SHELF LIFE
“I have never encountered an executive who remains effective while tackling more than two tasks at a time.” — Peter Drucker
HBR’s 10 Must Reads On Leadership A single book that packs quite a punch from renowned gurus By Sanjay Gupta
This book is not really one single volume but an assortment of thinking from some of the best management minds. It contains articles on leadership by Daniel Goleman, Peter Drucker, Warren Bennis and Robert Thomas, and Jim Collins, among other luminaries. While the book may lack the advantage of a single narrative, it more than compensates for it by the sheer richness and variety of its content – even if the matter is coalesced around the one theme of leadership. To be frank, I approached it with a sense of trepidation and awe, considering the gargantuan stature of its contributing authors. I was a bit worried, too, that there might be many dense or boring theories about leadership. Fortunately, none of that! All the articles are written with amazing simplicity, and the theories or ideas are almost always illustrated with interesting and insightful business case examples. For instance, I knew that Lou Gerstner had made an elephantine IBM dance to the tunes of new revenue streams – but it was quite interesting
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to know the story of his remarkable turnaround at American Express as well. He did this by questioning the long-held beliefs at AmEx and creating a dynamic, entrepreneurial culture, according to a story shared by John Kotter. In another case study presented by Jim 'Good to Great' Collins, we learn about Darwin Smith, the unassuming and even “awkward” CEO of Kimberly-Klark. When Smith, a mild-mannered in-house lawyer, was appointed the chief exec by the company's board in 1971, Kimberly-Klark was spoken of as a “stodgy old paper company” and its market performance had been slipping for the past 20 years. Even Smith wasn't sure if the board had made the right choice: a view that was reinforced when a company director told him he wasn't qualified for the top job. It didn't help, too, when Smith was diagnosed with cancer barely two months into the position – doctors gave him a year or so to live. Not only did Smith live on for another 25 years, he spent 20 of those as Kimberly-Klark's CEO – turning a stodgy firm around to
ABOUT THE SERIES HBR's 10 Must Reads series focuses on the core topics that every ambitious manager needs to know. Harvard Business Review has sorted through hundreds of articles and selected only the most essential reading on each topic. Each title includes timeless advice that will be relevant regardless of an everchanging business environment.
make it the leading consumer paper products company in the world. In the book, Collins terms Smith as a Level 5 leader – one who blends the paradoxical combination of deep personal humility with intense professional will – indeed, a rare kind of leadership. (As per his research, only 11 out of about 1400 Fortune 500 firms had a Level 5 leader at the helm.) Such case studies make the book quite lively, but even the leadership theories make for interesting reading and give us points to ponder. Whether it is Drucker's eight practices of effective executives (among them: figuring out what's right for the organisation, taking responsibility for communication and decisions, thinking in terms of “we” rather than “I”); the four components of high emotional intelligence in leaders suggested by Goleman; or the crucibles (severe tests or trials) of leadership recounted by Bennis and Thomas – the reader is certain to take away valuable lessons in leadership for their own grooming. Indeed, HBR's 10 Must Reads On Leadership justifies its name pretty well.