Product Description

Phillips present a riveting account of how the leadership and management skills America's founding fathers used during the Revolutionary War can translate into great success in corporate America.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #71344 in Books
• Published on: 1998-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Amazon.com Review
When America aspired to break free from Britain, the real-life David-and-Goliath situation required that a full-blown cadre of dynamic leaders arise immediately from the revolutionary populace. As history shows, it did. Now, Donald T. Phillips--writer, speaker, and mayor of Fairview, Texas--uses those events to suggest ways that today's businesspeople can likewise overcome tough odds and achieve success. Goal-setting, communication, and risk-taking, Phillips writes in The Founding Fathers on Leadership: Classic Teamwork in Changing Times, are just a few of the traits to be learned by studying Washington, Jefferson, and their colleagues.

From Library Journal
Plumbing the depths of history for insight and inspiration is a common practice in management and leadership books, with varying success, as these two titles illustrate. Dunnigan, the author of over a dozen war-related books (e.g., Digital Soldiers, LJ 10/1/96), and software executive Masterson review the business practices and techniques of 12 famous military leaders?Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Charlemagne, Genghis Khan, Edward III, Gustavus Adolphus, Frederick the Great, Napoleon, Ulysses Grant, Douglas MacArthur, George Patton, and Norman Schwarzkopf. Chapters, arranged by leader, include a brief, all-too-casual biography of each, followed by the challenges they faced and the solutions they enacted. Opening and closing chapters try to put the techniques described into a modern perspective, but many of the solutions offered, such as the ruthlessness of Genghis Khan, should have no place in today's corporate culture. Phillips (Lincoln on Leadership, Warner, 1992) uses such Revolutionary War figures as Washington, Jefferson, Paine, Franklin, and John Adams to illuminate concepts of management. Unlike Dunnigan and Masterson, he organizes his chapters by theme, e.g., "Inspire the Masses," "Build Strong Alliances"?using these historical figures and their words where appropriate to illustrate a point. Phillips also provides a bibliography for further reading. While Dunnigan and Masterson's work is not recommended, academic and large public libraries should consider Phillips.?Michael R. Leach, Harvard Univ.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

The best LEADERSHIP book I've ever read!
WOW...Get this book! I bought it for the leadership principles, and got caught up in the American Revolution! Phillips shows how Washington, Paine, Franklin, Madison, and the other American heroes plotted and executed the revolution-against all odds. How they set their goals, inspired the masses, turned cowardice into courage, and forged a team of patriots that withstood British onslaughts, freezing weather, and a host of other obstacles that would have stopped normal men in their tracks. But these were not normal men! They were inspired LEADERS-dedicated to the cause of freedom. And they used every leadership principle imaginable to pull off their revolution. Find out HOW they did it! If you want to become a leader in your business, community, or church, read this book! If you want to fall in love with your country, buy a copy of The Founding Fathers On Leadership-and be prepared to order more copies for your friends!

A Legacy of "Unselfish, Genuine Leadership"
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book while learning a great deal from it as Phillips examines the lives and recorded thoughts of those who, "individually and collectively, stepped forward to lead the way" to creating an entirely new nation. "They did so, in part, because they realized from profound change spring new opportunities -- and this was a time when there would be a chance for them to make something happen." Why did their leadership prevail? "Because they understood human nature, they knew that major change is more evolution than revolution; that tyranny and dictatorship are contradictory to the rights of the individual; and that leadership, in and of itself, is actually in harmony with human nature."

After an especially well-written Introduction, Phillips organizes his material within four Parts: Preparing for the Revolution, Mobilizing and Motivating, Winning the War, and finally, After the Revolution. At the beginning of each of the book's 15 chapters, he identifies "team leaders" who personify the qualities of leadership examined in that chapter; then at the end of each chapter, he provides a summary of key points, "The Founding Fathers on Leadership." Phillips is perhaps most eloquent when, in the Epilogue, he observes: "Clearly the founding fathers cleverly and shrewdly designed democracy to foster the art and process of leadership. And in the final analysis, the principles of leadership are nothing less than the principles of humanity: treating people with respect and dignity; raising awareness; creating a vision and involving others; bonding together through alliances and teamwork; risking all; learning from mistakes; refusing to lose; inspiring rather than coercing; listening; compromising; caring; ever changing and ever achieving."

Throughout his book, Phillips includes hundreds of specific examples of these qualities of leadership as they are revealed in the recorded thoughts, feelings, and (especially) the actions of the various founding fathers. He recalls many memorable moments such as when (in 1796) Washington stopped at Valley Forge one last time en route to Mount Vernon and encountered a farmer named Woodman, a veteran of the Continental Army who had also endured the harsh winter at Valley Forge. According to Phillips' account, the farmer greeted his former commander. Of course, no one knows what was said but it can be assumed that each had special significance for the other when meeting at what has since become a national shrine.

There are hundreds (thousands?) of books about "leadership" now available and countless more yet to be written. The best of them, by assertion or by implication, focus on many of the same values which Phillips reveals in such abundance among the founding fathers. To his credit, Phillips suggests rather than imposes the correlations he sees between leaders of the American Revolution and those who most effectively lead organizations in the 21st century. Obviously, their respective circumstances are substantially different in many respects but all of them share certain basic values previously indicated. Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to consult the remarkably eclectic "Bibliography" which Phillips provides. To those works I presume add the separate biographies of John Adams by Ellis and McCullough as well as Ferling's Setting the World Ablaze and O'Toole's The Executive Compass.

Good Book
Probably the best part of this book is Phillips reenactment of the revolutionary war. I really feel I learned something about the war and its leaders (particularly Washington). All in all this book is put together just as well as Lincoln On Leadership though I didn't find myself completely glued to this one like I was to Lincoln on Leadership. I found the stories (and the subject) more interesting in his Lincoln book. Phillips also seemed more able to nail down his lessons on leadership in his Lincoln book. I recommend this one, but if you have to choose, buy Lincoln On Leadership. It's one of the best books ever written on leadership.