The 60 Second Leader

Author:         Phil Dourado
Published:     2007
Publisher:     Wiley India Pvt. Ltd.
Paperback:    180 pages
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Is it possible to compile quotes, concepts, references on leadership in a book without making it look like a dictionary or an encyclopedia ? Yes it is and that's what the author Phil Dourado a leadership consultant has precisely done.
He has dived into  oceans of books, theories and courses on leadership to extract 30 pearls of leadership wisdom and offers them to the readers in a very concise (less than 200 pages) book.


The book is divided into five sections, each having a chapter dedicated to one essential element of leadership.

1. Personal (Self) Leadership: 
• Failure, Intuition, Decision, Connection, Luck, Optimism.
2. Leading the Organization:   
• Strategy, Competition, Action, Execution, Management, Change.
3. Leading People:
• Questions, Attention, Stories, Motivation, Engagement, Targets.
4. Distributed Leadership: 
• Innovation, Culture, Leading from the middle, Customers, Frontline leadership.                                                     
5. Great Leadership:
• Ego, Humility, Fear, Love, Presence, Legacy 

Each chapter contains the gist of  the views of several leaders (mostly business leaders) regarding  the element discussed, recommendations for further reading and an appropriate leadership story. 

Most of the chapters also have a precise definitions of useful  concepts like - The Tripping Point, Thin Slicing, OODA Loops, Network Leadership,  System Dynamics,  Epiphany, The Attention Economy,  MBSA (Management by Storying Around), The Law of Great Expectations, Goodhart's Law, The 360 Degree Leader, Transformational Leadership, Presencing etc.

If you are too busy to read everything you need to read on leadership, this is the ONE BOOK which you should read !

To get a feel of what lies in store for you between the covers of this book, you can visit the following link maintained by the author at his website (www.phildourado.com):  Sample extracts from The 60 Second Leader  

I borrowed this book from a library but I intend to buy it at the earliest (at less than  Rs 200/- (about $4) it is a  real steal !) so that I can have a handy leadership advisor whom I can consult from time to time.