Product Description

Success often depends on the strength of a single quality: leadership. Winston Churchill is universally recognized as one of the 20th century's great political leaders and his words ring just as true in the world of commerce. A wise, witty, and inspiring leader, Churchill ran Great Britain like a great corporation.

"Perhaps the finest book on practical leadership ever written." — Brian Tracy

Churchill on Leadership demonstrates that the principles that guided Churchill ably translate to private industry today. Author Steven F. Hayward gives strong evidence that, if you remove Churchill from his political context, he would have the resume to be among the great business leaders of any age. Churchill:
• was a financier (as chancellor of the Exechequer) and labor negotiator (as home secretary)
• managed a large transportation network (as head of the British Navy) and far-flung property holdings (as colonial secretary)
• persevered through bankruptcies and other financial disasters
• conceived and introduced innovative new products over the opposition of his colleagues, and reorganized major production operations in the midst of crisis.
With wit and insight, Hayward reveals Churchill's secrets for business success from assembling and inspiring a first-rate team to preparing a wise budget, from communicating a vision to structuring effective meetings, from acting decisively to rebounding from a failure. Laced with epochal events from the historical stage, enlivened with stimulating speculation, and leavened with wit, Churchill on Leadership is both an enjoyable read and a thought-provoking lesson on leadership.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #297436 in Books
• Published on: 1998-10
• Released on: 1998-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Amazon.com Review
Scotch and cigars are making a popular comeback, so perhaps the time is ripe for the 20th century's most famous scotch-drinking and cigar-smoking leader to do the same. In the vein of the best-selling book Lincoln on Leadership, Steven F. Hayward looks at the much-studied Winston Churchill in a way nobody has before. Although Churchill on Leadership is pitched to a business audience, its lessons have a wider resonance. Churchill, of course, is best remembered as a political figure and wartime hero. Anybody who aspires to leadership can profit from this book, whether it's in the boardroom or the Oval Office.

From Booklist
Analyzing leadership is difficult; its definition is elusive. Writers usually resort to identifying someone they perceive as being an effective leader and then select various attributes the individual possesses, suggesting that others would do well to emulate them. This method has recently been applied to leaders as diverse as Attila the Hun and Mahatma Gandhi. Hayward chooses Winston Churchill, a figure who occupies the continuum somewhere between those two examples. The author is a director at the Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy, a think tank devoted to free enterprise and individual rights, and a frequent contributor to Reason, the magazine dedicated to "free minds and free markets." In selecting Churchill, Hayward provides numerous examples of the statesman's candor and plainspokenness, decisiveness, historical imagination, and ability to balance overview with attention to detail. David Rouse

Review
"Perhaps the finest book on practical leadership ever written."
? Brian Tracy
"Winston Churchill once said, 'We are all worms. But I do believe that I am a glow worm.' His business acumen, grounded in candor, glows in this uncommon management guide."
? Cathy Madison, Utne Reader
"This book is must reading for today's business leaders and entrepreneurs."
? Fred W. Mackenback, retired president and CEO, The Lincoln Electric Company
"Churchill on Leadership demonstrates that the principles that guided Churchill ably translate to private industry today . . . [I]f you remove Churchill from his political context, he would have the résumé to be among the great business leaders of any age."
? Business Times -- Review

Customer Reviews

A manager's opinion
I have been a manager for over 10 years, and have worked in different industries and different countries. And I gladly admit I still have a lot to learn concerning management. This book talks about concepts we know we should all be applying, such as learning from mistakes, responsibility and organization, attention to details as well as to a master plan, communication, etc. However understanding how Churchill put these concepts to work is fascinating. I did not know that much about Churchill in the first place, perhaps that is why I enjoyed the book so much. It is a nice change from CEOs' biographies. And yes, I am putting some of what I read to work, so it was worth my time and money !

The First Step in the Huge Churchill Lexicon
I read this book without having known anything about Chruchill, as a lesson on leadership under stress. I learned a lot, but I also became very interested in the man. He is fasinating and very brave. I'm very gald I read this book.

The main idea is to study how Churchill made his leadership decicions, and what the reason for that decision was. It's an informative study of the man, and even funny at times. It's always entertaining, but somewhat short of a great story (so 4 stars).

By all means read this book. It's a great way to begin to learn about Churchill, aside from the 3 or 6 volume works available at the bookstore. It's also a good study on decision making based on principles and honest living, strength, and forward thinking. There are good lessons here as well a good reading. I recommend it highly.

A new perspective brings Churchill to life
Steven Hayward uses a new perspective to illuminate the achievements of Winston Churchill. Even though we all know of Churchill as a great leader, he has become such a titanic figure that in some respects his human dimension has been lost. Hayward recaptures this, particularly the drive, the self-confidence and the persistence in the face of adversity. Also, because he is British, we tend to see him in a cigar and brandy snifter environment. Hayward shows that he was a thoroughly modern man, once of whose accomplishments was as an outstanding hands on leader and administrator, with, among other things, the ability to make decisions of great weight with only partial information - the conversion of the British fleet to oil before World War I being only one of them. I was thrilled once again at Churchill's eloquence, courage, foresight and determination. I agree with one of the other reviews that the blurbs at the end of each chapter are a bit trivial, but that is, itself, a trivial criticism. This is an outstanding book, easy to read, and one that will stay with you as a "biography" of Churchill more than a management manual.