Description
Howard Gardner is, in the words of the New York Times Book Review, 'one of America's most Interesting psychologists'. His classic Frames of Mind changed the way we think about intelligence, and his most recent book, Creating Minds, presented a new view of creativity. Now he turns his attention to leadership.
When we think of a leader we usually envision the political or military giants of an era, such as Napoleon, Churchill or Kennedy. And, as expected, these names conjure up common conceptions of those in a position of leadership: of power, physical bearing, oratory skills and an innate ability to take the necessary strategic decisions.
Yet, while much has been written on the subject, a crucial component of leadership has been largely ignored: the mind of the leader and the minds of his or her followers. Linking the study of creativity and leadership, Gardner demonstrates the strong tie between traditional creators (artists and scientists) and leaders in the realms of business, politics and the military.
Gardner's cognitive approach identifies the creation and embodiment of an effective story as the key to leadership. In striking portraits of a wide range of leaders from J. Robert - Oppenheimer to Martin Luther King, Jr, from Margaret Thatcher to Pope John XXIII to Mahatma Gandhi - Gardner recreates the leaders' stories and depicts the struggles among rival stories that occur in the minds of an audience. He explains the overwhelming appeal of a simplistic story and describes the ways in which all leaders ultimately confront failure.
In a powerful conclusion, Gardner identifies the six constant features of leadership, six trends that complicate leadership in our time, and the paradoxes that must be resolved for leadership to be effective.
ISBN: 9780002556552
