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

~ (Editor), Gretchen M. Spreitzer (Editor), Thomas G. Cummings (Editor), Thomas Cummings (Author) "In his Report to Greco, Nikos Kazantzakis tells us of an ancient Chinese imprecation, "I curse you; may you live in an important age..." (more)
Key Phrases: magnificent uncertitude, knowledge work processes, control myths, Generation Xers, Warren Bennis, Tree Musketeers (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Like their colleagues above, Warren Bennis, Gretchen M. Spreitzer and Thomas G. Cummings, all professors at USC's Marshall School of Business, have puzzled over the challenges and demands facing 21st-century corporate leaders. In The Future of Leadership: Today's Top Leadership Thinkers Speak to Tomorrow's Leaders, they bring together their insights with those of other recognized leadership experts from academia and the private sector, including Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Flow) on the importance of creativity, Tom Peters (In Search of Excellence) on establishing leadership staying-power in a start-up-crazed marketplace, and Barry Z. Posner and James M. Kouzes (coauthors of The Leadership Challenge) on the lessons of yesterday that will continue to have value tomorrow.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Warren Bennis is to leadership what Peter Drucker is to management. Both have had long, distinguished careers, and both are prolific writers. Bennis is the author or editor of 26 books on leadership, change management, and creative collaboration-- including Managing People Is like Herding Cats (1997). This new collection of essays was organized as a Festschrift to honor Bennis at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business, where Bennis is a professor. Bennis starts by identifying "twelve challenging issues that leaders will need to understand and learn how to resolve if they are to succeed in tomorrow's organizations." The essayists respond by considering the organization of the future; the leader of the future; and ways in which leaders "continue to renew, energize, and develop themselves." In addition, two new "young leaders" offer their perspectives. The roster of 20 contributing luminaries includes Charles Handy, James Kouzes, Barry Posner, Tom Peters, and Mihaly Csikszentmihaly. David Rouse
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (May 9, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787955671
• ISBN-13: 978-0787955670
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #300,340 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great edition of diverse thinking on leadership, December 12, 2001

By	Peter Lorenzi (Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This work is a tribute to Warren Bennis, a celebration of his career. In praising him, he challenged those around him to address issues that continue to interest and perplex him. And, despite his years of experience and two million books of his own in print, the questions that remain are often simple and profound.

Answering these questions are top researchers, professors, commentators and consultants. The variety of authors provides a rich tapestry of information, experiences and opinions. What are the keys to great leadership? What makes one high-performing team do great things (The Manhattan Project) and another perpetrate evil (The Final Solution)? As the percent of one's life likely to be engaged in full-time employment declines (from 50 of 68 years in 1960 to 38 of 76 years today), how does this affect the way we lead and live? What happens when good leaders go bad? Is leadership aptitude widely distributed or possessed by a select few? Are business schools up to the task of developing the management and leadership talent for tomorrow?

Given the approximately hundreds of articles and dozens of books on leadership published each year, you might expect to have had these answers or at least these questions raised before. "The future of leadership" offers a fresh, readable perspective, for the business student and the manager. Sure, you might quibble with the eclectic responses and styles of this broad spectrum of authors, but the quality lies in their diversity.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars weLEAD Book Review from the Editor of leadingtoday.org, February 12, 2002

By	Greg L. Thomas (Litchfield, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This interesting work is a collection of essays by some of the world's most respected leadership thinkers. Contributors include Charles Handy, James O'Toole, Thomas Stewart, Tom Peters, Barry Posner and James Kouzes. These essays were first presented at a special conference held to honor Warren Bennis. Organizers labeled the conference a festschrift, a German word for a volume of essays assembled by colleagues to be a tribute to a renowned scholar. The essays were edited and divided into five parts:

1. Setting the Stage for the Future.

2. The Organization of the Future

3. The Leader of the Future.

4. How Leaders Stay on Top of Their Game.

5. Insights from Young Leaders.

The result is an insightful examination on the state of leadership today and the challenges it can expect to experience in the future. For example, Bennis writes the first essay and presents a number of challenging issues, including the widening disparity of talent among income levels, growing demographic changes between young and old and balancing the demands of work and home. James O'Toole looks at the organization of the future and remarks that leaders should view their tasks "as creating the systems under which others would be encouraged to do all the things that typically end up on the desk of the do-it-all leader."

The Future of Leadership is a comprehensive examination of leadership today and tomorrow provided by a number of insightful modern day thinkers. It asks some judicious questions and dares to look into the future with assurance and confidence. Some essays are better written than others, but every reader will find some valuable material and learn a new perspective from its pages.

4.0 out of 5 stars Outstand leadership text, March 26, 2008

By	Eric J. Redd "jackson" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Well written - concise with little wasted rhetoric. Excellent text: I would recommend it to anyone with more than basic knowledge of leadership principles.