Review: Leadership

Citation

Mann, S. (2003), "Review: Leadership", Measuring Business Excellence, Vol. 7 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/mbe.2003.26707cae.007

Review: Leadership

Review: Leadership

Rudolph GiulianiLittle and Brown2002£16.99 (UK)

Rudolph Giuliani, the former Mayor of New York, is a name forever linked to the 11 September attack on the Twin Towers and as such, needs little introduction. Indeed, the cover of this book consists entirely and simply of a photograph of the man himself, against a Manhattan skyline. Blazened across his chest are the words "Giuliani leadership" and it was only after studying this cover for some time that I realized that the book was not actually promoting a new style of leadership – "Giuliani leadership" – but rather the book was entitled Leadership by Giuliani. However, I think the confusion created is intentional and, given the way he inspired so many New Yorkers (and indeed, others around the world) with his management of the crisis in his city, I could not help but feel that openly branding his insights as "Giuliani leadership" would have been perfectly acceptable. The publishers did not seem to have the courage to do this, perhaps fearing a backlash against appearing to cash in on the terrible events of 9/11. Instead, they plumped for the much blander title of Leadership but try to offset this by coupling this dull title with the rather more evocative name.

The title aside, there will indeed be many who may feel that Rudolph Giuliani is selling his ideas on the back of a world-changing tragedy. Certainly, my first thought when this arrived on my desk just over a year later was "that was pretty quick". I felt that using the Twin Tower attacks to present Mayor Giuliani's views on leadership was rather distasteful. But, on reading the book, I realized two things; firstly that Giuliani had already been writing his autobiography long before 9/11 and secondly, that his work and leadership go way beyond the events of September 2001. In fact, only a small proportion of the book actually deals with these events, with the rest covering other more run-of-the-mill mayoral incidents.

Undoubtedly, however, people will buy the book because of Giuliani's intimate connection with the World Trade Center attacks. Indeed, Mayor Giuliani arrived at the World Trade Center shortly after the second plane hit and came close to being killed himself when the south tower collapsed. Leadership opens with Giuliani's riveting hour-by-hour account of that day as panic and chaos threatened to overwhelm the city. As he reveals his decision-making processes as he handled one crisis after another, from the devastating loss of life in the initial attacks, to the new terror inflicted by the anthrax mailings, Giuliani gives an insight into how he was so well-prepared to take on so many critical roles, to offer reassuring confidence, to communicating with the public to help calm their panic and to getting all the key people and institutions working together. Basically, the leadership skills that enabled him to cope with such events were developed from the management theories he honed and abided by during his two terms as mayor and previous work as a US attorney – and it is these that he shares with us throughout the rest of the text.

Leadership is divided into three parts, with parts 1 and 3 being single chapters devoted to the events of 11 September 2001. Part 2, the bulk of the book, constitutes 14 chapters each of which is themed around a management statement that make up Guiliani's approach to leadership. Some of these statements are rather cliched, like "prepare relentlessly", and "develop and communicate strong beliefs", but apply to a wide range of leadership situations, whilst others are rather more unusual, such as "weddings discretionary, funerals mandatory" (referring to the lesson Guiliani learned of "showing up for the hard stuff" – a rule that he followed so much that he admits to being better able to deal with the difficult times in people's lives which no doubt stood him in good stead after 11 September) and may not be so easy to apply if you are not mayor of a major city – or at least CEO of a large organization.

Within each chapter, there are sub-headings which further proclaim additional rules of leadership such as "always sweat the small stuff", "visualize things for yourself", and "hear people out". Throughout, Guiliani recalls episodes in his life when his leadership qualities were molded and tested. As such, the text is liberally sprinkled with fascinating anecdotes that give a rare insight into life as a US attorney and into city and US politics. Whilst many of his stories (for example, the time when Yasser Arafat turned up uninvited to a United Nations anniversary event) are likely to hold the interest of an international audience, some (such as the detailed description of a crime reduction system called Compstat) might be of less interest to readers outside of New York.

In summary, Leadership should not really be regarded as a management text or a "how-to" book; it is first and foremost an autobiography, but one that is likely to be inspirational for any leaders or aspiring leaders. Managers who aim to be great leaders, and those who run (or aspire to run) large conglomerates are likely to gain the most from this book, but anyone who wants to see inside the mind of an undoubtedly great modern leader, cannot fail to be enthralled and inspired.

Sandi MannUniversity of Central Lancashire, England