"I" of Leadership

This is the leadership book you have to read: a barn-storming new take on what makes a versatile, integrated, and effective leader Using stories and examples from the lives of leaders, from the sports stadium to the White House to the office of the CEO, Nicholson shows vividly how the capacity of leaders to see what others do not see frames their actions and allows them to transform, build, destroy, or stabilize. Leaders fail through lack of insight—into themselves and into the worlds they inhabit. The strategic challenge of leadership is to find the right balance between impact and versatility and the successful crafting of an identity that merges the leader and the surrounding culture or 'zeitgeist.' Leaders covered in the book include: George Bush, Tony Blair, George S Patton, Warren Buffet, Steve Jobs, Josef Stalin, Hannibal, Elizabeth I, Nelson Mandela, Edith Cowan, Abraham Lincoln, Mohandas Gandhi, Henry Ford, Ernest Shackleton, Barack Obama, Robert Maxwell, JFK, Pope John XXIII, Margaret Thatcher, and Samuel Pepys. This book resonates with insights and searching questions on the nature of human leadership. It will be an invaluable guide to managers, consultants, and people everywhere.

it is what he does with the well-worn material that is original - and highly ambitious his book does stand out from the pack of leadership literature The good news is that Nicholson has forged the tools to help would-be leaders rise to the challenge (Financial Times, May 2013) Combined with analysis of cases from several decades, this book is as richly-textured as it is insightful. (Communication Director, June 2013)

Nigel Nicholson is a renowned educator, thinker, writer, and commentator on business. He is Professor of Organizational Behaviour at the London Business School, where he directs executive leadership programmes including High Performance People Skills, and the unique Proteus Programme.