The Leadership Moment: Nine True Stories of Triumph and Disaster and Their Lessons for Us All

As the author best captures it in the introduction, the book's premise is as follows: "We all need to be ready for those moments when our leadership is on the line and the fate or fortune of others depends on what we do...It is my view that one of the most effective ways of preparing for such challenges is by looking at what others have done when their own leadership was on the line. By examining their experience and asking what they did and what they could have done, and by wondering what you would have done yourself, you can better anticipate what you should do when faced with your own leadership challenges. This book presents accounts of nine such experiences. "The experiences are diverse, and so are the perspectives and wisdom that are shared. The reader will naturally find herself reliving them and reflecting on what she would have in these situations. Am action gripping and learning filled read on leadership!Below are excerpts from the book that I found particularly insightful:1- "Collectively, these stories and the principles drawn from them offer a threefold prescription: prepare yourself, prepare your colleagues, prepare your organization."2- "1) Powers of the office: power to reward, power to punish, power of budget. 2) Organizational Leadership: empowerment, reorganization. 3) Personal Leadership: expertise, character."3- "The single most important lesson from these moments is the overwhelming significance of vision and action. Without a clear sense of destination, we are apt to flounder about, and without knowing how to get to that destination, we will never reach it even when we see it."4- "Nine Leadership Moments, Nine Leadership Principles - Know yourself, Explain yourself, Expect much, Gain commitment, Build now, Prepare yourself, Move fast, Find yourself, Remain steadfast."5- "It is not just how many followers one has; it is also how many leaders one has created among them. The more leadership in the ranks, the more effective is one's own."6- "Achieving an organization's imperative is a leader's calling, but sometimes we confront moments when we must do otherwise. Such moments must be relatively unique, otherwise inconsistency in our organizational leadership will be evident for all to see; but if they are unthinkingly bypassed, our value as a leader may be doubted by everyone, including ourselves."7- "If you expect those who work for you to exercise their own judgement, provide them with the decision-making experience now."8- "If you have difficult decisions ot make and insufficient time to explain them, a key to implementation may be loyal allies who are sure to execute them through thick or thin."9- "A clear sense of common purpose and a well-formed camaraderie are essential ingredients to ensure that your team, your organization, or your company will perform to its utmost when it is most needed."10- "Expecting high performance is prerequisite to its achievement among those who would with you. Your high standards and optimistic anticipations will not guarantee a favorable outcome, but their absence will assuredly create the opposite."11- "Recognizing people's diverse motives for participating is an essential first step in mobilizing their contributions. Creating an opportunity for all to succeed - whatever their motives - is an essential second step in harnessing their contributions even when the room at the top is not big enough for all."12- "Some of today's small actions in mobilizing others may prove of little value, but others may have great results. Since you often cannot know which will later become critical, you cannot afford to avoid or ignore any now."13- "Buy-in by all those affected by an organization's change hastens its achievement. Consultation with them, engagement of them, and appeals to them are the critical steps for building acceptance of the change."14- "Inaction can be as damaging to leadership as inept action."15- "Realizing your leadership potential depends on making a match between your vision and an organization. The challenge is to find the right opportunity, pick the right moment, and make the right move."16- "Consistent, unrelenting efforts to hear and reconcile diverse positions, even when rooted in deeply entrenched and immensely powerful interests, are prerequisite to overcoming any conflict and mobilizing the resources that the contending parties are withholding."

When reading through leadership books I have found most are fluff and could be summed up in a one pager. This book used real world experiences in stories to express the examples and ideas it tried to convey and did a good job of it. It managed to keep my interest which for me is a challenge with these types of books but it did it well and the Leadership Guide at the back of the book was the "Ah-ha" moment in the direction the book went. In stead of presenting you with the goals of each chapter at the start, he gave you the story with tidbits of what you should get out of it. At the end the leadership guide summed it all up and I was able to read it and understand based on the examples in the stories what each was about.

I had to read this book for a course, but I did enjoy it. The book gives what seems to be an overall objective look at nine different leaders, their circumstances, and their decision making.One complain is that the book gives almost too much information in some cases which draws out the chapters longer than they need to be. These small details might add more to the general narrative of a particular storyline, but if you really only care about the leadership theory surrounding the cases presented, you're well off just skipping pages at a time in my opinion.

I read this in Grad. school and it changed how I think about everything.Now, I give it as a gift to any client, student, and my own child who is going into business.It's a must read. Best book ever.

This is a great book. I don't actually read books so the fact that I'm actually saying this is a statement in itself. The writing was very crisp and clean the stories were very interesting. It was easy to relate to the people in the stories. That made The book much more engaging. It also made the lessons learned from the stories easier to relate to. Some people may find the lessons to be common sense and I agree that they are. However it may not be common sense to most people but the stories make it easy for anyone to understand how they apply in the real world. This is a great and pretty quick read and I would recommend a to anyone.

When I was in a leadership role I often had others ask me about moving into leadership themselves. I always gave them this book to read. Through its stories it creates a great picture of true leadership. You get to read about fantastic successes and terrible failures. But best of all it gives those who are interested in leadership a taste of the responsibility that comes with the role.

This book is a great reminder for leaders and followers.Effective leaders need to communicate openly and well all the time. If you are the follower of a strong silent type it may cost you your life. So learn to speak up now whether you are a leader or a follower.If you are a firefighter this book combined with the DVD History Channel - 'Escape! - Fire in Mann Gulch' is a must read and a must see. It could save your life and more importantly the lives of a team.This book is also a good reminder of the ethics of leadership.

The leadership concepts that can be extracted from this book are good which is why it doesn't get a one star, and some stories are great stories of genuine leadership struggles such as Arlene Blum's. However, theres too much emphasis on finance leadership which to me is just corruption especially at the highest echelons of the banking industry. It felt like I was reading a cirlclejerk at moments, one banker dude talking about all of the high qualities of some other banker dude. Whatever, thats all ego stroking and it really spoiled the book because it felt like a waste of time a lot of times and it glorified the world of finance which is a real turn off.

a good book.... u should not miss reading itpriced economicallyI bought for gifting and was praised well

人生において，何回か困難にぶつかったときに，それを　どう乗り越えるかを　先人たちの経験から　学べる名著である。特に，アポロ１３号の危機に際して，フライト・ディレクターであったクアンツの冷静な判断は　多く学ぶものがある。これまでの　日本の政治屋の　官僚政治では，困難時に　国民を　救えない。単に，消費税を上げるという　財務省主導では，国民は疲弊するばかり。