The Leadership Engine: How Winning Companies Build Leaders at Every Level (Harper Business Essentials)

"Too few managers and executives understand the importance of mentoring. In elevating this role to the top of a leader's priorities, the authors offer managers a way of becoming even more influential." --John A. Byrne, "BusinessWeek Why do some companies consistently win in the marketplace while others struggle from crisis to crisis? Drawing on decades of research, practical experience, and colorful examples from leading CEOs, Noel Tichy shows that the answer to this question is the "Leadership Engine" — a proven system for creating dynamic leaders at every level and an integral factor in a company's sustained success.

Questions for Discussion

1. From the real-life examples of the CEOs profiled in the book, did you find one person's leadership style to be more effective than the others? Which of the examples or stories made the greatest impression on you?

2. Throughout the book, Tichy uses Jack Welch of General Electric as an example of successful leadership and mentoring. What is it about Welch that made him such a successful CEO? Do you believe that Welch's integration of a "Leadership Engine" contributed to GE's success? What is your assessment of GE's future now that Welch has retired as CEO?

3. In one instance Tichy states, "Some companies don't do a good job developing leaders because they don't try very hard." What differences does Tichy cite between companies that display effective leadership and those that do not? Is leadership really more important than other factors, even those that would seem to have a more immediate impact on a company's bottom line?

4. Tichy maintains that in order to generate sustainable organizational performance, one musthave winning leaders to successfully teach others in the organization to be leaders as well. How does he support this theory? Do you agree or disagree with his assessment of what constitutes an effective leader? What did you learn from this book?

5. As Tichy has participants do in his leadership training workshops, share a story of leadership success you have enjoyed. Reflect on what made the leadership successful, and then generate a list of characteristics of effective leadership built on this "personal benchmarking trip." About the Authors: Noel M. Tichy is a professor at the University of Michigan Business School where he directs the Global Leadership Program. He is the coauthor (with Stratford Sherman) of Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will. A Consultant to General Electric since 1982, he ran GE's renowned Crotonville executive development center for two years. As a senior partner in Action Learning Associates, Tichy has consulted with clients around the world, including Accenture, HP, Intel, Royal Dutch/Shell, and Trilogy. Eli Cohen is an Investor with Ziff Brothers Investments.

In this Wall Street Journal and BusinessWeek bestseller, Michigan Business School guru and worldwide consultant Noel Tichy brings his special brand of organisational transformation to a practical level that guarantees a leader at every level of an organisation.

Why do some companies consistently win in the marketplace while others struggle from crisis to crisis? The answer, says Noel Tichy, is that winning companies possess a "Leadership Engine" , a proven system for creating dynamic leaders at every level. Technologies, products and economies constantly change. To get ahead and stay ahead, companies need agile, flexible, innovative leaders who can anticipate change and respond to new realities swiftly. Tichy explains that everyone has untapped leadership potential that can be developed winning leaders and winning organisations have figured out how to do this.

In this acclaimed bestseller, Tichy offers colourful and insightful best-practice examples from dozens of leaders gathered from decades of research and practical experience.

Noel M. Tichy, the bestselling author of The Leadership Engineand Control Your Destiny,is a professor at the University of Michigan Business School, the director of the school's Global Leadership Partnership, and a worldwide adviser to CEOs on leadership and transformation. He lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.