Albrecht, Karl. The northbound train: finding the purpose, setting the direction,
shaping the destiny of your organization. New York: American Management
Association, 1994. 213 pp. (Shelved at HD58.9.A447 1994).
1/98 version: This book is about vision, meaning, and strategy, as well as the leadership that's
essential in building a culture that can transform those powerful ideas into reality.
Badaracco, Joseph L. Defining moments: when managers must choose between
right and right. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School, 1997. 147 pp.
1/98 version: Badaracco, professor of business ethics at Harvard, discusses ethical dilemmas
facing managers, in this part case-study book. The book follows three people's difficult business
decisions from confrontation through to the ramifications of the decisions. Badaracco examines
the managers' options from the point of view of philosophers and literary history.
Batten, Joe D. Tough-minded leadership. New York: American
Management Association, 1989. 236 pp. (Shelved at HD57.7.B38 1989).
1/98 version: By following his advice, the author claims that any manager can learn to provide the
inspirational leadership necessary to build a truly effective team.
Bemis, Warren and Burt Nanus. Leaders: the strategies for taking
charge. New York: Harper & Row, 1985. 244 pp.
1/98 version: The authors discuss the "transformative leadership" of leaders who can shape and
elevate the motives and goals of followers, thereby achieving significant change reflecting the
community of interests of both leaders and followers, and freeing up the collective energies in
pursuit of a common goal. Transformative leaders understand the collective aspirations of their
followers, and are able to create institutions that can empower employees to satisfy those
needs.
Bennis, Warren and Burt Manus. Leaders: strategies for taking
change. 2nd revised ed. New York: Harper Business, 1997. 235 pp. (Shelved at
HD57.7.B46 1985).
Leadership, according to the authors, is about judgment and character, and can best be handled
by integrated human beings. This book concentrates on four themes shared by leaders: 1) vision -
leaders with intensity and commitment whose attention is focusing on the goal and the agenda
express a magnetism which attracts followers; 2) communication - the tool for sharing meaning;
3) trust - whereby the leader's position offers security to followers; 4) deployment of self through
positive self-regard. Leaders are shown as setting direction, managing change concurrently with
the provision of high-quality service, and attracting new resources.
Billington, James. The fundamentals of managing up.Harvard
Management Update 2, no.9 (September 1997): 10-11.
By building understanding with your boss, you can minimize disunity, and maximize the alignment
of goals. Understand your boss's mindset, communication style, tacit clues, what the boss expects,
and what you expect of the boss.
Block, Peter. The empowered manager: positive political skills at
work. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1987. 204 pp.
Block advises his readers on how to reduce inherent pressures that stifle initiative, creativity and
healthy risk-taking.
Bradford, David L. and Allan R. Cohen. Managing for excellence: the
leadership guide to developing high performance in contemporary organizations.
New York: John Wiley, 1997. (Shelved at HD31.B722 1997).
Leadership is crucial, but less to provide answers than to build the conditions under which
subordinates can give their best. The authors offer three fundamental assumptions for developing
individuals: most people can change, learn, grow; influence between boss and subordinate can be
mutual; most managers can learn the necessary skills. Following a number of practical how-to
chapters, Bradford and Cohen offer seven steps for building beyond adequacy to
excellence.
Broadwell, Martin M. The new supervisor. Watertown, MA:
American Management Association, 1988. 2 videocassettes, leader's guide notebook and iii, 140
pp. participants workbook. (HF5549.12.A447 1988).
1/98 version: Film, leader's guide and participant's workbook all concentrate on teaching the
management of work, management of others, and management of self to new
supervisors.
Council for Excellence in Government. Washington: Council for
Excellence in Government, 1996. 6 pp. (This web page may be accessed at
http://www.excelgov.org/).
The Council is a nonprofit organization of more than 750 members who have served as senior
public officials and now hold leadership roles in a wide range of private sector organizations. The
council carries out long-term programs in pursuing its mission to improve the performance of
government. The web page offers an interesting selection of research resources including federal
agency strategic plans, copies of the Prune Book Series and links to related management
websites.
DePree, Max. Leadership is an art. New York: Dell, 1990. xxii,
136 pp.
This is a book of ideas on the art of leadership: liberating people to do what is required of them in
the most effective and humane way possible.
Executive potential program for mid-level employees. College
Park,
MD: National Archives and Records Administration, 1997. 1 videocassette, 90 mins. (Shelved in
Training Room at JK718.E9 1997).
This is a NARA leadership training tape for mid-level managers.
Frick, Don M. and Larry C. Spears. On becoming a servant leader: the private
writings of Robert K. Greenleaf. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1996. xx, 394 pp.
(Shelved at HM41.G685 1996).
According to former AT&T chief Robert K. Greenleaf, organizational leaders are fulfilled by
serving employees, customers, and the community. This collection of Greenleaf's writings
examines the practice of leadership and its relationship with power, management, and
organizations.
Hesselbein, Frances, ed. The leader of the future: new visions, strategies, and
practices for the next era. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1996. xxv, 319 pp.
These 31 essays by authorities on leadership show common themes among profit and non-profit
organizations. The authors offer a broad, accessible sampling of professional thinking, with views
on leadership, an examination of what the organization of the future will be like, and how leaders
might be developed.
Horton, Thomas R. The CEO paradox: the privilege and accountability of
leadership. New York: American Management Association, 1992. 172 pp.
1/98 version: According to the author, there are serious questions regarding privilege and
accountability underlying the mystique of leadership. He offers practical advice on how to bring
out the best in employees while bypassing the shallow seductions of power and cultivating your
own inner and outer self.
Kotter, John P. Leading change. Cambridge: Harvard Business
School, 1996. 224 pp. (Book, developed from the author's article, "Leading change: why
transformation efforts fail", which appeared in the March-April 1995 Harvard Business Review,
is shelved at HD58.8.K65 1996).
The author lists eight mistakes of managing change, giving examples from his experience. He then
presents an eight-stage process of change with highly useful examples of how to implement the
change. The change framework acts as a roadmap for the organization and encourages talk about
transformation and change strategies. This is a hands-on, practical book with an emphasis on the
engine that drives change - leadership - and on showing how a purely managerial mindset
inevitably fails.
Kushel, Gerald. Reaching the peak performance zone: how to motivate
yourself and others to excel. New York: American Management Association, 1994.
196 pp. (Shelved at HF5549.5.M63K87 1994).
1/98 version: In order to perform consistently at a high level, Kushel belives that one must be
willing to take total responsibility for one's job performance, job satisfaction, and personal life
satisfaction.
McCall, Morgan W. High flyers: developing the next generation of
leaders. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 1997. 336 pp. (On
order).
This guide presents a strategic framework for identifying and developing future leaders in
organizations. According to the book, the real leaders of the future are those employees who have
the ability to learn from their experiences and remain open to continuous learning. Author McCall
explains how management can create an environment that supports talent development; he also
shows how individuals can take charge of their own development and avoid pitfalls that lead to
falling off the executive track.
McMaster, Michael D. Organizational theory. In The intelligence
advantage: organizing for complexity. , 43-105. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann,
1996. (Shelved at HD31.M3856 1996).
In this section, the basis for a new theory of organization based on complexity is developed. The
theory calls for freedom designed with an understanding of complex intelligent systems and their
self-organizing nature. The process of breaking free begins with a leadership able to understand
the grip of the past, as well as grasp the nature of possiblity, and willing to lead by
example.
McNamara, Carlton P. Organizational excellence.Business &
Economic Review (University of South Carolina) 43, no.4 (July-September 1997):
19+. (Shelved at BPR216; accessible online at
http://research.badm.sc.edu/research/bereview/be43_4/mcnamara.htm).
This article asserts that, in order to be successful, organizations must establish a flexible but clear
strategic direction with a team-based organizational concept and supporting processes and
systems in place. They must also show a relentless commitment to the intangibles of leadership
style, human resource planning, company values. According to the author, the bottom line is that
organizational excellence demands a new leadership style. As a result of that leadership, the most
successful organizations create a special culture with a unique blend of values, beliefs, tools, and
language. This article offers a lot of good information illustrated with quotes from business
leaders; one from John F. Welch, CEO of GE, calls for an organization with the "type of liberated,
involved, excited, boundary-less culture that is present in successful start-up enterprises". Isn't
that where we would all like to work?
Scott, Michael P. Being centered, setting limits, and having fun.Association Management 49, no.3 (March 1997): 55+.
It is possible for individuals to manage change and develop a greater sense of career focus in the
midst of this dynamic environment by examining three principles: 1) the principle of centeredness
which means that as a centered person you have a strong mission or purpose in life, values to help
you in your decisionmaking efforts, and a vision to steer your future; 2) the principle of limits
which means that you can't do everything, but must focus on what is important versus what is
urgent. Create a greater sense of balance to the physical, mental, social, and spiritual aspects of
your life; 3) the principle of fun, which means keeping life in its proper perspective by having
fun.
Simons, Robert and Antonio Davila. How high is your return on management.Harvard Business Review (January-February 1998): 70-81.
1/98 version: The classic business rations for measuring performance - return on equity, return on
assets, and return on sales, to name a few - may be useful. But none is designed specifically to
reflect how well a company implements its strategy. Enter return on management (ROM), a new
ration that gauges the payback from an organization's scarcest resource: managers' time and
energy. Unlike other business rations, ROM is a rough estimate, not an exact percentage. Still it is
expressed like other business ratios by an equation in which the output is maximized by a high
numerator and a low denominator: productive organizational energy released/management time
and attention invested. Knowing which organizational factors conspire against or work to
maximize an organization's productive energy will help managers calculate a rough measure for
this equation. The authors suggest that organizations look at five factors - referred to as the "five
acid tests" to approximate this measure: Do employees know which opportunities do not directly
contribute to the organization's strategic mission? Do managers know what it would take for the
organization to fail? Can managers recall their key diagnostic measures with relative ease? Is the
organization free from drowning in a sea of paperwork and processes? Do all employees watch
the same performance measures that their bosses watch? If a manager can answer yes to these
questions, ROM is probably high. If the answer is no to some, ROM may be low, signaling that
managers may need to step up their
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