An instant national bestseller! Stanley McChrystal, the retired US Army general and bestselling author of Team of Teams, profiles thirteen of history’s great leaders, including Walt Disney, Coco Chanel, and Robert E. Lee, to show that leadership is not what you think it is—and never was. Stan McChrystal served for thirty-four years in the US Army, rising from a second lieutenant in the 82nd Airborne Division to a four-star general, in command of all American and coalition forces in Afghanistan. During those years he worked with countless leaders and pondered an ancient question: “What makes a leader great?” He came to realize that there is no simple answer. McChrystal profiles thirteen famous leaders from a wide range of eras and fields—from corporate CEOs to politicians and revolutionaries. He uses their stories to explore how leadership works in practice and to challenge the myths that complicate our thinking about this critical topic. With Plutarch’s Lives as his model, McChrystal looks at paired sets of leaders who followed unconventional paths to success. For instance. . . · Walt Disney and Coco Chanel built empires in very different ways. Both had public personas that sharply contrasted with how they lived in private. · Maximilien Robespierre helped shape the French Revolution in the eighteenth century; Abu Musab al-Zarqawi led the jihadist insurgency in Iraq in the twenty-first. We can draw surprising lessons from them about motivation and persuasion. · Both Boss Tweed in nineteenth-century New York and Margaret Thatcher in twentieth-century Britain followed unlikely roads to the top of powerful institutions. · Martin Luther and his future namesake Martin Luther King Jr., both local clergymen, emerged from modest backgrounds to lead world-changing movements. Finally, McChrystal explores how his former hero, General Robert E. Lee, could seemingly do everything right in his military career and yet lead the Confederate Army to a devastating defeat in the service of an immoral cause. Leaders will help you take stock of your own leadership, whether you’re part of a small team or responsible for an entire nation.

Leadership has long been seen as one of the most vital and influential factors in both social and organizational development. It is believed to play a central part in how humans interact and collaborate. But where do these beliefs come from? Is it true that leaders shape the world we live in? And what is a leader and why do people dislike the idea of being a follower? In this well-written, thought-provoking book, Christian Monö examines the most fundamental questions about leaders, followers and their interaction. By looking at the history of Man, and examining the science and industry that surrounds leadership, Monö explores the true nature of Man's desire to lead and follow. Drawing on recent research and real life examples, the author presents a new view on what it means to be a true leader and an effective follower. Monö shows how this new perspective can greatly benefit both individuals and organizations. All we need to do is look beyond the traditional leadership myth.

We expect our leaders to be superhuman, to provide all the answers and never fail. Amanda Sinclair offers an alternative and more realistic approach to leadership based on personal growth, drawing on Eastern philosophies.

"Leadership" is a lucrative business. Every year, companies and organizations spend billions of dollars on it. However, there is very little scientific evidence suggesting that leaders are as important as we are given to think. In fact, scientists cannot even agree on what differentiates a leader from a non-leader. To make matters worse, the focus on leaders has led to people neglecting the role of followers. Consequently, the world is oblivious of the power and influence hidden in true followership. In this thought-provoking book, Christian Monö examines the most fundamental questions about leadership and followership. What is a leader and how are they important? Why do people follow leaders; is it in our genes to do so or or is it a constructed phenomenon? By approaching these issues from a follower perspective, Monö explores the true nature of both followership and leadership. In the process, he exposes and confronts many assumptions regarding leaders and followers; assumptions that greatly influence how we run our companies, organizations and even countries.

From one of the world's preeminent political historians, a magisterial study of political leadership around the world from the advent of parliamentary democracy to the age of Obama. All too frequently, leadership is reduced to a simple dichotomy: the strong versus the weak. Yet, there are myriad ways to exercise effective political leadership -- as well as different ways to fail. We blame our leaders for economic downfalls and praise them for vital social reforms, but rarely do we question what makes some leaders successful while others falter. In this magisterial and wide-ranging survey of political leadership over the past hundred years, renowned Oxford politics professor Archie Brown challenges the widespread belief that strong leaders -- meaning those who dominate their colleagues and the policy-making process -- are the most successful and admirable. In reality, only a minority of political leaders will truly make a lasting difference. Though we tend to dismiss more collegial styles of leadership as weak, it is often the most cooperative leaders who have the greatest impact. Drawing on extensive research and decades of political analysis and experience, Brown illuminates the achievements, failures and foibles of a broad array of twentieth century politicians. Whether speaking of redefining leaders like Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, and Margaret Thatcher, who expanded the limits of what was politically possible during their time in power, or the even rarer transformational leaders who played a decisive role in bringing about systemic change -- Charles de Gaulle, Mikhail Gorbachev and Nelson Mandela, among them -- Brown challenges our commonly held beliefs about political efficacy and strength. Overturning many of our assumptions about the twentieth century's most important figures, Brown's conclusions are both original and enlightening. The Myth of the Strong Leader compels us to reassess the leaders who have shaped our world - and to reconsider how we should choose and evaluate those who will lead us into the future.