Leading Minds : An Anatomy Of Leadership

Drawing on his groundbreaking work on intelligence and creativity, Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner, developer of the theory of Multiple Intelligences, offers fascinating revelations about the mind of the leader and his or her followers. He identifies six constant features of leadership as well as paradoxes that must be resolved for leadership to be effective using portraits of leaders from J. Robert Oppenheimer to Alfred P. Sloan, from Pope John XXIII to Mahatma Gandhi. Despite a rapidly changing world, leadership remains crucially important in institutions ranging from schools to nations. Much of what is beneficent in the world has been inspired by farsighted leaders, even as many of the horrors of the world have been wrought by leaders who, while perhaps equally gifted, have used their powers destructively. This study helps explain what leadership entails, from a psychological perspective, and why skilled, constructive leadership has not proved easy to come by in closing the years of the twentieth century. The final pages contain suggestions about how effective leadership might be fostered in the future. The text presents, in 3 parts, 11 examples of leadership. Part 1, "A Framework for Leadership," is divided into 3 sections: "Introduction: A Cognitive Approach to Leadership"; "Human Development and Leadership"; and "The Leaders' Stories." Part 2 includes 9 of the 11 case studies of the 20th century leaders: "Margaret Mead: An Observer of Diverse Cultures Educates Her Own"; "J. Robert Oppenheimer: The Teaching of Physics, the Lessons of Politics"; "Robert Maynard Hutchins: Bringing 'The Higher Learning' to America"; "Alfred P. Sloan, Jr.: The Business of America"; "George C. Marshall: The Embodiment of the Good Soldier"; "Pope John XXII: Rediscovering the Spirit of the Church"; "Eleanor Roosevelt: Ordinariness and Extraordinariness"; "Martin Luther King, Jr.: Leading in a Rapidly Changing Environment"; "Margaret Thatcher: A Clear Sense of Identity" and finishes with "A Generation of World Leaders." Part 3, "Conclusion: Leadership That Looks Forward," includes the final case studies, "Jean Monnet and Mahatma Gandhi: Leadership beyond National Boundaries," and a summary, "Lessons from the Past, Implications for the Future." Appendices include: (1) "The Eleven Leaders Viewed along the Principal Dimensions of Leadership" and (2) "The Leaders of the Second World War." (Includes a name index, a subject index, and approximately 375 references.) (AA) "While much has been written on the subject, a crucial component of leadership has been largely ignored: the mind of the leader and the minds of his or her followers. Linking the study of creativity and leadership, Gardner demonstrates the strong tie between traditional creators (artists and scientists) and leaders in the realms of business, politics, and the military.". "Gardner claims that the key to leadership is the creation and embodiment of an effective story. He argues that unless they're working with specialists, leaders must deal with the "unschooled mind." They must take into account the fundamental theories about the world that all of us acquire as children and that persist through life - even when those theories are later undermined by what we learn in school. In striking portraits of a wide range of leaders - from J. Robert Oppenheimer to Alfred P. Sloan, from Margaret Mead to Pope John XXIII to Mahatma GandhiGardner recreates the leaders' stories and depicts the struggles among rival stories that occur in the minds of an audience. He explains the overwhelming appeal of simplistic stories and enumerates the key moves needed to counter that appeal. He also describes the ways in which all leaders ultimately confront failure.". "In a powerful conclusion, Gardner identifies the six constant features of leadership, six trends that complexify leadership in our time, and the paradoxes that must be resolved for leadership to be effective."--BOOK JACKET. "Pioneering psychologist and education expert Howard Gardner applies a cognitive lens to leadership identifying one of its crucial but long neglected components: the minds of leaders and the people who follow them ... Shows how effective leaders create and embody new stories that wrestle successfully with stories that already populate the minds of their followers. Gardner imposes his highly original framework on a wide spectrum of leaders from Manhattan Project director J. Robert Oppenheimer to Pope John XXIII to offer fascinating revelations about the messages and the methods of eleven remarkable leaders."--Page 4 of cover Pt. 1. A Framework For Leadership -- Part 2. Case Studies : From Domains To Nations -- Part 3. Conclusion : Leadership That Looks Forward. Howard Gardner ; In Collaboration With Emma Laskin. Includes Bibliographical References And Indexes. Mode Of Access: World Wide Web. The Man Who Revolutionized Our Understanding Of Intelligence And Creativity In Such Books As Frames Of Mind And Creating Minds Now Does The Same For Leadership. Illustrations. At the end of November 1943, three men, already figures of historical significance, met in Tehran, the capital of Iran.