How Great Leaders Think: The Art of Reframing

The proven model that offers powerful and elegant strategies for leaders

How Great Leaders Think: the Art of Reframing uses compelling, contemporary examples to show how more complex thinking is the key to better leadership. Leaders who understand what’s going on around them see what they need to do to achieve the results they want. Bolman and Deal’s influential four-frame model of leadership and organizations—developed in their bestselling book, Reframing Organizations: Artistry Choice and Leadership—offers leaders an accessible guide for understanding four major aspects of organizational life: structure, people, politics, and culture. Tapping into the complexity enables leaders to decode the messy world in which they live, see more options, tell better stories, and find strategies that are more effective. Case examples of leaders like Jeff Bezos at Amazon, Howard Schultz at Starbucks, Tony Hsieh at Zappos, Ursula Burns at Xerox, and the late Steve Jobs at Apple provide concrete lessons that readers can put to use in their own leadership. The book’s lessons include:

• How to use structural tools to organize teams and organizations for better results
• How to build motivation and morale by aligning organizations and people
• How to map the terrain and build a power base to navigate the political dynamics in organizations
• How to develop a leadership story that shapes culture, provides direction, and inspires commitment to excellence

Table of Contents

Part 1: Leadership in Four Dimensions
Chapter 1: Introduction: The Power of Reframing

Part 2: Structural Leadership
Chapter 2: Getting Organized
Chapter 3: Organizing Groups and Teams

Part 3: Human Resource Leadership
Chapter 4: Leading People
Chapter 5: Seeing Ourselves as Others See Us

Part 4: Political Leadership
Chapter 6: The Leader as Politician
Chapter 7: The Leader as Warrior and Peacemaker

Part 5: Symbolic Leadership
Chapter 8: The Leader as Magician
Chapter 9: Seeking Soul in Teams

Part 6: Improving Leadership Practice
Chapter 10: Reframing in Action
Chapter 11: Images of Leadership: Can Crooked Kites Fly?
Chapter 12: Leadership and Change
Chapter 13: Searching for Soul: Leadership Ethics
Chapter 14: Great Leaders, Great Stories

Appendix: Leadership Orientations