The Need for a New Leadership Style

J. C. Rufin’s (2001) L’Empire et les nouveaux Barbares, 3rd edn (Lattes) is a visionary book, drawing a parallel between the isolationist reflex of the Roman Empire, which caused it to lose sight and understanding of its enemies (the Barbarians) and ultimately led to its destruction, and the Occidental democracies which, Rufin suggests, are building a modern version of Hadrian’s Wall today.Google Scholar

A. Toffler (1984) The Third Wave (Bantam). Alvin Toffler is a writer and “futurist.” His opinions and visions of the future became very well known and influential in the 1980s and 1990s. The “third wave” in the title of one of his most famous book refers to the “post-industrial society” which, he claims, will be the society of the “information age.”Google Scholar

P. Senge (1994) The Fifth Discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization (Currency). Senge’s book is a must-have in the library of any leader. It is still very relevant nowadays. The five disciplines advocated by Senge are: 1) Building shared vision, 2) Understanding and using mental models, 3) Team learning, 4) Personal mastery, and 5) Systems thinking.Google Scholar

J. Jaworski (1996) Synchronicity: The inner path of leadership (Berret-Koehler). Joe Jaworski, starting with the amazing example of his father, the prosecutor in charge of investigating Nixon’s Watergate, proposes an inspiring version of leadership that is close to servant leadership.Google Scholar

T. L. Friedman (2006) The World is Flat: A brief history of the 21st century (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). A visionary book in which Friedman, a regular contributor to the Herald Tribune, explores the impact of globalization.Google Scholar

J. A. Belasco and R. C. Stayer (1994) Flight of the Buffalo: Soaring to excellence, learning to let employees lead, new edn (Grand Central Publishing). Using the metaphor of buffalos and wild geese, Belasco and Stayer explain that buffa-los became an endangered species because of their collusion in a highly hier-archical type of leadership/followership. They contrast this style to wild geese, much more organic and less authoritarian. R. C. Stayer (1990) “How I learned to let my workers lead,” Harvard Business Review, November/December (Reprint 90610) is a great summary of Flight of the Buffalo. Advocates of the “get to the point fast” style of reading would do well to buy that first.Google Scholar

Don Taps and Anthony D. Williams (2008) Wikinomics: How mass collaboration changes everything, expanded edn (Portfolio) is a visionary book on how the new communication technologies reshape the competitive business and social landscape. A must-read!Google Scholar

Barbara L. Fredrickson and Marcial F. Losada (2005) “Positive affect and the complex dynamics of human flourishing,” American Psychologist, Vol. 60, No. 7, October, pp. 678–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Robert Fritz (2006) The Path of Least Resistance: Learning to become the creative force in your own life (Free Press).Google Scholar

O. Harari (2006) Break From the Pack: How to compete in a copycat economy (FT Press). In this excellent and refreshing book, Harari proposes recipes to get out of the commodization Hell which he labels the “copycat economy.” His recipe is to encourage employees to remain “curious, cool and crazy,” a culture which he calls “disciplined lunacy.”Google Scholar

Claes F. Janssen (1996) The Four Rooms of Change (Wahlström & Widstrand). Unfortunately, most of Janssen’s books are only available in Swedish. We advise readers to take a look at his website where his thoughts are well developed (www.claesjanssen.com).Google Scholar

William Bridges (2004) Transitions: Making sense of life’s changes, revised 25th anniversary edition (Da Capo Press). This is a deep and very revealing book on how people successfully migrate through challenging moments of their lives.Google Scholar

S. Covey and R. Merrill (2006) The Speed of Trust: The one thing that changes everything (Free Press). In this excellent book, Covey and Merrill emphasize trust as a key competitive advantage in tomorrow’s knowledge-driven competition. A lack of trust dramatically slows down communication and information sharing.Google Scholar