could succeed either by creating an environment where these things occur or by actually being the doer who makes them happen. I suspect that the former role will be more prevalent and easier to do. There was not a lot of guidance on the details of what to do. The direction was at about the 40,000 foot level above sea level. That is a good place to see the big picture, but it is hard to connect the dots if you are a leader.
My own work on irresitible forces suggests that the world she portrays is a little too simplified to be helpful for any given organization, yet these are certainly forces that everyone should consider and use to their advantage.
On leadership, my own research shows that the most successful current leaders focus on 2 or 3 roles that are more important to their organization's success than any others, and do those superbly. Perhaps in time, people will be able to do more, but I would be surprised to see widespread expansion of capabilities of leaders occurring very rapidly. I agree with the author that there is more hope in creating free-flowing organizational structures and encouraging everyone in the organization to take on more of their own leadership.
Use your irresistible forces to create chaos for your competitors' organizations by shifting the rules!
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Step by Step Guide for an Effective and Successful Future, August 6, 2000
This review is from: Great Leaders See the Future First: Taking Your Organization to the Top - In Five Revolutionary Steps (Hardcover)
As a former educator who now has experience in the corporate and entrepreneurial educational industry arenas, I find Ms. Corbin's book a must read for anyone who wants to ensure a successful future. All you have to do is go back and read one of her previous books and you will know that she is a master at seeing trends for the future and giving expert strategies for becoming proactive participants in the process of effective and successful change.
While the entire book, GREAT LEADERS SEE THE FUTURE FIRST: Taking Your Organization to the Top in Five Revolutinary Steps, is informational, intriguing and interesting, I am most impressed with what Ms. Corbin calls the New Millennium Convergent Leader versus the Old Millennium Unilateral Leader. Not only does she offer a concise definition of the two, she also offers a step by step guide to becoming a convergent leader. While many futurists predict the future, most leave you wondering what you must do to progress and function effectively once change is upon you. Ms. Corbin gives us a step by step workbook that explains to anyone in any field how to be proactive and take individual responsibility for success.
I plan to give this book to all that I care about and have already begun to analyze the way I operate and think in relation to what Ms. Corbin shares with us.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Leaders See The Future First, August 4, 2000
This review is from: Great Leaders See the Future First: Taking Your Organization to the Top - In Five Revolutionary Steps (Hardcover)
Carolyn Corbin's book, Great Leaders See The Future First, has been an inspiration to me in my non-profit work. In my field sometimes it seems we are just keeping up with the immediate needs, but the book inspires me to push the board to spend time and energy on looking ahead to keep our organization on the cutting edge. I'm going to recommend the book to my national association of nonprofit professionals. They will all benefit!
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