A Passion for Leadership: Lessons on Change and Reform from Fifty Years of Public Service
by Robert M. Gates
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Business. Nonfiction. HTML:From the former secretary of defense and author of the acclaimed #1 best-selling memoir Duty, a characteristically direct, informed, and urgent assessment of why big institutions are failing us and how smart, committed leadership can effect real improvement regardless of scale.Across the realms of civic and private enterprise alike, bureaucracies vitally impact our security, freedoms, and everyday life. With so much at stake, competence, efficiency, and fiscal show more prudence are essential, yet Americans know these institutions fall short. Many despair that they are too big and too hard to reform.
Robert Gates disagrees. Having led change successfully at three monumental organizations—the CIA, Texas A&M University, and the Department of Defense—he offers us the ultimate insider's look at how major bureaus, organizations, and companies can be transformed, which is by turns heartening and inspiring and always instructive.
With practical, nuanced advice on tailoring reform to the operative culture (we see how Gates worked within the system to increase diversity at Texas A&M); effecting change within committees; engaging the power of compromise ("In the real world of bureaucratic institutions, you almost never get all you want when you want it"); and listening and responding to your team, Gates brings the full weight of his wisdom, candor, and devotion to civic duty to inspire others to lead desperately needed change.
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A Passion for Leadership: Lessons on Change and Reform from Fifty Years of Public Service by Robert M. Gates is a non-fiction book in which Mr. Gates talks about transforming large organizations from the inside. Mr. Gates has previously been Directory of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), president of Texas A & M University, as well as Secretary of Defense.
Robert Gates is one of those people that when I see them speak on TV, or hear them on radio/podcasts, I always stop and pay attention to what they have to say. When I saw A Passion for Leadership: Lessons on Change and Reform from Fifty Years of Public Service by Robert M. Gates I knew that I had to pick it show more up and check out what Mr. Gates has to say.
I was not disappointed, the book is a tell all narrative on how to manage and implement change in vast organizations. Mr. Gates builds a narrative which is not only full of substance, but an interesting read and flowing narrative.
Mr. Gates has taken leadership jobs in large bureaucracies, each job broadened his responsibilities and understanding of management and change. I was fascinated, but not surprised, to learn that the politics at the University of Texas A&M are just as vicious as they are in Washington DC.
Mr. Gates talks about being the only government official who, in his job as Secretary of Defense, transitioned from the administration of George W. Bush to the one under Barak Obama. Mr. Gates tells fascinating stories about the powerful people he had dealt with, while negotiating egos and world problems.
Mr. Gates does not only talks about problems, but also offers solutions which would reflect well on employees at all levels, in all industries. Even though this book talks about issues at large organizations, at very high levels, I found it not only readable, but also highly relatable. show less
A Passion for Leadership: Lessons on Change and Reform from Fifty Years of Public Service by Robert M. Gates is a non-fiction book in which Mr. Gates talks about transforming large organizations from the inside. Mr. Gates has previously been Directory of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), president of Texas A & M University, as well as Secretary of Defense.
Robert Gates is one of those people that when I see them speak on TV, or hear them on radio/podcasts, I always stop and pay attention to what they have to say. When I saw A Passion for Leadership: Lessons on Change and Reform from Fifty Years of Public Service by Robert M. Gates I knew that I had to pick it show more up and check out what Mr. Gates has to say.
I was not disappointed, the book is a tell all narrative on how to manage and implement change in vast organizations. Mr. Gates builds a narrative which is not only full of substance, but an interesting read and flowing narrative.
Mr. Gates has taken leadership jobs in large bureaucracies, each job broadened his responsibilities and understanding of management and change. I was fascinated, but not surprised, to learn that the politics at the University of Texas A&M are just as vicious as they are in Washington DC.
Mr. Gates talks about being the only government official who, in his job as Secretary of Defense, transitioned from the administration of George W. Bush to the one under Barak Obama. Mr. Gates tells fascinating stories about the powerful people he had dealt with, while negotiating egos and world problems.
Mr. Gates does not only talks about problems, but also offers solutions which would reflect well on employees at all levels, in all industries. Even though this book talks about issues at large organizations, at very high levels, I found it not only readable, but also highly relatable. show less
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- Nonfiction, Business, Politics and Government, General Nonfiction, Biography & Memoir, History
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