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The Leadership Engine

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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.

464 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

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About the author

Noel M. Tichy

34 books10 followers
Noel M. Tichy is an American management consultant, author and educator. He has co-authored, edited or contributed to over 30 books.

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5 stars
81 (29%)
4 stars
105 (37%)
3 stars
60 (21%)
2 stars
26 (9%)
1 star
6 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
Profile Image for Jason.
172 reviews1 follower
September 19, 2011
The Leadership Engine, by Noel Tichy, is devoted to describing how great leaders push and lead their corporations toward success. Using case studies and research, this book shows that leader driven organizations are more successful, rather than mere manager led. In so doing, the author shows how leader led organizations have traits that lead them towards achievement of their goals.

Leaders are so intertwined with the concept of reproducing themselves that they become known for their teaching skills as much as anything else. The author points out that former General Electric CEO, Jack Welch, would spend several days a month teaching managers. While rarely showing up on the bottom line of organizations, the development of fresh leadership and the growing ability for junior leaders to make decisions on their own without direct supervision are constantly cited as reasons for success in organizations.

Over the past generation the occupation of consultant has arisen in virtually every field. From businesses, to churches, to university athletic departments, consultants work where there were previously only outside blue or white collar outside contractors. This book makes the case that consultants exist today because people simply do not want to lead. They have chosen to make their work much more complicated that it had to be by refusing to be teachers of those underneath them. And as a result, leaders have no time to research developing trends or to look long term for their organization.

Tichy emphasises that a great leader will teach others to be great leaders, not great followers. It is much easier to gather followers around an organization; people who have a passion to just follow one person's vision for the organization. This is the recipe for failure. The right people are the center of any organization, so therefore goals must be accomplished through taught people who are willing to take smart aggressive risks within the scope of an organizations mission with a constant eye towards integrity and the leading of the hand of Providence.
Profile Image for Kevin.
3 reviews3 followers
July 17, 2012
awesome and comprehensive about leadership and change and emphasizes: supporting reasons (the business case), description of TO-BE destination, and how to do this. This book has many times help galvanize my thinking. I re-read it periodically and this time as always I am glad I did.
Profile Image for Phuongvu.
555 reviews89 followers
March 15, 2021
Đây không phải là một quyển sách dành cho số đông người đọc.
Rất hiếm người review về quyển sách hay này.
Thích nhất trước mỗi chương đều có phần tóm tắt. Rất hữu dụng.

HN, 15/3/2021
Profile Image for Simona.
188 reviews16 followers
August 5, 2023
2/5 ⭐⭐

Ultimately, this book was too detailed and too dry for me. I was struggling to finish it. Also, I was not fond of Tichy's constant worshipping of General Electric's (GE) leadership. Almost every chapter had a mention of GE.

Other than that, the core ideas of Noel M. Tichy are great. I agree that leaders must build other leaders, have a strong vision, make thought decisions, etc., to make and keep organizations successful in the long run. However, the examples to support these points were super detailed, long, and even overwhelming with all the name-dropping, dates, departments, etc. It is not the best book on leadership; it is more of a GE analysis and how they used to do things back in the day. 2/5.
Profile Image for Christoph Kappel.
490 reviews11 followers
April 13, 2022
I am not entirely sure, why I picked this book, but it was a reference from a previous book I really enjoyed. After reading it, I am sure not to be the intended audience at all.

Still, I learned some things and especially about my own discipline can finally understand some of the references about Jack Welch in the show "30 Rock".
Profile Image for Fabrizio Stucchi.
119 reviews1 follower
April 2, 2020
Good principles, but overall the book did not aged well, thinking about the examples of "everlasting" companies... ( GE, HP...).
Profile Image for Brandon Perry.
134 reviews5 followers
December 17, 2014
This book is absolutely amazing. I'm a strong believer in leadership and building leadership cultures in a company. For me it's easy to see the companies that will soon die off and the ones that will continue to win by just studying the "leaders" at the company. Even the ones that seem to be winning now will soon fade away because there is no leadership engine.

This book also made me appreciate everything Orrin Woodward and Chris Brady are doing at LIFE Leadership. They have created what Tichy would call a systematic way of teaching and duplicating leaders. I believe the companies of the future will be those that are utilizing LIFE's leadership training materials for their developing leaders.
Profile Image for Jeff.
157 reviews1 follower
March 29, 2009
Just finished this one...not as inspirational as some of the other leadership books I've read, but very good nonetheless. It has informed several decisions I have been mulling over regarding the progression of my business.

This book is centered on the concept that the world is bigger than any one of us as individuals. In order to succeed, you have to be willing to teach, coach, and mentor. Mentoring requires being vulnerable, releasing some ego constraints, and being honest. Teaching requires the conscious development of "teachable points of view" - in other words, you can't teach what you haven't internalized and what you don't support.
Profile Image for Christine E..
Author 1 book7 followers
Read
September 9, 2010
I'm in the midst of developing leadership curriculum for my staff and this is a GREAT look at excellent leaders and their skills in the marketplace. Has given me some great ideas on developing people and myself.
43 reviews3 followers
June 25, 2008
Tichy is a great instructor in the field of leadership.
Profile Image for Steffanie.
12 reviews
October 27, 2013
the handbook in the index is an amazing resource with great exercises. the beginning of thr book is a bit of a slow starter.
Profile Image for Nguyễn.
18 reviews
December 10, 2016
Một cuốn sách hay, đúc kết những bài học dành cho người quản lý. Tôi khá ngạc nhiên vì ít người đọc, bình luận về nội dung. Có lẽ chỉ sách không phù hợp với số đông.
Profile Image for Lara.
31 reviews22 followers
changed-mind-stoppedreading
June 28, 2013
Teachable Point Of View
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews

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