Leadership A to Z: A Guide for the Appropriately Ambitious. Jossey-Bass Business & Management ...

334 Pages·2012·3.55 MB·English

DOCUMENT RESUME
EA 031 403
ED 458 690
O'Toole, James
AUTHOR
Leadership A to Z: A Guide for the Appropriately Ambitious.
TITLE
Jossey-Bass Business & Management Series.
ISBN-0-7879-4658
ISBN
1999-00-00
PUB DATE
NOTE
332p.
Jossey-Bass Inc., Publishers, 989 Market Street, San
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DESCRIPTORS
Educational Administration; Elementary Secondary Education;
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ABSTRACT
This book identifies what leaders need to do to create
high-performing, self-renewing organizations. The emphasis is on action
rather than theory, and the short passages are designed for quick perusal.
The book emphasizes the notion that most elements of leadership can be
learned; the only inherent character trait needed for effective leadership is
ambition. The text contains 92 insights on the elements of leadership. The
following categories, listed alphabetically, are discussed: business success,
behavior, cascading leadership, change, coherence, commitment, communication,
contradictions, controls, conviction, the Coolidge Syndrome, the definition
of leadership, delegation, denial, details, differences, effectiveness, ego,
energy, engaging the middle, expectations, fear and failure, focus,
followership, generosity, getting started, globalism, grandstanding,
hierarchy, hope, how not to create followers, inequality, intelligence, joint
leadership, knowing when to leave, leaders of the 20th century, listening,
management of change, muddled teams, needs of followers, obsession,
paradoxes, perfection, performance, perks, power, purpose, questions,
reframing, repetitions, resilience, resources, symbolism, teaching, theories
of leadership, tomorrow's leaders, tough guys, transforming leadership,
trust, vision, what leaders do, why leaders will not lead, the x-factor, and
zenith.
(RJM)
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1
JAMES O'TOOLE
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Office of Educational Research and Improvement
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION
Jossey-Bass Publishers
CENTER (ERIC)
XThis document has been reproduced ath
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Points of view or opinions stated in this
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Copyright © 1999 by James O'Toole and Jossey-Bass Inc., Publishers, 350 Sansome Street,
San Francisco, California 94104.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Jossey-Bass books and products are available through most bookstores. To contact
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at www.josseybass.com.
Substantial discounts on bulk quantities of Jossey-Bass books are available to
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discount information, contact the special sales department at Jossey-Bass.
Manufactured in the United States of America. The text is printed on acid-free recycled
paper containing a minimum of 10 percent postconsumer waste.
Interior design by Paula Goldstein
"Come to the Edge" from Selected Poems by Christopher Logue. Reprinted by permission of
Faber and Faber Limited.
"Health Chief Vows 'Brutal' Shake-Up if Managers Resist Change" by Carl Ingram, copyright
1996, Los Angeles Times. Reprinted by permission.
"Larry Bird Almost Runs a Democracy" by G. Vecsey, copyright 1998 by the New York Times
Co. Reprinted by permission.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
O'Toole, James.
1st ed.
Leadership A to Z: a guide for the appropriately ambitious /James O'Toole.
(Jossey-Bass business & management series)
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-7879-4658-3
1. Leadership. 2. Decision making. 3. Executive ability. 4. Management. I. Title. II. Series.
HD57.7 .087 1999
658.4'092dc21
99-6416
first edition
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
HB Printing
3
To Marilyn
4
Memorandum on Appropriate Ambition
1
C
Cascading Leadership
30
Change: No Task of Leadership
A
(or Is It?)
ABB's Benchstrength
32
8
Changing Oneself
ABCs of Business Success
36
15
Apologia
Coherence 38
17
Commitment
40
Communication
43
B
Behavior (the Measure of Leadership)
Comparative Advantage
22
Brownian Motivation (Challenging,
(Why Leadership Is Needed
Now in Silicon Valley)
Stretching, and Other Nonviolent
46
Contradictions, Anyone?
Ways to Overcome Resistance to
53
Controlling
Change)
55
23
Controls
58
Conviction
61
Coolidge Syndrome
63
ix
5
Definition of Leadership
Hangings, Public
134
68
Delegation
Hierarchy
69
137
Denial ("What Hump?")
140
Hope
71
Details
How Not to Create Followers
142
75
Differences
How to Create Followers
78
145
Dunlap, "Chainsaw" Al
(the Real Lesson)
80
Inequality
150
Intelligence
151
Iteration and Institutionalization
84
Early Wins
154
Effectiveness
86
89
Ego
Joint Leadership
Energy 92
158
Engaging the Middle
96
Expectations, Management of
99
162
KISS
Knowing When to Leave
164
Fear and Failure
104
107
Focus
Followership
Leaders (Who's Who in the Twentieth
109
Century)
168
Lenin, Hitler, et alio
170
Listening
Generosity
114
173
Getting Started
117
Globalism
120
Grandstanding
Management of Change (vs. Strategic
124
Guvmint Work
Leadership)
127
176
Metrics I (Evaluating Individual
Leadership)
181
LEADERSHIP ATO Z
X
Metrics II (Assessing an Organization's
Second Acts
244
Strategic Leadership
247
SHITMs
185
Quotient)
Sound Bites
250
Muddled Teams
254
Symbolism
187
(the Hewlett-Packard Way)
Needs of Followers
192
Teaching 258
Team (Selection of the)
260
0
Theories of Leadership (Top Ten List)
263
196
Obsession
Tomorrow's Leaders?
266
Tough Guys 269
Townsend, Robert
272
200
Paradoxes
Training (Why It Isn't a Useful Part
PeopleSoft?
202
of Leadership Development)
276
Perfection
206
Transforming Leadership
280
208
Performance (Hard-Edged)
Transformations, Continued
212
Perks
(and Continual)
286
214
Perspectives
Trust
291
217
Power!
220
Purpose
Up and Out (and Sideways)
296
Questions (Asking of)
224
V
Vision
300
230
R&R
Reframing
232
Repetition, Repetition, Repetition ...
What Leaders Do, a Checklist
236
(and an Index)
306
238
Resilience
310
Why Leaders Won't Lead
240
Resources
Contents
7
X
314
X-Factor
You, the Leader
320
Zenith
324
Memorandum from Warren Bennis
327
Acknowledgments
335
xii
LEADERSHIP ATO Z

Memorandum on
Appropriate Ambition
To: The Reader
From: The Author
Subject: The Appropriate Ambitions of a Leader
The purpose of this book is to identify clearly what leaders need to do in order to
create high-performing, self-renewing organizations. While most leadership books focus
here
on who leaders are (their character, personality, style, and charisma), the accent
is on what leaders do. The shift in emphasis has a practical intent: although it is
possible for you to learn from what others do, it is highly unlikely that you can become
someone you aren't.
In fact, I believe only one inherent character trait is essential for
effective leadership, and that is ambition. Obviously, you can't "learn to do" ambition,
but I'm assuming you already have that trait or you wouldn't have bought this book!
Nonetheless, it is perfectly understandable if you felt a hint of ambivalence about the
"A" word on the cover when you picked it up at the bookstore. After all, you probably
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