Co-Leaders
Today's CEOs are as well-known to everyone as the most popular entertainers or sports stars, but those leaders below the CEO are the heart and soul of every organization. Today's celebrity CEO has either become a figurehead or an egomaniac, and is frequently too public a figure to get the real work done. Instead, teams of leaders-exceptional deputies who forge great partnerships to maximize both organizational and personal success-do that work.
Heenan and Bennis believe that in order to understand what makes an organization excel, you must look beyond the Bill Gateses of the world. This is the first comprehensive study of co-leaders and their often quiet power, written for CEOs, managers, and anyone else interested in modern organizations. Co-Leaders is an in-depth examination of a dozen great partners, including Steve Ballmer of Microsoft, Bob Lutz of Chrysler, Bill Guthridge, coach of the University of North Carolina basketball team, and Anne Sullivan Macy, Helen Keller's teacher.
Because of the changing nature of corporate leadership, a new Silicon Valley model of success has emerged, in which the boss and subordinate appear more like peers, with a focus on great partnerships. At an increasing number of hot high-tech firms, talent, not titles, is the source of power. Today's deputy can become tomorrow's CEO in these collegial, non-hierarchical organizations simply by walking out the door with his or her breakthrough idea. Good ideas belong, at least initially, to the people who have them, not the company or the boss, which is why this new egalitarianism is more than just a fashion statement—it's a matter of survival. Co-leaders have both executive and subordinate experience, making them better suited to the needs of the new millennium, in which men and women who can command and follow will be the most valuable assets of any organization.
Among the best books on teamwork, Co-Leaders is for anyone who wants to make his or her organization great. This book demonstrates how, by viewing the enterprise through the eyes of inspired deputies, both organizations and individuals can benefit from a more inclusive, less celebrity-oriented definition of leadership. This ground-breaking book advocate for a new paradigm in which gifted leaders and their talented co-leaders collaborate to make their organizations stronger, more agile, more equitable... and ultimately more successful.
Author: David A. Heenan and Warren Bennis
Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Co-Leaders-Power-Partnerships-David-Heenan/dp/0471361208/
