This book is highly lauded, especially when you consider that its cover reads "The Leadership Classic recommended by Vice President Al Gore to all his advisors." But I did not find that the book lived up to its promise.
The best part of the book is the first chapter which discusses rather passionately the fact that our society, steered by business, suffers from chronic short term focus and that this short-term focus creates a context that traps would-be leaders and stifles true leadership. From then on, it's downhill. The book is a collection of little anecdotes and poorly organized truisms. There is little depth and little that sticks from reading the 200 or so pages. Bennis advocates that a leader must follow his instincts, have morals, must inspire trust, must be reflective and self aware, must lead through clear vision and reward risk-taking. Yes, all true and kind of obvious, but not much more than these surface level declarations in the book. Skip it.
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