Leadership Engine: Building Leaders at Every Level (Rapid-Read Handbook) [Paperback]

Noel M. Tichy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2007

This rapid-read handbook articulates the key concepts of the best-selling hardcover, The Leadership Engine: Building Leaders at Every Level, by Noel Tichy and Eli Cohen. Voted "one of the best business books of the year in 1997" by both BusinessWeek and Library Journal, it argues for making leadership development an embedded process in the way your organization operates.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"There is a multibillion-dollar consulting industry in the world today," Tichy notes (in this reprint of his 1997 BusinessWeek Book of the Year, written with freelancer Cohen) "that thrives largely on the fact that most managers don't want to lead." It's an insight Tichy (Control Your Destiny Or Someone Else Will), a professor at the Univ. of Michigan School of Business, has observed firsthand when trying to determine why some companies succeed and others fail or just limp along. His conclusion: the winners have "good leaders who nurture the development of other leaders at all levels of the organization." These leaders urge their workers to see reality and mobilize the appropriate responses. Repeatedly, the authors single out the heads of successful companies such as General Electric and Allied Signal to discuss how much time their chief executives spend "formally and informally" on teaching. They conclude that those firms' success is a direct result of everyone's pulling in the same direction. The book's argument ignores small entrepreneurial companies where a product innovation, speed to market or customer service can make all the difference. But in discussing large companies, the book is on the money.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Review

"This book is the most valuable of the lot because it solidly confronts a vexing problem today -- the lack of leaders who are willing to take their organizations through fundamental change. If you think you've got what it takes, Tichy offers a comprehensive handbook for developing a leadership program at your workplace". -- Computerworld --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 47 pages
• Publisher: Pritchett, LP; 1 edition (June 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0944002250
• ISBN-13: 978-0944002254
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #77,936 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It Can Be Done, January 11, 2000

By 

Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Leadership Engine: How Winning Companies Build Leaders at Every Level (Hardcover)

The subtitle suggests the book's objective: To explain "How Winning Companies Build Leaders at Every Level." According to the authors, there are certain "fundamentals" common to winning organizations: "First, leaders with a proven track record of success take direct responsibility for the development of other leaders. Second, leaders who develop other leaders have teachable points of view in the specific areas of ideas, values, and something I call E-cubed -- emotional energy and edge....Third, leaders embody their teachable points of view in living stories....Finally, because winning leaders invest considerable time developing other leaders, they have well-defined methodologies and coaching and teaching techniques." Together, these "fundamentals" create the central metaphor in the book: a machine.

As a "machine", an organization consists of separate but interdependent parts; requires lubrication and fuel as well as constant maintenance; and functions best when utilized to serve the specific purposes for which it has been designed.Almost half of The Leadership Engine consists of a "Handbook for Leaders Developing Leaders." In it, the authors provide a cohesive and comprehensive answer to the question "How to create a Leadership Engine?" One useful approach to the "Handbook" is to think of it as a "super" hardware store and you have an empty toolbox. Examine everything available. Select only what is most appropriate for your own organization. Then work with others to assemble the "machine" your organization needs. In doing so, you and they are providing leadership. Your shared obligation is to involve as many others as possible, helping them to become leaders also. If help is needed along the way, it is reassuring to know that the authors have created the equivalent of an operator's manual to help ensure maximum performance of your organization's "leadership engine." Whenever it's time for a "tune-up", you will have the guidance you need.

This is a superb piece of work.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Winning Organizations are Teaching Organizations", October 22, 2001

By 

Turgay BUGDACIGIL (Istanbul, Turkey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Leadership Engine: How Winning Companies Build Leaders at Every Level (Hardcover)

"A major part of my job has always been figuring out what works and what doesn't. Several years ago, however, the great disparity between the track records of the corporate winners and losers prompted me to step back and specifically tackle the broader question: Why do some companies succeed while others fail? The answer I have come up with is that winning companies win because they have good leaders who nurture the development of other leaders at all levels of the organization. The ultimate test of success for an organization is not whether it can win today but whether it can keep winning tomorrow and the day after. Therefore, the ultimate test for a leader is not whether he or she makes smart decisions and takes decisive action, but whether he or she teaches others to be leaders and builds an organization that can sustain its success even when he or she is not around. The key ability of winning organizations and winning leaders is creating leaders" (from the Introduction).

In this context, Noel Tichy divides his book into ten chapters. After defining what he means by 'winning' in Chapter 1, in the rest of the book, he talks specifically about what winning leaders do that makes them winners and how they develop other winning leaders at all levels of their organizations. In order to help reader, he emphasizes following 30 main themes that emerged in the book:

* Winning is about leadership,

* Leaders have ideas, values, energy and edge,

* Without leaders, organizations stagnate,

* Leaders manage through times of change,

* Leaders make things happen,

* Leaders are revolutionaries,

* Great leaders are great teachers,

* Winning leaders make teaching a personal priority,

* Winners have a 'teachable point of view,'

* Winning leaders draw from their past,

* Leaders' stories reveal their teachable points of view,

* Everyone has a usable past: Leaders just use theirs better,

* Winning organizations are built on clear ideas,

* Leaders make sure the ideas are current and appropriate,

* Ideas are the framework for actions at all levels,

* Winning organizations have strong values,

* Winning leaders live the values-privately and publicly,

* Values are a key competitive tool,

* Winning leaders are high-energy people,

* Winning leaders create energy in others,

* Times of transition: Teachable moments,

* Winning leaders never take the easy way out,

* Categories of edge,

* Edge isn't cruel, it's honest,

* Winning leaders portray the future as an unfolding drama,

* Winners' stories create scenarios for success,

* Leaders' stories are dynamic and motivating,

* Winning leadership is about building for the future,

* Success is achieved by developing other leaders,

* The best leaders know when it's time to leave.

Finally, he says that "Organizations that have a Leadership Engine win because they have leaders at every level who teach others to be leaders. Teaching and learning are at the heart of these organizations."

Highly recommended.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Leadership Engine - a quick, motivating read, April 3, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Leadership Engine: Building Leaders at Every Level (Rapid-Read Handbook) (Paperback)

The Leadership Engine: Building Leaders at Every Level Handbook was given to our entire company to motivate us to move toward a cultural and business change. This handbook is based on the book The Leadership Engine by Noel Tichy and Eli Cohen. This handbook's premise is that leaders can be made and nurtured at every level of the company. Leaders need to spend much of their time teaching others. "Great leaders are great teachers." Each chapter contains simple exercises to get you thinking about your business, your competitors, your ideas, your values, and your energy. Companies without this strategy might disappear in this ever changing market.