The Powers to Lead

by Joseph S. Nye Jr.

Book Overview

What qualities make a leader succeed in business or politics? In an era when the information revolution has dramatically changed the playing field, when old organizational hierarchies have given way to fluid networks of contacts, and when mistrust of leaders is on the rise, our ideas about leadership are clearly due for redefinition.

With The Powers to Lead, Joseph S. Nye offers a sweeping look at the nature of leadership in today's world,...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195335627
• ISBN13: 9780195335620
• Release Date: March 2008
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.2" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Leading With Smart Power

Leadership through persuasion and influence is the path favoured by leaders who use soft power to manage. A long-standing advocate of soft power, Joseph Nye, points out, in The Powers To Lead, that soft power is just one way to manage. The book recommends the use of smart power. Success is obtained with smart power by combining hard and soft power skills in varying proportions, depending on the situation. Leadership with soft power transforms group members through the use of attraction, inspiration, persuasion, and charisma. Hard power was used more by managers in prior eras of the industrial age. These leaders wanted to dominate their followers. They got what they wanted through coercion, bullying, and appealing to their opponents' tangible interests with rewards that had conditions attached. Leaders who are better at using smart power have contextual intelligence. They know when to use soft or hard power to inspire their followers since they are aware of the distribution of power in their organization, its cultural values, and changes in their followers needs. Hard power is more appropriate when there is a need to appeal to tangible interests; whereas, soft power is effective when a leader can appeal to higher order values and noble purposes. For example, when bargaining over wages, soft power is a good route to follow in a political nonprofit group where people work due to their own personal values. On the other hand, hard power bargaining, where tangible rewards are doled out, is likely necessary in a corporate for-profit setting where workers perceive that the owner is rich. There are many examples in The Powers To Lead that are based on the author's experiences and observations in the public sector and international politics. The author, Joseph Nye, has experience as a professor, and former dean, of Harvard's School of Government, and as a senior official in two US presidential administrations. Nye expands the scope of The Powers To Lead, so that it encompasses the use of smart power by all leaders, by including examples from the private sector. The examples from the private sector point to the need for increasing the use of soft power in business. One CEO in information technology notes that he would be kicked off the island if he used the hard power methods of management like those of Jack Welch of GE fame. Joseph Nye points out that only half the managers who were trained in hard power systems, like that at GE, went on to be successful leaders elsewhere. Nye also discusses managers who transfer between the public and private sectors and how some of them continue to be successful in their new endeavours. The closing chapter of The Powers To Lead examines the morality of leaders who use smart power. Joseph Nye favours the use of soft power in the contemporary times since he feels that soft power is the best path to choose in a world which has a highly educated workforce, the spreading of democratic principles, and followers who need t

Many Centuries earlier....

I feel it worthy to state that humans have been contemplating leadership techniques for centuries. In Joseph Nye Jr.'s excellent book, "The Powers to Lead" (Oxford University Press, New York, 2008, pg.11) he states, "Part of ancient Chinese wisdom is represented by Sun-Tzu, who wrote The Art of Warfare six centuries before the Christian era and concluded that the highest excellence is never having to fight because the commencement of battle signifies a political failure." And (pg. 21) "We can think of leadership as a process with three key components: leaders, followers, and contexts." Both of these are powerful statements but represent early teachings of great masters. The I Ching includes the martial within the cultural, and in classical Chinese political ideology, military strategy was a subordinate branch of social strategy. Thus context was of great interest to leaders of that age. Although The Art of Warfare states in the opening chapter: "The Way means inducing the people to have the same aim as the leadership, so that they will share death and share life, without fear of danger" (Strategy Assessments), this was not necessarily through coercion, because many of the qualities needed for crisis management were also qualities needed for ordinary management. A complete education in China was believed to encompass both cultural and martial arts. A person might be both a military and civilian leader, simultaneously or at different times. In Chinese, this was called the combination of wen and wu. Mr. Nye does a compelling job of bringing the concepts of hard, soft, smart power and contextual intelligence into recent centuries, but reading the essays of great statesman and warriors like Zhuge Liang or Liu Ji (second century B.C.E) will transport you to a time when the powers to lead exercised keen judgment and applied leadership styles as needed to fit the situation at hand. Try also reading the Masters of Huainan for a unified science of life and leadership. Thanks Mr. Nye for bringing these concepts forward in time.

Apt Analysis

Joseph Nye's newest book, The Powers to Lead, is as crucial to the application of leadership in the twenty-first century as an understanding of the technical and social evolution of the last ten years is to its success. This compound simile is more than a poignant summary of his work; it's a framing of the very research question Nye articulates as his motives for writing it: What is required of leaders within the context of our new information-based and network-oriented society? Using history as relevant parameters, his personal and professional experiences as an intuitive guide, and the evolving realities of the day as an oracle to bet on, Nye submits that the era of paradigm leadership is over, and now is a time for leaders to recognize that the balance of "soft and hard power" has shifted toward the relations-fostering, personally empowering side of soft power; though, the key, in the end is to produce the right combination of the two, which he deems "smart power", for the optimal outcome to the situation at hand. With the spread of information becoming so prevalent not only in society in general but in the workplace specifically, Nye conveys the role of a leader as no longer being the arbiter of that information but, instead, being the mediator of it, influencing its purpose and value. While some authors have tried--unsuccessfully--to articulate a similar message, their abstract and detached approach often overshadowing the virtue of their points and rue the day. Nye's method, however, of thoughtful and hyper-relevant examples satiates the common reader's need for correlation and illustration. Nye's constant analytical inclusions of both historical and contemporary figures is neither haphazard nor frivolous; perfectly placed within the context of his discussion, he knows that using these specific examples will allow him to not only further define the concept at hand but also draw in years of history to truly accentuate his point. As he encourages aspiring leaders to do when refining their own approaches, he does in methodologically evaluating the balance of soft and hard power: observe what has worked and use it; avoid past failures. Nye's many references to various points within today's comprehensive literature on leadership reflects this point well--he acknowledges these are points that will foster the skills necessary to thrive under the conditions of the twenty-first century. The organization of The Powers to Lead is what differentiates it from other volumes on leadership. Nye's constant and clear demarcation between the leader, his style, and his objectives--what I would consider the true "leadership triad"--ensures the reader will never miss the point at hand. Leadership, as he would advance, must be understood, and likewise employed, within the context of the objective and the person, and the chronology of his piece is designed to flow from one context to the next to subliminally substantiate his claim. In doing so, Nye is co