Leading the Charge: Leadership Lessons from the Battlefield to the Boardroom

by Anthony C. Zinni, Tony Koltz

"What's happened to our leaders and to our leadership?"
Based on General Zinni's leadership experiences from the battlefield to the boardroom, Leading the Charge shows a new way through the significant leadership challenges of the 21st century.

The times are changing at an ever-increasing velocity. Old systems, organizations, and ways of operating no longer work in our dynamic, complex and increasingly unstable new environment. Out of this chaos and confusion, a new and different leader must emerge. Old systems and methods will no longer work.

Leading the Charge is a visionary leadership book that examines the trends that have reshaped our world and the ways in which visionary leaders and organizations can effectively respond. Tomorrow's successful leaders-in all fields, including the military, academia, politics, and business-must know how to create, operate, and thrive in very fluid, flattened, and integrated structures that are remarkably different from the traditional organizations we are used to seeing. They will have to manage rapidly changing technology and flows of information, and create faster and more far-reaching spans of control.

Leading the Charge shows the way, and is an incisive and compelling guide to the new world of leadership, one that will prove indispensable for years to come.

Organized around "Leading a New World," a revolutionary leadership course General Zinni developed and taught at the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy at Duke University, Leading the Charge makes a convincing case that leaders must . . .
- change with the times to be relevant.
- be ready for crisis mode at any given time.
- have a moral compass and the ability to steer the company in the right direction.
- be forward thinking, not reactive, to provide innovation and creativity.
- develop great leaders.

Genres: Business, Leadership

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Janine Spendlove · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an excellent book on leadership, whether on the battlefield or in a board room. In fact, I actually gleaned some parenting skills from it (though I'm not certain that's what General Zinni intended). My only nit-pick is that in every single generic example of leadership that he used Gen Zinni said "HE." Not once did he use "SHE," which I found bothersome because I know he has worked with many excellent women leaders throughout the course of his career. It just made me feel a bit excluded from his book - as if leadership didn't apply to me, a woman. I know that's not the case, and I know that wasn't his intent at all, I'm just saying that's how it struck me, and that's why I'm calling it a nit-pick (I would have given it 4 stars even if he had thrown a "she" in there a few times. I don't let nit-picks sway my ratings).

[Sunny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insightful book on leadership lessons from the military, managing in times of crisis and its applications in business - especially relevant when you see a number of leaders around us struggling to keep pace with the rapidly changing world....

[Dave Beeman · Rating 4 out of 5]

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[Seth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read and well written. Must read!