This thought-provoking book,
Great Leaders,
is aimed at stimulating your curiosity and guiding you through the various facets of leadership. Leadership expert and author John Adair explores the topic through its many forms, posing the question:
Who are the great leaders in history and what have they got to teach us today about the nature and practice of leadership?
Leadership is a characteristic many think can't be taught; but to what degree can true leadership skills be identified and developed? Adair reviews the key great leaders in history to identify the main lessons that should be learnt from them. What emerges is a concept of leadership that is highly relevant to the needs of the world today.
Great Leaders
is a book rich in examples and case studies, and wide-ranging in scope. With a thematic structure, Adair illustrates the different facets of leadership including:
Knowledge
Communication
Decision-making
Inspiring while informing
Making progress in a changing world
Charisma
Women as leaders
Leaders for tomorrow
The very different styles of leadership of Lincoln, de Gaulle, Hitler, Socrates, Lao Tzu, Washington, Thatcher, Gandhi and many more are examined, focusing on the cardinal qualities of inspiring, communicating and decision making but also of humour, intuition and imagination. Key qualities that so often appear as abstract ideals - motivation, communication, decision-making, inspiration - here almost literally come to life.
"Any of us who aspire to, and recognise the need for some form of leadership can only improve our performance by studying the past. John Adair's latest book is a valuable addition to the thinking that has gone into the subject... I believe that it is a 'must read' book... He is without doubt one of the foremost thinkers on
the subject in the world."
Sir John Harvery-Jones
"I discovered once again how rare it is to come upon a book about leaders with depth, conceptual bite and historical context. It was a relief and joy."
Warren Bennis