Rating: 
Summary: Treat yourself and explore this fascinating topic!
Review: Brilliant! Howard Gardner and Emma Laskins' LEADING MINDS : AN ANATOMY OF LEADERSHIP is simply Brilliant! Their rigorous analysis of Leadership and wonderful case studies of several contemporary leaders is enthralling. One, if not the, most interesting and insightful investigations into the topic of Leadership.Howard Gardner, himself a leader in the area of Multiple Intelligences, brings his profound insight on the human mind to a much written about but poorly understood topic of Leadership. Gardner and Laskins' identify six key constants of Leadership including: 1. A Story - Leaders must have a central message or story that speaks directly to the "unschooled mind." 2. An Audience - There must be an audience to act upon the message. 3. An Organization - To endure, leaders must have some type of organizational basis. 4. The Embodiment - To be effective, a leader must be able to "walk the talk." 5. Direct and Indirect Leadership - Leaders have options to exert their influence either indirectly or directly. 6. Expertise - In order for leaders to obtain any credibility, they must be experts within their domain. Their case studies excellently illustrate and humanize their theory on Leadership. I, as one of the multitude of "unschooled minds", found the stories of contemporary leaders deeply compelling. I have gained a new and deeper appreciation for Margaret Mead, Pope John XXIII, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I now have an intense desire to learn as much as possible regarding the lives and tremendous contributions of all three of these Leaders. The case studies provide a much needed, if unintended, comical relief to this serious topic. The authors, while strongly emphasizing the benefits of inclusionary leadership and the perils of good vs evil stories that appeal to the "unschooled mind", themselves engage in exclusionary stories of good vs evil by lionizing those of the same political ideology as themselves and demonize those of differing political viewpoints. It delightfully humanizes the authors and candidly displays that even the "schooled mind" may, on occasion, fall prey to the biases of the "unschooled mind." Buy this Book! Treat yourself and explore this fascinating topic of Leadership. I would also strongly recommend two other books by Howard Gardner, FRAMES OF MIND: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences and CREATING MINDS : An Anatomy of Creativity Seen Through the Lives of Freud, Einstein, Picasso, Stravinsky, Eliot, Graham, and Gandhi. On the topic of Leadership, I highly recommend John Kotter's LEADING CHANGE and WHAT LEADERS REALLY DO. Thomas I. Amadio
Rating:
Summary: Treat yourself and explore this fascinating topic!
Review: Brilliant! Howard Gardner and Emma Laskins' LEADING MINDS : AN ANATOMY OF LEADERSHIP is simply Brilliant! Their rigorous analysis of Leadership and wonderful case studies of several contemporary leaders is enthralling. One, if not the, most interesting and insightful investigations into the topic of Leadership. Howard Gardner, himself a leader in the area of Multiple Intelligences, brings his profound insight on the human mind to a much written about but poorly understood topic of Leadership. Gardner and Laskins' identify six key constants of Leadership including: 1. A Story - Leaders must have a central message or story that speaks directly to the "unschooled mind." 2. An Audience - There must be an audience to act upon the message. 3. An Organization - To endure, leaders must have some type of organizational basis. 4. The Embodiment - To be effective, a leader must be able to "walk the talk." 5. Direct and Indirect Leadership - Leaders have options to exert their influence either indirectly or directly. 6. Expertise - In order for leaders to obtain any credibility, they must be experts within their domain. Their case studies excellently illustrate and humanize their theory on Leadership. I, as one of the multitude of "unschooled minds", found the stories of contemporary leaders deeply compelling. I have gained a new and deeper appreciation for Margaret Mead, Pope John XXIII, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I now have an intense desire to learn as much as possible regarding the lives and tremendous contributions of all three of these Leaders. The case studies provide a much needed, if unintended, comical relief to this serious topic. The authors, while strongly emphasizing the benefits of inclusionary leadership and the perils of good vs evil stories that appeal to the "unschooled mind", themselves engage in exclusionary stories of good vs evil by lionizing those of the same political ideology as themselves and demonize those of differing political viewpoints. It delightfully humanizes the authors and candidly displays that even the "schooled mind" may, on occasion, fall prey to the biases of the "unschooled mind." Buy this Book! Treat yourself and explore this fascinating topic of Leadership. I would also strongly recommend two other books by Howard Gardner, FRAMES OF MIND: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences and CREATING MINDS : An Anatomy of Creativity Seen Through the Lives of Freud, Einstein, Picasso, Stravinsky, Eliot, Graham, and Gandhi. On the topic of Leadership, I highly recommend John Kotter's LEADING CHANGE and WHAT LEADERS REALLY DO. Thomas I. Amadio
Rating:
Summary: Scholarship of Leadership
Review: Gardner does something very rare in the leadership literature...he provides a book with practical ideas based on solid research and scholarship. Where many leadership books present only one person as a role model, Gardner uses a range of examples from a variety of areas to develop a simple but effective model of how to be an effective leader.
Rating:
Summary: This is the best book on leadership I have read.
Review: Gardner finally does something with leadership that's unique--he tells us what we don't know about it rather than just putting what we know in different words. I teach management in a graduate program in public administration, and I also serve as an elected official in a university town in the midwest. Gardner knows what he is talking about. The concept of leadership as storytelling is compelling. And after reading about the "unschooled mind," I read his focusing on that subject. It wasn't worth it. There is plenty in Leading Minds. I love the chapter long biographies as well. He does a masterful job.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: I am currently half-way through this book. I love it. It has a lot of "meat" to it. The analysis is wonderful. He stresses the importance of stories for an effective leader. He provides substantial evidence for his claim that a leader cannot be effective without a story in which he/she at once tells and embodies. One of the things I like most about the book is the range of personalities written about (from Eleanor Roosevelt to Alfred P. Sloan, Jr.). The book is also very easy to read. Gardner is a clear writer. This is my second Gardner book. (I read Multiple Intelligences: The Theory in Practice). I'm enjoying this one better than the first. He seems most at home sitting back and quietly observing the leaders he talks about. Always balanced and never judgemental, I recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand leadership in the twentieth century.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: I am currently half-way through this book. I love it. It has a lot of "meat" to it. The analysis is wonderful. He stresses the importance of stories for an effective leader. He provides substantial evidence for his claim that a leader cannot be effective without a story in which he/she at once tells and embodies. One of the things I like most about the book is the range of personalities written about (from Eleanor Roosevelt to Alfred P. Sloan, Jr.). The book is also very easy to read. Gardner is a clear writer. This is my second Gardner book. (I read Multiple Intelligences: The Theory in Practice). I'm enjoying this one better than the first. He seems most at home sitting back and quietly observing the leaders he talks about. Always balanced and never judgemental, I recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand leadership in the twentieth century.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant Look at Need to Link Direct and Indirect Leaders
Review: I bought this book sometime after concluding that national intelligence leadership needed to inspire and appeal to the citizens of the USA at large, rather than being so narrowly focused on staying out of trouble with Congress while collecting secrets. This book reviews leadership of both domains and nations, with case studies on Margaret Mead (Culture), J. Robert Oppenheimer (Physics), Robert Maynard Hutchins (Education), Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. (Business), George C. Marshall (Military), Pope John XXII (Religion), Eleanor Roosevelt (Ordinariness and Extraordinariness), Martin Luther King (Minority) and Margaret Thatcher (National). The best leaders that emerge are those who are willing to confront authority and take risk, while also creating networks of contacts that number in the hundreds or thousands rather than tens. Most tellingly, aleader in a discipline (e.g. intelligence) only emerges as a long-term leader if he finally realizes that "he is more likely to achieve his personal goals or to satisfy his community if he addresses a wider audience than if he remains completely within a specific domain." The six constants of leadership are the story, the audience (beginning with a message for the unschooled mind), the organization, the embodiment, a choice between direct (more practical) and indirect (more reflective and often more enduring) leadership, and a paradox-the direct leaders often lack knowledge while the indirect leaders often have greater knowledge, and transferring knowledge from the indirect leader to the direct leader may be one of the central challenges and opportunities of the 21st Century.
Rating: 
Summary: Well written, but disappointing...
Review: Leadership studies are, in the main, disappointing, because they usually catalogue the things that leaders do, or should do-and thus become laundry lists of desirable habits, traits or competencies. Alternatively, leadership studies focus on a list great men, with a woman or two thrown in, and we hope that by studying their success, we can learn about leadership. In this sense, then, Gardner's book continues a tradition that disappoints. This is not to say his essays in creative and gifted leaders are not interesting-although some are not interesting, such as the portrait of Alfred P. Sloan of GM-or that his list of desirable leadership traits is off base. Gardner does attempt to say things that other leadership writers do not-such as the need for the leader to create a unifying "story," and how the audience (or "followers") affects the leader's range of capabilities. At the end of the book, however, you have had a whole bag of leadership popcorn, and still are hungry.
Rating:
Summary: Well written, but disappointing...
Review: Leadership studies are, in the main, disappointing, because they usually catalogue the things that leaders do, or should do-and thus become laundry lists of desirable habits, traits or competencies. Alternatively, leadership studies focus on a list great men, with a woman or two thrown in, and we hope that by studying their success, we can learn about leadership. In this sense, then, Gardner's book continues a tradition that disappoints. This is not to say his essays in creative and gifted leaders are not interesting-although some are not interesting, such as the portrait of Alfred P. Sloan of GM-or that his list of desirable leadership traits is off base. Gardner does attempt to say things that other leadership writers do not-such as the need for the leader to create a unifying "story," and how the audience (or "followers") affects the leader's range of capabilities. At the end of the book, however, you have had a whole bag of leadership popcorn, and still are hungry.
Rating: 
Summary: Story of how one mind influences others.
Review: Leading Minds explores the critical and often overlooked component of leadership -- the mind. What distinguishes the mind of an effective leader, and what is the mentality of his or her followers? Gardner links the study of creativity and leadership to demonstrate the many similarities between traditional creators (artists and scientists) and leaders in other domains.
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