Every once in awhile a leadership book is published that is easily read and pertains to both management executives and student leaders alike. What Makes Great Leaders Great: Management Lessons from Icons Who Changed the World by Frank Arnold profiles important leadership lessons from 56 iconic individuals, including Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Barack Obama, and Benjamin Franklin.
The book is divided into three sections, including Managing Organizations, Managing Innovation, and Managing People. Each two to four page chapter is dedicated to a different individual and provides a short biography of that person. The leadership lesson is presented along with a final bulleted Action Points and Food for Thought that is intended to provoke discussion related to your own organization. Some of the lessons include: Demand Effective Management (Warren Buffet), Innovate Systematically (Thomas Edison), Embody Integrity (General George Marshall), and Create Trust (Levi Strauss).
What Makes Great Leaders Great is an excellent resource that can be easily incorporated into student leader training or as a text in a leadership development class. The book is versatile in that various chapters can be assigned and discussed without having to read the entire book. Lessons from chapters can be easily incorporated into meeting discussions and for staff development activities.