Ultimate Leadership

作者:Russell E. Palmer

页数:256

出版时间:2008-1

价格:$ 25.99

isbn号码:9780131933866

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“All the management advice in the world won’t help you much if you can’t adapt it to actual situations. That’s where Russ Palmer stands out. These are smart, practical leadership principles that are tried and tested in real-world business circumstances.” -- Edward Whitacre, Jr. , Chairman Emeritus of AT&T, former Chairman and CEO of AT&T and Southwest Bell “It is very fitting that Ultimate Leadership is authored by Russ Palmer, the ultimate leader. It was with his guidance and friendship that I successfully transitioned from four orderly decades as a Marine to the arcane world of corporate America.” -- General P.X. Kelley , USMC (Ret.), 28th Commandant of the Marine Corps “Russ Palmer’s Ultimate Leadership is truly the last book you’ll ever need on the subject. Russ shows once again why he is the dean when it comes to explaining why leadership matters. Ultimate Leadership is the ultimate statement on how leaders in business, government, and nonprofits alike can keep up with changes and conquer diverse organizational contexts.” -- John J. DiIulio, Jr. , Frederic Fox Leadership Professor, University of Pennsylvania, former director, White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives “This book about leadership from a contextual viewpoint is nothing short of brilliant. Russ’s easy-to-read book is filled with practical examples of leading from the context of a particular situation. The steps to extraordinary leadership are not hugely different, but the applications are endless. Thank you, Russ, for making sense out of a very disputable subject.” -- Gerard R. Roche , Chairman of Heidrick & Struggles “This book is refreshing proof that the essential personal traits of successful leaders are identifiable. Russ Palmer presents them in a manner providing great reading and much food for thought.” -- Gordon Bethune , Chairman, Aloha Airgroup, former CEO, Continental Airlines “Leadership is essential for all seasons, but its effective exercise depends much upon the season. In a masterful account, Russ Palmer draws on his rich store of personal experience to show how adaptive leadership makes the difference. For understanding what actions are required of all leaders--and how those actions must also be tailored to circumstance--Ultimate Leadership is the essential read.” -- Michael Useem , Professor of Management and Director of the Center for Leadership at the Wharton School, and author of The Go Point: When It’s Time to Decide Go Beyond Generic Leadership: Become an Outstanding Leader in Your Unique Environment To succeed, leaders must understand and apply the core principles of leadership--but that’s not enough. You need to shape your approach for any unique situation. Too many leaders don’t know how to do that--and that’s why they fail. Ultimate Leadership shows how to adapt the principles of leadership to different challenges, contexts, and organizations. Russell E. Palmer--who has had three very different, highly successful careers as head of one of the world’s largest accounting firms, Dean of the Wharton School, and an entrepreneur--helps you identify the leadership model most appropriate for your environment, and how to lead accordingly. You’ll learn better ways to lead your equals, help an organization weather crises, transform its culture, lead entrepreneurial organizations, lead global organizations...even lead non-profit and academic institutions. Then, drawing on interviews with an extraordinary spectrum of outstanding leaders, Palmer helps you master the attribute every leader must have: the ability to inspire your unique organization, even in the face of the most daunting challenges. • Achieving empowerment, even in classic “top-down” organizations Exercising strong authority without falling victim to ego or closed-mindedness • Transforming an organization of peers Driving changes in a strategic direction when key power centers disagree • Turning danger into opportunity Mastering the art of rapid, focused, hands-on execution for organizations in crisis • Leading cultural change that sticks Reconnecting structures, processes, and strategies with the new realities you face • Learning from the Wharton experience Succeeding in an environment with widely diverse, highly influential stakeholders

用户评价

这本书的文笔真是引人入胜，读起来丝毫没有那种传统管理学著作的枯燥感。作者似乎有一种魔力，能将那些看似深奥的领导力理论，用生动的故事和贴近生活的例子娓娓道来。我记得其中有一章专门讲“授权的艺术”，它没有用空泛的口号，而是通过描述一家初创公司如何从老板事无巨细的微观管理，逐步蜕变为一个高效的、自我驱动的团队，每一个转折点都充满了戏剧性。特别是对那些核心骨干的心理活动描绘，简直是入木三分。你仿佛能看到那位年轻的CEO在每一次放手时内心的挣扎与最终的释然。而且，这本书的结构安排也相当巧妙，它没有固守传统的线性叙事，而是将不同主题的章节穿插在一起，时而深入剖析个体心性，时而拔高到组织文化层面，使得阅读体验充满了探索的乐趣。它不是告诉你“应该”怎么做，而是通过展示“已经发生”的案例，让你自己去体会和领悟其中的精髓。读完之后，我立刻去审视了自己的工作方式，发现过去很多自以为是的“领导行为”，在作者的叙述下，都显得那么单薄和缺乏远见。这本书的价值，就在于它提供了一种全新的观察视角，让我们从日常的琐碎事务中抽身而出，重新审视领导力的本质。

我必须承认，这本书在方法论的实用性上，超越了我以往阅读过的所有同类书籍。很多领导力书籍要么过于理论化，要么就是一堆空洞的“十步走”流程，读完之后感觉自己还是抓不住重点。然而，这本书的特别之处在于，它提供了一套可以在实践中立刻检验的“心智模型”。比如，它引入的“决策带宽管理”概念，精确地解释了为什么高层领导者常常在一些不重要的事情上耗费大量精力，以及如何通过结构性的变革来释放这些被浪费的资源。作者并没有直接给出答案，而是提供了一个思维框架，让你自己去对照组织中的具体场景进行套用和分析。我尝试着在我的团队会议中引入其中一个关于“有效倾听的层次”的练习，效果立竿见影。原本总是急于发言的同事们，开始学会真正地等待和消化他人的观点，会议的质量有了质的飞跃。这种“授人以渔”的教学方式，使得这本书不仅仅是一次性的阅读体验，而是一套可以伴随职业生涯成长的工具箱。它教会你的不是具体的招式，而是如何理解和重构你所处的环境。

这本书给我的震撼在于其对“同理心”在现代企业运营中的地位的重新界定。在过去的认知里，领导力常常与果断、权威、甚至是必要的冷酷挂钩，但这本书却大胆地将脆弱性和真诚置于核心位置。作者用大量的篇幅去探讨，一个真正强大的领导者，如何能够接纳自己的不完美，并以此为基石去建立一个真正安全和信任的环境。有一个章节专门讨论了“失败的庆典”，这简直颠覆了我以往的观念。通常我们对失败避之不及，视为禁忌，但作者阐述了如何将每一次失误转化为组织学习的宝贵契机，关键在于领导者对待失败的态度是否坦荡。我特别欣赏作者处理这些敏感议题时的细腻笔触，他没有采取批判的姿态，而是以一种导师般的温和，引导读者去探索人性中那些更容易被忽视的光芒。读完这部分内容，我感觉心头压着的一块大石头似乎被轻轻挪开了，那是一种被理解和被允许成长的释然感。这本书并非一本教你如何“控制”他人的手册，而是一本引导你如何“连接”人心的深度指南，对于任何身处复杂人际网络中的管理者来说，都是一次洗涤心灵的旅程。

这本书的叙事视角非常独特，它更像是一部关于“内在修行”的史诗，而不是一本标准的商业教科书。作者似乎花费了大量精力去探索领导力与个人哲学之间的共生关系。他反复强调，外在的组织架构和管理流程，最终都是内在信念系统的投射。其中有几段对“时间观”的探讨尤其发人深省。领导者如何看待未来，如何权衡短期绩效与长期愿景，这直接决定了他们会做出什么样的战略选择。书中对比了两种截然不同的时间视角下的决策路径，通过对比，清晰地展示了急功近利与深谋远虑之间的本质区别。我读到那里时，忍不住停下来，反思了自己过去几年里为了追赶季度目标而牺牲的一些更宏大但难以量化的项目。这本书像一面镜子，照出了我们常常在追求“效率”的名义下，如何悄悄地疏远了自己的使命感。它的语言富有诗意，充满了对人性复杂性的尊重，读起来让人感到一种深沉的敬畏感，因为它触及了权力、责任以及个人成长的终极命题。

我非常欣赏这本书在全球化背景下对“文化智能”的深刻剖析。这不仅仅是简单地了解不同国家的风俗习惯，而是深入到不同文化如何塑造了人们对“权威”、“信任”和“契约”的理解。作者通过几个跨国并购失败的案例，细腻地展示了文化摩擦如何悄无声息地侵蚀掉本应坚实的商业基础。与以往我读过的强调“统一标准”的领导力书籍不同，这本书倡导的是一种“动态适应”的智慧。它提出，优秀的领导者需要像一个优秀的语言学家，不仅要能说流利的“本地语言”，更要能理解其背后的语法结构和深层逻辑。最精彩的部分是关于“模糊性容忍度”的讨论，它解释了为什么在某些文化中，明确的指令被视为僵化，而在另一些文化中，模糊的指示则被视为不负责任。这本书没有给我们提供一个放之四海而皆准的万能公式，而是提供了一套强大的分析工具，帮助我们在面对日益复杂的全球协作环境时，能够保持敏锐和谦逊。它真正做到了将全球视野与个体行为紧密地联系起来，读完后，我对未来国际合作项目的理解深度，无疑提升到了一个全新的层次。