This book is a classic. A "must read" for anybody in management. This wisdom is timeless!

Dr. Michael Beitler
Author of "Strategic Organizational Change"

If you're journeying through management literature of the present day, you're bound to come across the two theories proposed by Douglas McGregor back in the '50s and early '60's: Theory X and Theory Y. In fact, you'll probably find that some of the more modern theories and human behavior models are based on this work by McGregor.

This is what makes reading this book so valuable. Reading the attributes and studies about Theory X and Theory Y management styles in McGregor's own words, instead of a one or two line sentence concerning his theories in another book, is well worth the price of this book.

The book was compelling because many of the attributes of today's managers, and organizations in general, can STILL be applied to either Theory X or Theory Y management types! In fact, much of the literature today suggests that companies with a Theory Y mindset are surviving better today than Theory X companies. The supporting information McGregor provides to each theory suggests, again even today, that these two themes will be prevalent in society for years to come.

Having this book in your professional library will provide you with some good insight and historical reference to modern day theories. I highly recommend it!

This book, written in 1960, is one of the true management classics, one of the greatest and most influential management books of the past century. McGregor describes Theory X and Theory Y, two fundamentally different ways managers view their employees. McGregor describes Theory X as the dominant view: people ar seem as lazy, not very capable, unwilling to work (unless you make them work), opportunistic and prepared to deceive (providing they think they won't be caught). Theory Y views people in a much more positive way: they are seen as intrinsically motivated, willing to work and basically honest. Now the essential point: the way you view people determines the way you treat them and the way you interpret their behavior, which determines the way they will respond to you, which in turn will reinforce the way you view(ed) them. In other words: both Theory X and Theory Y are true because they create their own reality! They are self-fulfilling prophecies. If you have a choice, what do you choose? This book, written many years ago, is still an interesting read and I think you can still read it in 2060 and find it relevant and interesting.

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.

The Germans call it a festschrift - a book stemming from the celebration honoring a renowned scholar, in this case Warren Bennis. The luminaries (including Bennis himself) who gathered in May 2000 at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business for this festschrift offer 19 thoughtful chapters on leadership issues. In fact, the consistent quality and creativity may pleasantly surprise you. The only exception is an imaginative, but shallow and self-absorbed clunker from Tom Peters. We [...] recommend this thought-provoking collection to students and practitioners of the mysterious art of inspiring others to follow.

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.

Although the business press likes nothing more than the rise and fall of mighty corporate monarchs, authors David A. Heenan and Warren Bennis (co-leaders themselves, clearly) contend that today's most important management trend is the movement toward collaborative leadership. While it's become common wisdom that the lightening-fast pace of contemporary business demands more flexible command structures than traditional corporate hierarchies can provide, the cult of personality still dominates public perception. Heenan and Bennis present compelling theory as a basis for their co-leadership model, and reinforce their thinking with a string of examples of executive dynamic duos, like Gates/Ballmer, Grove/Barrett and Merrill/Smith. The case histories are not used to blindly buttress the authors' point, however. The bloody Eisner/Ovitz debacle at Disney is presented in gruesome detail, an apt illustration of the danger of ego in a collaborative age. We [...] recommend this book as required reading for any corporate executive.

The title of this book is a little misleading. I assumed that the book was about co-CEOs, something that is usually a disaster waiting to happen. In fact, the book is about partnerships of complementary talents where one person is willing to work hard out of the limelight. Not all of the examples are business examples either. The authors also look at Chairman Mao and Chou En-lai, President Truman and General Marshall, Bernice Pauahi Bishop and her husband, Charles Reed Bishop (founders of the Bishop Estate in Hawaii), Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan Macy, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, and two pairs of basketball coaches.

The book correctly points out that many leaders don't want (or cannot tolerate) having a powerful second-in-command. A COO is often a position created by the board to assist in a transition to picking a new CEO. If the old CEO can sabotage the COO, the old CEO may get to keep the job longer than planned. So what could be co-leadership often doesn't get off the ground. In fact, the COO job is often a dead-end for the inhabitant.

The advantage of the teams, when they work, is that much more can be accomplished by dividing tasks and by challenging each other's thinking so that better ideas are created and more mistakes avoided. The authors feel that every organization should have co-leaders. Frankly, that's unlikely to happen.

The book nicely summarizes 10 lessons for how co-leaders should operate and another 10 lessons for creating a co-leader environment. Most of these will seem like common sense to you, but they are worth considering.

My own research on CEOs shows that the number of roles they are expected to excel in continues to grow. On the other hand, those who are most successful year in and year out as CEOs usually have no co-leaders. They tend to operate with a top management team that more broadly shares the responsibilities and challenges. It would be interesting to put some quantitative measures on the co-leader concept to see how it performs compared to the alternatives.

The main benefit I got from the book was learning more about people who have toiled out of the limelight before becoming CEOs (and who made important contributions as COOs) like Craig Barrett at Intel and Steve Ballmer at Microsoft.

If you are thinking about having a COO or taking a COO job, this book is a must read!

It's rare that you find such an easily adaptable and practical book with great ideas and examples of the actual processes. My company used to research and compile our own annual review of best practices in leadership development. Now we have more time to consider what practices match our business strategy and culture. Keep it coming!

Bennis has written almost 30 books thus far, most of them on the subject of leadership. Those who have already read several of them will find no "new tricks" in this book and may, in fact, share my discomfort with any use of the word "tricks" other than in the quite specific "old dogs" context. The last thing our world needs is having more tricksters in positions of leadership but we do need leaders who inspire in others (in Bennis' words) "a sense of purpose or meaning...a sense of belonging, community, team, or group....[and] a sense of power, involvement, connection, and alliance"

In another book, Bennis draws a comparison between managing people and herding cats. Some day, I hope he will write a book (perhaps dedicated to Noah) in which he suggests what can be learned from both the male and female lion as well as from the termite, the orca whale, alligators and crocodiles, the prairie dog, the hyena, etc. For Bennis, the "new trade is all about vision, meaning, purpose, and trust -- and what it takes to maintain these essential elements in modern organizations." I assume he agrees with me that only a few can occupy the highest executive levels in an organization (CEO, COO, CFO, etc.) but literally everyone in the same organization can be a leader in the sense of taking appropriate (repeat, "appropriate") initiatives. They will do so, however, only if their organization's leaders "have the capacity to enroll [them]" in a compelling vision. In Section 3, Bennis identifies and then explains several strategies which are needed to achieve that engagement:

1. Release the brainpower of people

2. Work for the long-term interests of all stakeholders

3. Adapt to a new style of leadership

4. Form new global alliances

NOTE: For small-to-midsize organizations, this probably involves forming strategic alliances with other, much larger organizations which are global in both their nature and scope.

5. Reinvent the organization

6. Solve problems before they have names

7. For everyone involved, be a leader of leaders

8. Share the power [i.e. share authority as well as responsibility]

9. Make the case for co-leaders

10. Create leaders at every level

NOTE: Noel Tichy has a great deal of value to say about #10 in The Leadership Engine. I also highly recommend Bennis and Goldsmith's Learning to Lead. If massive organizational transformation is required, I recommend O'Toole's Leading Change and Katzenbach's Real Change Leaders.

In his Postscript, Bennis discusses the importance of authenticity. Without it, there can be no mutual trust and respect, nor cooperation (much less what Bennis calls "creative collaboration"), nor any possibility of completing the transition to the New Trade. "Tomorrow's organizations will be federations, networks, clusters, cross-functional teams, temporary systems, ad hoc task forces, lattices, modules, matrices -- almost anything but pyramids. An organizations can become and then remain "authentic" only to the extent that its people (especially its leaders) are "authentic." The structures of the future may be temporary but certain basic values must remain constant. The components of a new paradigm suggest what these non-negotiable values are: focus on quality, service, and the customer; collaboration and unification; nurturing interdependence; respecting, honoring, and leveraging diversity; continuous learning and constant innovation; [at least for larger organizations] being globally competitive; and finally, having a much broader focus: "My community, my society, my world." If your own organization lacks these values now, and does nothing to invest itself with them, it has no authenticiuty...and frankly, no future.

Ken Iverson has truly earned the right to be called a "Business Maverick". In this book he explains how the culture he created at Nucor became "60% of their competative advantage". He explains how breaking down hierarchy and opening the lines of true communication in all directions can propel a business to success.

His unique, but successful, techniques at time agree with, and at times flies in the face of, McGregor, classical management theorists, and others who have studied management, communications and human resources.

In chapters entitled, "A Higher Cause", "Trust Your Instincts", "Destroy the Hierarchy", "A Simple Stake in the Business", "The Virtues of Smallness", "Ethic Over Politics", and others Mr. Iverson relates how you too, if you are willing to work hard enough at it, can "turn a confused, tired old company on the brink of bankruptcy into a star player...", while learning that "many of the so-called 'necessary evils' of life in corporate America are, in fact, not necessary".

This is a fantastic and priceless book, by a man who turned an almost bankrupt company around, to a company doing over $4 billion a year in business, with much profit. It's an inspiring book, that gives you faith in human nature...all you have to do is appeal to peoples' best impulses to get them to perform well and enthusiastically (the MANAGERS had to rescue a union organizer from the WORKERS, who wanted nothing to do with unions. Imagine that! WORKERS being hostile to the union representative, and MANAGERS, rescuing him from a hostile group!) This may be the greatest business book ever written, frankly!! I'm almost loath to recommend it, God forbid my competitors should read it!....

Ken details the mechanics of a simple, effective, decentralized framework that aligns the goals of the employees, management, and customers. Base salaries are below industry median. The bonus of a manager depends on the return on equity (capital + equipment + human) that s/he generates. Each team's bonus is tied directly to what they produce.

The higher up the manager (there are four layers including CEO), the higher the proportion of of paycut during down times.

Has simple effective metrics to monitor the health of each decentralized unit (half a dozen including sales, productivity, expenses).

A good mechanism to set goal and measure performance for a business generating tangible goods. Not sure how this could be applied to more intangible value added activities such as IT and software engineering

If you really want to know the correct way to lead your people, buy this book. It will change your life!

I really did enjoy this textbook. I haven't really worked through it the way they recommend but I have read most of it and found it to be excellent - very thought provoking

This is a book which is incredibly hands on and easy to access. Bennis focuses on the essentials of leadership and unlike so many others, he gives concrete tangible steps for people to take to help them discover their own leadership potential. It is useful for individuals and for groups. It has application for people from all walks of life, at all stages of life and at all stages of personal development!

The truly successful organizations in the next century will be those that learn how to engage and energize the creativity an enthusiasm of their human assets. This is the next frontier in competitive advantage. In fact, there's always likely to be someone out there who can outspend you on those things. What makes your company unique is your people. Their innovation, creativity, and enthusiasm can't be copied. And, if that uniqueness is directed to creating processes, products, and services that are better than your competitors, you have an unbeatable advantage.

In Leveraging People and Profit the authors introduce a new term, altrupreneur. Altrupreneur is defined as one who conducts the affairs of an enterprise with conspicuous regard for the welfare of others. The altrupeneur is not one who acts only for the welfare of others, but one who acts with awareness of others' welfare as one of his or her top priorities.

The authors go on to outline a leadership model which includes the following.

1. The very essence of leadership is you have to have a vision. It's got to be a vision you articulate clearly and forcefully on every occasion. You cannot blow an uncertain trumpet. 2. Employees want and expect leaders to set direction and determine the business focus. Leaders are relying more on the power of influence than of command and control. 3. To be credible as a leader, you must first clarify your own values, translate them into a set of guiding principles, a credo, that you can communicate to the people you hope to lead. These overaching values help employees make decisions consistent with the aspirations of the company. 4. A leader must earn the trust of those he/she expects to lead. 5. Establish a mutual service compact which helps people understand where they fit in the value chain, aligns recognition programs to reward organizational successes, establishes training and personal development programs to reinforce continuous improvement, develops a communicaiton plan to ensure every employee understands values and vision and allocates resources to support improvment initiatives.

When an organization is energized by a vision that draws out the best efforts of all stakeholders in a positive and mutually beneficial context, there is virtually no limit to what is possible. Human creativity is not maximized until it is challenged by the impossible.

This book encourages those of us who want to make a little difference every day. It also dares us to be bold and public and exemplary in holding others in conspicuous--and high--regard. Written from experience on the inside of corporations, yet rich with values and insights, it is the most "balanced" look at leadership this year.

There are "how to treat people" books out -- and tons of "how to make more profit" books. Mark this book as one of the very few that integrates the themes with effective, believable ideas about how to manage more productively (and humanely!) tomorrow. One neologism worth noting in this book: altrupreneur. The word symbolizes the writers' core idea: that you can be an entrepreneur while being altruistic. You don't have to exploit to advance, they say, in convincing, straightforward language, statistics, and quotes.

The venerable leadership master, Warren Bennis, puts his life's work in perspective in this very personal collection. Bennis's work on leadership remains highly relevant in the new economy. His view is that this is an era "in which the very pace of change is accelerating with each new day", and that "change is the only constant". His most durable advice to leaders is to stay nimble, but this book -- part meditation, part how-to manual -- goes much deeper than these quotes can convey.

Don't be fooled by the book's title - this collection of essays is more about leadership and less about management. They are not the same. For instance, managers generally focus on the near-term whereas leaders usually take long-term perspectives; managers rely on systems and structures whereas leaders focus on recruiting outstanding individuals and empowering them; managers rely on control whereas leaders inspire trust; managers generally accept the status quo whereas leaders constantly challenge it.

Particularly interesting is the author's take on Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame and former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. Politics aside, Ellsberg exhibited true leadership, Bennis contends, when he morphed from "loyal insider to defiant outsider, from organization man to prison-risking dissident." McNamara, on the other hand, may have become equally disillusioned with the war effort in Vietnam, yet he succumbed to organizational pressures and continued to manage as best he could. Bennis, you might have guessed by now, loathes government bureaucracies and other large organizations - this story tips the iceberg on this and several other Bennis themes, like risk taking.

Bennis bounces around from politics (both left and right), business, and sports to effectively communicate some very powerful messages. The core competencies of leadership apply not only to individuals but also to groups - "few great accomplishments are ever the work of a single individual." And who can argue - witness the Manhattan Project, Lockheed's Skunk Works, and even the Los Angeles Lakers. The ten principles of great groups is a must read for any working professional. The book is especially useful, however, for leaders and managers aspiring to be more effective leaders; I highly recommend it.

Whether you are a first-year MBA student or a management veteran, Warren Bennis is a must-read for anyone looking to unlock their leadership abilities. His newest collection of essays confirm his title as one of the most interesting and articulate management gurus today. He will entertain as well as engage your mind in how leadership continues to change and evolve in the 21st century.Add this to your summer reading list. You won't be disappointed.

I have read close to 100 management and leadership books and found this to be one of the best. It stands apart because it looks at both halves required for leadership, whereas most of the other books focus on one or the other. The halves are Results and Character. The authors also provide a framework called the Model of Balanced Outcomes, which I am actually using in my organization. In fact, I just completed a diagnostic and prescriptive paper for my MBA program, which focused completely on this model. This book is one of the few that provides practical application without a whole lot of theoretical mumbo jumbo. Highly recommended!

The authors have done a wonderful job in advancing the position that results -- not just characteristics -- matter. This bottom-line approach to management, as explained well in the text, is a boon for customers and employees alike. Congrats for a well-written work.

As a companion to this must-have book, I recommend a couple that I recently read and use extensively (even though they advance leadership from a different angle): the original "Seven Habits" and the newer "The Leader's Guide: 15 Essential Skills."

Argues that personal attributes - character, style and values - work in combination with results that are measurable to equate to effective leadership. Following a discussion of quintessential attributes, the authors examine leadership in terms of the employee, organization, customer, and investor results.

The touchstone of the work is the formula: effective leadership equals attributes x results. This is a thoughtful work that primarily probes the "results" side of this equation.

The emphasis on results is a refreshing change of pace from the garden-variety leadership publication. For anyone searching for a work of substance on a subject of supreme import-leadership-this is a book worthy of your attention. Reviewed by Yvette Borcia, Managing Partner, Stern & Associates, co-author of Stern's Sourcefinder: The Master Directory to HR and Business Management Information & Resources, Stern's CyberSpace SourceFinder, and Stern's Compensation and Benefits SourceFinder.