Common Purpose
How Great Leaders Get Organizations to Achieve the Extraordinary
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $17.99
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
From one of the most respected names in business and leadership, a rare look at the specifics of how great leaders achieve "common purpose" and success within their organizations.
What is common purpose? It is that rare, almost-palpable experience that happens when a leader coalesces a group, team or community into a creative, dynamic, brave and nearly invincible we. It happens the moment the organization's values, tools, objectives and hopes are internalized in a way that enables people to work tirelessly toward a goal. Common purpose is rarely achieved. But Kurtzman has observed that when a leader is able to bring it about, the results are outsized, measurable and inspiring.
Based on Kurtzman's all-new interviews with more than 50 leaders, including Ron Sargent, Ilene Lang, Micky Arison, Simon Cooper, Joel Klein, Janet Field, Steve Wynn, Shivan Subramaniam, Michael Dell, Richard Boyatzis, Tom Kelley, Michael Milken, and Warren Bennis Contains research on leadership Kurtzman has conducted during his years at The New York Times, the Harvard Business Review, Booz & Company, as well as with PricewaterhouseCoopers, Mercer, and Korn/Ferry
Based on all new interviews with some of the most dynamic, successful, and enduring leaders, Common Purpose sheds new light on the meaning of leadership, the crucial qualities of leaders, and most importantly, how to lead.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A thoughtful if somewhat long-winded and ethics-based discussion of leadership in the modern age by lauded business consultant Kurtzman. The author takes an all-for-one-and-one-for-all view of management, stating that the heart and soul of leadership is the creation of common purpose. He advocates for flat organizations and the end of the traditional corporate hierarchy in the interests of forging a sense of identity and connection between leaders and led. He cites such successes as the long-lived Proctor Gamble and the ever-lauded Apple, and failures like GM's former chairman taking the ill-advised private jet to ask Congress for a bailout as examples of how CEOs can save their companies by siding with employees and fail by standing apart from them. A thought-provoking look at the behavior of young Gen X and Y leaders backs up his premise that leadership is evolving for the better. He posits that in the years ahead, leaders will be kinder, more caring, and more empathic and are likely to create organizations superior to anything that has come before. While the material doesn't necessarily support an entire book's worth of encouragement, this is nonetheless a solid and readable look at New Leadership.
