View From the Top E-Book

D. Michael Lindsay

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 391

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

Learn leadership from the best—proven insights from the power elite in business, government, and beyond

View from the Top brings readers inside the corridors of power and relates the personal stories and powerful findings from the Platinum Study, a groundbreaking study of 550 elite American CEOs, senior government leaders, and nonprofit executives based on ten years of research. The largest study of its kind, the Platinum Study delves into the domains of the elite with stories that illustrate both the use and misuse of power across the landscape of prominent American institutions such as AT&T, Harvard University, UnderArmour, JP Morgan Chase, Bain & Company, and the White House. The book explores not only how leaders wield power, but it also provides readers with insight into applying the strategies of the successful in their own lives.

In the United States, only a few thousand individuals make the decisions that influence the lives of over 300 million people. Whether in the government, business, higher education, or the arts, these individuals direct policy and set the terms of national debates, yet remain virtually unknown. View from the Top explores the real lives of the elite and the social worlds they inhabit, revealing lessons about influence at the top, and the seven principles that shape those in power. The results of the Platinum Study include unexpected truths such as:

• Being born into wealth is a poor predictor of leadership success
• One program can set you on the path to leadership
• It doesn't matter what college you attend
• A leader's best work never sees the light of day
• Time-crushed executives are better situated than most to manage their family lives
• Crisis is the quickest way for a leader to shape an institution
• Working longer does not mean working better

The book examines the different paths to power and describes the essence of leadership and the fundamental traits that distinguish a leader from the pack. For anyone seeking sharpen their leadership skills and impact the world around them, View from the Top: An Inside Look at How People in Power See and Shape the World provides the roadmap to taking charge and inspiring change.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Praise for

View From the Top

Title Page

Copyright

Introduction

Platinum Leaders

Learning from Stories as Well as Statistics

On Top of the World

Why Study Power from within the Halls of Faith?

Notes

Chapter 1: Act Personally, But Think Institutionally: Develop Your Network Beyond Your Organization

Mentor Relationships

Institutions

Connections

Cohesion and Tension

Act Personally, But Think Institutionally

Notes

Chapter 2: Leadership Begins at 20: Beyond Bootstraps and Boarding School

The Path to the Top

Overcoming Disadvantage

Early Influences

College and Beyond: Continuing the Liberal Arts Life

Notes

Chapter 3: More Breadth, Less Depth: Catalyzing Your Leadership

Leadership Catalysts

The White House Fellowship

Notes

Chapter 4: The Essence of Leadership: Driving Productivity, People, and Culture

Leadership and Power

Productivity

Managing and Motivating

Building a Thriving Culture

Notes

Chapter 5: Strength in the Crucible of Crisis

Surviving Frustrations and Futility

The Crucible Refines

Making Decisions in the Crucible

Notes

Chapter 6: Lead with Your Life: Because It's Much More than a Job

The Toll It Takes

Taxing the Personal Life

The Privileged Lifestyle: “There's Something Wrong Here”

They Love to Work

Notes

Chapter 7: Lead for Good: Motivations and Outcomes

Motivations

Mechanisms of Influence

View From the Top

Notes

Conclusion

Incarnational Leadership

Appendix

Notes

Acknowledgments

Index

End User License Agreement

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Guide

Cover

Table of Contents

Introduction

Begin Reading

Praise for View From the Top

“This is a seminal and compelling work. Dr. Michael Lindsay, university president and sociologist, gained unprecedented access to hundreds of leaders of America's elite institutions, and reached many unexpected conclusions. For example, it's not a privileged upbringing, but the influence of a caring mentor early in a developing career (as well as grit and opportunity) that launches careers of highly influential leaders. Dr. Lindsay found that the best leaders are not primarily ego-driven, but are able to influence a shared organizational vision and submerge their egos so as to be credible stewards of a greater cause.

View From the Top

reveals the hidden attributes of those blessed with the platform of leadership—and explores what defines a leader's identity beyond the title on their business card.”

—Rich McClure President, UniGroup (United Van Lines and Mayflower Transit)

“Michael Lindsay's

View From the Top

recounts the experiences of a wide variety of leaders—in both success and failure—to reveal a deeper understanding of leadership: cause-oriented, people-driven, sacrificial, and reflective. Drawing from a variety of fields, Dr. Lindsay draws out some of the common elements of excellence. Anyone interested in the subject of leadership—or interested in exercising it—would benefit from reading

View from the Top

.”

—Michael Gerson Columnist, the Washington Post

“This is an informative and inspiring book for any leader, drawing on unprecedented personal access and a keen sense of the dynamics of leaders' institutions and personal lives. It contains both celebrations of the ways power can be used for good, and warnings of how slippery its effects can be on both leader and led. It is an indispensable catalog of stories and insights for those of us who want our use of power to be both effective and redemptive.”

—Andy Crouch Executive editor, Christianity Today, and author, Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power

View From the Top

An Inside Look at How People in Power See and Shape the World

D. Michael Lindsay, PH. D. with M. G. Hager

Cover image: Elevator Up-and-Down Button © Image Source/Corbis

Cover design: Chris Wallace

Copyright © 2014 by D. Michael Lindsay, Ph.D. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

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ISBN 978-1-118-90110-6 (cloth); ISBN 978-1-118-90139-7 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-901151 (ebk)

Introduction

“What? What does that mean, ‘I'm not the job?’” I could hardly hear Price, the search consultant, on my cell phone over the screeching of the subway car pulling in next to me. I was changing trains at the Park Street T station in downtown Boston, on my way to interview Diana Chapman Walsh, the highly successful president of Wellesley College. I had traveled to Boston from Houston—where I worked as a professor at Rice University—for a dual purpose. Not only was I completing additional interviews for my research project, but I had come to be interviewed myself. I was a candidate for the presidency of a Christian liberal arts college north of Boston, Gordon College.

“You got the job!” he repeated. This time I understood. In that moment, surrounded by strangers in that subway station, my life changed forever. I agreed to meet the board chair and the head of the search committee back at the hotel after the Walsh interview, and I hung up in a euphoric daze. I don't know how I managed to find my way to the Cleveland Circle T stop where I met up with Walsh, but I sobered up as soon as we greeted. I had been conducting interviews with leaders like Walsh for years, but now I had an even keener interest in learning from her. What went well for her early on, and what missteps does she wish she could do over? How does she handle her critics, including her inner critic? The lessons about leadership and power that I had been picking up for years were no longer strictly academic but were suddenly, startlingly relevant.

In other words, my social-scientific study had begun to morph into something more. The insights I had been gathering, sorting, and coding from interviews I conducted became a second doctoral education of sorts for me—one where the professors shared not only their achievements but also their failings, where their personal and institutional lives were the curriculum, and where the student's task was to synthesize these insights and then draw his own conclusions. What follows is, in essence, my “dissertation” from this priceless education.