The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell

I just finished reading The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell (Oren Harari, McGraw-Hill, 2002). That's not my usual kind of reading matter — for some reason, I have never been attracted to biographies. However, this was recommended by Bill Hybels (of the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit) when he interviewed Powell in 2007 on his approach to leadership. The interview was really good, and the book kind of hovered on my radar until I bought it recently (together with another leadership book based on Winston Churchill — as you can see, I'm trying to deal with my biography-phobia!).

Well, it turns out that the Powell book is really good! To be more accurate, it is not so much a biography as a leadership book based on the life and experience of Powell, who has had a remarkably successful career as a leader by any standards. In Harari's words: "The lessons in this book constitute a clear strategic, philosophical, value-based, and ethical blueprint by which Powell leads". Some of the discussion is (understandably) somewhat militaristic, but Harari does a good job of bringing the principles out.

A great quote from Powell himself, which sums up his leadership philosophy rather well: "Leadership is not rank, privilege, titles, or money. It is responsibility".

I think I sense another StaffDev series coming on!

Link to the book on Kalahari.net.