HISTORY LESSONS
What business and management can learn from the great leaders of history
Jonathan Gifford

History Lessons: an exploration of the leadership skills and personal qualities of some of the great leaders from history.

Modern organisations need great leadership – not only from the chief executive officer or their equivalent, but at every level of management. Leadership in the twenty-first century is arguably more important than management, since high calibre management skills are now a basic ingredient of every modern operation: what sets the truly successful organisation ahead of its competitors is the quality of its leadership.

The personal qualities and abilities that great leaders possess cannot be taught in the same way that the skills and techniques of good management can be taught. Leadership is an intensely human activity, and great leaders come in many different shapes and guises. Nevertheless, a study of the lives of these great leaders from history can supply the guidance and, above all, the inspiration that can help us to become better leaders in our chosen fields.

History Lessons examines what it was that set the great leaders of history apart from their contemporaries and enabled their dramatic successes. The book’s chapters explore core aspects of leadership, such as Boldness of Vision, Changing the Mood, Bringing People with You and Taking the Offensive. The leaders themselves have been drawn from the beginning of recorded history to the present day and from many different nations and cultures: Pericles of Athens and Nelson Mandela; Elizabeth I of England and Abraham Lincoln; Napoleon Bonaparte and George S. Patton; Horatio Nelson and Chiang Kai Shek.

The lessons to be learned from these great leaders are rich and varied. They throw the light of two thousand years of human experience on the leadership issues of today. Any reader who is called upon to lead in any sphere of endeavour – from the chief executive of a large corporation to the organiser of a local charity; from a head teacher to a team leader in middle management – will find History Lessons an inspiring and thought-provoking read.

ISBN 9780462099361