Synopses & Reviews
When arch-rivals IBM and Apple forged an unprecedented partnership to build and distribute a computer operating system for worldwide use, these two industrial giants stepped into the Connective Era. In this thought-provoking book, Jean Lipman-Blumen, world-renowned consultant and organizational sociologist, explores this challenging new environment, and sets forth an innovative style for future leadership.She offers a nine-step strategy for connective leaders in politics and government, business and industry, education and religion?with examples from Wall Street to the Warsaw Pact, from Gorbachev to Gandhi. She demonstrates how to move beyond competition to balance the two antithetical forces that will define our future success: interdepAndence and diversity.Based on extensive analysis of the leadership styles of more than 5,000 leaders and managers worldwide, Lipman-Blumen has developed a way for leaders to flourish under the new demands of interorganizational relationships, joint ventures, and partnerships.
Review
"Quite simply, the book is a masterpiece. . . . Not since James McGregor Burns's book, Leadership, have I read a work that moves so easily from one social system to another." —Warren Bennis, founding chairman of The Leadership Institute at the University of Southern California and author of Why Leaders Can't Lead and An Invented Life
"Finally...a brilliant, readable, instructive and path-breaking book on leadership that does not grotesquely oversimplify this paramount task/job in society. Dare I say it? Jean Lipman-Blumen's rich, magisterial The Connective Edge is a page turner!" —Tom Peters
Synopsis
Connect with a new kind of leadershipWelcome to the Connective Era, an era of global competition that transforms arch-rivals into allies and compels them to cooperate in unprecedented ways--an era of fundamental change that demands a new approach to leadership. With this book, internationally acclaimed consultant Jean Lipman-Blumen defines that approach with a bold new model based on an innovative nine-part strategy. She provides historic examples from Wall Street to the Warsaw Pact, from Gorbachev to Ghandi. And she delineates the skills leaders need in order to flourish under the demands of interorganizational relationships, joint ventures, and strategic partnerships.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 365-378) and indexes.
Table of Contents
Part One: The Changing Dynamics of Leadership
1. New World, New Leadership: A Fundamental Shift
2. Why Are We So Hooked on Leaders Anyway? The Psychological and Existential Foundations of Leadership
3. American Leadership: Understanding Our National Addiction to Individualism, Cooperation, and Authoritarianism
4. A New Era: Intimations of New Leadership
Part Two: The Connective Leadership Model
5. Mapping Leadership Styles: Direct, Relational and Instrumental
6. The Direct Routes to Success: The Intrinsic, Competitive, and Power Styles
7. The Relational Path to Leadership: The Collaborative, Contributory, and Vicarious Styles
8. The Instrumental Road Less Travelled: The Personal, Social, and Entrusting Styles
9. Connective Leadershiup: More than the Sum of its Parts
Part Three: Bridging to the Stage 3 World
10. The Collective Organization: Matching Leadership and Organizational Styles
11. Women Leaders: An Oxymoron? Or Does GAnder Make a Difference?
12. Connective Leadership and the Serious Issues: Life, Death, and the Search for Meaning