On Becoming A Leader
"We find it's always better to fire people on a Friday. Studies have statistically shown that there's less chance of an incident if you do it at the end of the week." —Bob Slydell, Office Space
We resurrected this site just over a year ago. Like a Phoenix, that mythical firebird in Patrick Lencioni's short fables, inBubbleWrap gloriously arose from it's own ashes, took on a human form, and spread business books like seeds to the four corners of these United States (except in Hawaii, Alaska and, strangely, Arkansas—where state lottery laws forbid our offers. What do you have against Ram Charan, Arkansas?).
We started this site back up again in an attempt to give away each of the books reviewed in Jack and Todd's 100 Best Business Books of All Time. We weren't able to get them all, but the ones we could get, we have given away. All except for today's offer, Warren Bennis's On Becoming a Leader.
For those unfamiliar with his work, Warren Bennis is the giant that so many of today's authors stand on. Bennis helped change our approach to leadership from a Spartan, factory discipline to an Athenian, innovative democracy. He is widely credited with creating the field of leadership theory, and his On Becoming a Leader, first published in 1989 when he was in his sixties, is one of his more gracious gifts to the field. In it, he writes about leadership as creativity:
[N]o leader sets out to be a leader per se, but rather to express him- or herself freely and fully. hat is, leaders have no interest in proving themselves, but an abiding interest in expressing themselves. The difference is crucial, for it's the difference between being driven, as too many people are today, and leading, as too few people do.
Knowing that leadership isn't a hard science that can be taught formulaically, he consistently quotes philosophers and artists in his attempt to get at the heart of what leadership is. "More leaders have been made by accident, circumstance, sheer grit, or will than have been made by all the leadership courses put together."
On Becoming a Leader Page 34
Bennis writes of leadership: "People wanted The Truth, and I was giving them opinions. To an extent, leadership is like beauty: it's hard to define, but you know it when you see it." (Potter Stewart would probably say that it's like pornography in that way.)
As I mentioned earlier, this is the last of The 100 Best we have to give away, and with that comes the end of my time writing here. (And, in an odd twist of fate, today is the book's first birthday.) I will be handing over the curator duties of this site to our resident wordsmith, Sally Haldorson, next week. You're going to love Sally. She's not only a great writer and loving mother, she lacks the octogenarian grandfather's sense of humor I inflict on you. For the foreseeable future, she will be offering some of the 800-CEO-READ Business Book Award winners from the past two years as we work out a more long-term approach to the site.
As for me... I will be focusing more on ChangeThis, which you will begin to see large changes to as early as next week. I will be keeping up a blog over there if you'd like to visit me, and will continue to contribute to our daily blog as well. You can also follow the recently created ChangeThis twitter account, though I'm afraid I've been posting there as sporadically as I have been here so far. (Hey, man, I'm busy... a mover and shaker. I've got moves to make, dishes to do.)
It's been a great pleasure to curate books this last year for you all... a very self-indulgent one. When I've been able to update the offers, it's been more of an escape than a job, and I appreciate that you've afforded me that escape with no complaint or open revolt.
Much love and many more free business books to you. I'm leaving on a Friday to avoid an incident but, unlike most places, I want you to take something with you. Next week, Sally will be telling you what it is. Today, it is On Becoming a Leader by Warren Bennis.
We have 25 copies available.
Sorry! This offer has expired. Check out today's offer instead.
