Leadership: The Inner Side of Greatness, a Philosophy for Leaders

by Peter Koestenbaum

Book Overview

It has been more than a decade since the first edition of Peter Koestenbaum's landmark book Leadership: The Inner Side of Greatness was published. Since that time world events have caused a dramatic shift in how we think about our lives and our work. Now we grapple with the fundamental questions. How can we live a courageous life and manage anxiety? Is it possible to reach greater heights of ethics and responsibility? Peter Koestenbaum, the preeminent...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0787959561
• ISBN13: 9780787959562
• Release Date: August 2002
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Harnessing Vision, Reality, Ethics, and Courage to Build a Great Leadership Mind

Peter Koestenbaum correctly adopts a holistic, philosophical approach to leadership that has a better chance to resist the grinding effect of time than an approach built on the last ephemeral buzzword. Leadership means greatness in all one does. Koestenbaum stresses that leadership is not limited to the work sphere. Koestenbaum identifies the six areas of leadership that he calls work, family, self, social responsibility, ecological responsibility, and financial strength. Koestenbaum links his leadership model in part to philosophy because of its depth, perennial strength. Koestenbaum does not believe in born leaders. Leadership is rooted in one's free will, which underpins both responsibility and accountability. Just having money or authority does not turn anyone into a true leader. Character strength ultimately separates aspirants from authentic leaders who have a personality strong enough for translating mere words into actions. Koestenbaum builds his leadership model in the form of a diamond whose beating heart is greatness that rests on standards. Four competing styles of thinking shape how the leadership diamond looks like: Vision, reality, ethics, and courage. Vision gives someone a larger view; reality is built on pragmatism; ethics reflects a concern for feelings; courage is rooted in free will. Koestenbaum associates supporting tactics at the professional, social, psychological, and philosophical levels with each of these four styles of thinking. Koestenbaum helps his audience build individual and organizational skills mostly through good examples. To summarize, Koestenbaum gives his readers building blocks that they can assemble like a Lego. Anyone looking for the proverbial silver bullet will be disappointed. Leadership is shrouded into ambiguity, polarity, and uncertainty. Greatness in leadership is a lifelong endeavor which is open to anyone who has the character strength it takes to make a real difference.

Sound, but dated despite revision

This is a competent example of the many formula based books on leadership, one built round four dimensions of vision, engagement with reality, ethics and courage. Originally published in 1991, much of what it argues is now part of the common currency of the literature. It is well set out and simply written, but does not really engage with the great issues of today's society. Similarly, there is no explicit definition of leadership, the implicit definition used being a traditional one that is under considerable challenge.

Top 5 business books

I've read a ton of business books and 80% are rehash, obvious garbage. This is a keeper. Inspiring, will make you excited to go to work again.Read it!

Inspiring, empowering and practical -- this book is a gem.

This book presents a way of thinking about leadership that is both deeply personal and universal. The Leadership Diamond organizes the paradoxical imperatives of leadership into a simple but far from simplistic model. It brings other leadership theories into perspective by offering a dynamically balanced, holistic and actionable approach.

Philosophy in Business...and life

For the intelligent business person tired of easy recipes, and yearning for a deeper approach to the paradoxes of modern business, here is a work by an original thinker, Psychologist and Philosopher, applying the ages-old wisdom of Philosophy to the challenges of leadership in today's business world. Koestenbaum presents his approach in a didactic manner, yet never underestimating his audience, utlizing a model for Leadership values in the form of a four vertex diamond: Vision, at the top, encompassing the ability to think strategically, but also to understand others with different cultures and realities than our own; Courage at the bottom, which surprisingly represents not heroic, one-time achievements but rather sustained initiative, the ability to focus on an objective throughout life; Reality on the left, comprehending the ability to deal with hard facts, but also the understanding of the paradoxical nature of life; and, last but not least, Ethics, which beyond anything represents empathy and stewardship, service to others as the ultimate way of realizing greatness.Two fundamental concepts guide the whole book: Greatness, the embodiment of one's potential for life; and Free Will, the simple but powerful recognition of every human being's ability to take charge of his own life and the consequences of his decisions. Dealing with each of the four dimensions of the leadership diamond at increasing levels of depth, Koestenbaum allows the reader to approach practical problems in everyday's business life with new, enriching perspectives, staying away from oversimplifying, or establishing any orthodox "right" answer, but rather recognizing the paradoxical nature of many apparently easy questions in the business arena of today. The quest for Leadership is defined then by the search to achieve balance between those four dimensions, as the ability to recognize and deal effectively paradox in modern life, not only in business, but in every sphere of life: business, family, personal, community. ! As a Psychologist, Koestenbaum brings an original perspective to the bussiness leader's career: the importance of his awareness to other's people's perceptions of his behavior. This ability to understand the leader's own "market" and to attract and receive feedback becomes an essential requisite in he learning and teaching of leadership. Koestenbaum's teachings bring a humanist approach to business, the recognition that the tranformation of enterprises starts and ends with the decisions of individuals to transform themselves. (Yes, another paradox, for we are tryng to transform that of which we are a part of). Most importantly, this book offers the modern businessperson a way to make our position in a company,and the way we deal with leadership, become the very vehicle by which we can trascend,the means by which we can give meaning to our lives.