Customer Reviews

John F. Kennedy on Leadership: The Lessons and Legacy of a President

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This is perhaps one of the best books I've read on leadership. Of course I always like learning a little history along with some business skills, which makes this particularly appealing (having not been around for the Kennedy years in person). The book takes us through the Kennedy years and shows how JFK changed the rules of compaigning, challenged tradition, turned weaknesses into strengths, worked positively with the media, wrote speeches that reached his audience, and crafted a particular image. At the end of each chapter is a summary of lessons to be learned if you want to do the same. For anyone doing anything entrepreneurial, political and otherwise high-profile, this is a very useful guide for building a following.

Some of the most effective books to read on leadership development are biographies that examine historical characters. One of the most popular was Donald Phillip's Lincoln on Leadership which became a best seller. John F. Kennedy on Leadership falls into this category and illuminates the
leadership skills of JFK in a way seldom appreciated.

Most people think of Kennedy as a privileged son of a wealthy businessman with powerful political connections who used his good looks and charisma to ultimately achieve the presidency. However, little attention has been given to his difficult struggle with a chronic disease, a severe physical
handicap and personal shyness. Further, few authors have closely analyzed how well Kennedy mastered the new medium of television, or fostered teamwork within the Whitehouse. What about the leadership skills that inspired him to create the Peace Corps, or the way he cautiously maneuvered during the Berlin crisis or the Cuban missile crisis in October 1962?

Author John Barnes deftly covers various attributes of sound leadership like vision, resilience, communication, team building, decision making and crisis management. He takes each of these qualities and weaves them into actual historical episodes within Kennedy's brief life. For example, Barnes clearly demonstrates JFK's powerful use of vision from his proclamation of America entering a "New Frontier", his remarkable Inaugural Address and his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech of June 1963. At the conclusion of this chapter, Barnes offers the reader some thoughtful ways to create their own vision using the lessons learned from Kennedy's example.

This is an excellent book and is a pleasure to read. John F. Kennedy on Leadership is not a book that simply idolizes the achievements of JFK. Kennedy is honestly examined and all his personal strengths and weaknesses are frankly revealed. The final chapter entitled, Faults and Failures strips away the veneer of the Camelot myth. But even here... there is much for the reader to learn from JFK's unpleasant character flaws.

John F. Kennedy on Leadership is a readable book that beautifully merges real historical events with a man whose leadership skills changed the world we live in today. This is the kind of book that provides a satisfying rumination of thought when the back cover is eventually closed.

In the 40-plus years since John F. Kennedy's assassination, many people have forgotten how far American politicians have come in their public personas. Every candidate tries to use the media, savvy advisers, staged events and a winning personality to develop an authentic, vote-getting public voice. Kennedy was the first president to master these essential political tools. This made him one of America's most popular presidents, as well as a celebrity. Kennedy's political personality was so strong that it virtually transformed the presidency. In this rich historical and personal story, author John A. Barnes does a great job of showing how Kennedy operated. JFK was enmeshed in pivotal events and each circumstance tested his ability to lead. Barnes clearly presents Kennedy's triumphs and shortcomings as well as his formula for successful leadership. We recommend this to aspiring and current leaders, and to those interested in history - or in politics the way it used to be.

This is a really thought-provoking work. Just when you thought there could be nothing new to say about JFK, here's a really well-written & intelligent new take on JFK, which is somewhat different from the conventional. He emphasizes the role of Churchill as JFK's role model and mentor. (Interestingly, they never met.) Actually, like George W. Bush, JFK had a "father" problem. Just as George W. had to effectively "divorce" himself from his father's political legacy and become the political foster son of Ronald Reagan, so did JFK. Joe Sr.'s money was indispensable to Kennedy's political success, but it came with some seriously heavy baggage. (Appeaser, anti-Semite, etc.) So Kennedy had to "divorce" his actual father and "adopt" a "political" father: Winston S. Churchill. (For a decade after 1940, the navy blue pinstripe suit JFK had made in imitation of Churchill's was the only suit Kennedy owned.)

This is a fascinating work of history as well as a superb business book. Among other accomplishments John Barnes reveals that JFK - who seems to us today to have been a natural-born political star - began his career as 'an awkward, self-conscous young man' who actually looked too youthful to impress prospective voters. His extraordinary charisma was in fact the product of an astonishing process of self-invention, one that required an enormous amount of work by Kennedy and those around him. He consciously made himself into the first 'movie-star president' and he did it after discovering through his own Hollywood contacts that many cinema stars had been formed out of materials rather less promising than his own.
A former political speechwriter and columnist, Barnes' chapters on communications and speechwriting are especially good.
Those who seek success cannot do better than by studying the efforts of those who have succeeded -- and this book is packed with valuable lessons for anyone interested in business and politics.

If you are like me and have read quite a bit regarding JFK, you will also likely be disappointed in this book. It is a brief summary of certain management techniques and little flourishes, (e.g. "find your Bobby"), that may have some historical reference but serious litle duplicative managent skills.
If you're a new reader to this fascinating period of presidential history and world politics, you might find this boook interesting reading.

I hate reacting to another post but to say that the VERY Irish JFK turned to Winston Churchill as spiritual father is a tale from another planet. It's like saying Oliver Cromwell inspired James Joyce (well, actually the EFFECTS of Cromwell's genocide inspired Joyce's suppressed rancor). Read JFK's Why England Slept? to find how he forever incurred ultimately fatal British enmity. Read the speeches in Ireland a few months before his murder by British intelligence services.

That poster daring to breathe W in the same sentence as JFK recalls what this book most clearly delineates and contrasts with current commanders: JFK's brilliant and sharp intelligence and leadership and how we may apply that today. Simply replay the JFK Inaugural and ANYTHING since. THe greatest speech you will never hear is the Second JFK Inaugural. La lucha sigue!

I realize this is no BLOG, but come on already!

The Kennedy presidency is a great example of modern day marketing--not leadership. The book, John F. Kennedy on Leadership, by John A. Barnes is a textbook published by the American Management Association. Each chapter contains short chronicles of the Kennedy presidency combined with academic management lessons.
Barnes reveals the hidden, behind-the-scenes activities that promoted and projected Kennedy's public image while concealing the not-so-attractive underbelly. More than 40 years after his death, recent polls rate JFK as the second-greatest president of all time. His approval rating at 70 percent is the highest average approval rating of any president ever measured by Gallup.
Kennedy's leadership is not something to be admired. During WWII, JFK was reckless and frequently jeopardized his PT crew needlessly. General MacArthur and others say he should have been court-martialed. By some miracle, his misadventures in the South Pacific turned heroic and propelled him into a national figure.
During the 1960 presidential election, Kennedy harped on the "missile gap" that did not exist and repeated the slogan "getting the country moving again" when the national economy was healthy.
In the 1961 Inaugural address, JFK read a highly crafted speech:
Let the word go forth from this time and place...let every nation know...that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and success of liberty...
On the 62nd day of his presidency, Kennedy made a forceful speech declaring the nation would acknowledge its treaty obligations and support the goal of a neutral and independent Laos. In an extraordinary move, Kennedy bypassed Secretary of State Dean Rusk and the traditional role of the State Department when he appointed his man, Averell Harriman, to negotiate a toothless treaty with the Communists. Within a short period, Laos fell to the Communists. The Ho Chi Minh Trail, constructed on Laos territory, gave North Vietnam the logistical avenue to sustain its aggression in the south.
Kennedy viciously attacked the Eisenhower Administration for their "weakness" in dealing with the Cuban situation. Instead of helping to come up with the best plan to overthrow Castro and evict the Communists, Kennedy and Schlesinger devoted their efforts to disassociate the Presidency from the conspiracy--plausible deniability. Kennedy ordered changes to the CIA plan that crippled its effectiveness, and in the last hour, Kennedy dealt the deathblow. Although Kennedy wanted to blame the CIA and the military, the failed mission was the result of Kennedy's actions.
The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 would not have occurred if the 1961 Bay of Pigs plan had succeeded. Instead of immediately ordering a blockade, JFK formed a special committee to examine the options and reach a consensus while he went on a campaign trip. JFK again bypassed normal State Department channels and worked a secret agreement with Khrushchev that called for the removal of Jupiter IRBMs in Turkey and pledged never to invade Cuba.
Back on the subject of leadership and management, JFK relied on a "kitchen cabinet" similar to that of Andrew Jackson in 1829. Although cabinet officials were selected by him, Kennedy stifled the cabinet as a major decision-making body. Truman's Secretary of State Dean Acheson was returned to the White House as a special advisor to the president. Instead of using the Joint Chiefs of Staff, retired General Maxwell Taylor was returned to provide personal military advice to the President.
The West Wing of the White House was unofficially promoted to policy-makers and the cabinet secretaries had to compete in meetings on a level equal to the staff. The author noted Vice President Johnson was never taken into Kennedy's confidence, and was excluded from some of the most dramatic moments.
Landing an American on the Moon didn't make the South Vietnamese fight any harder and it didn't cause any Viet Cong to change sides. Kennedy ignored good advice from his Presidential Science Advisor and accelerated the manned space program for the sole purpose of upstaging the Russians. The author admires Kennedy's efforts to seek outside advice, but he limited his consultations with space enthusiasts such as Wernher von Braun, who were willing to underestimate costs and forecast overly optimistic schedules.
When Kennedy went before Congress to call for landing a man on the moon "before this decade is out," one wonders if the arbitrary deadline was the result of a speechwriter's quest for bumper sticker slogans.
The book John F. Kennedy on Leadership makes a good textbook on leadership and management--it is just unfortunate John A. Barnes chose JFK as a standard bearer for leadership.