Complexity and Uncertainty: How to Lead in Turbulent Times

by David L. Dotlich

240 pages, Hardcover

First published April 6, 2009

Reviews

[E · Rating 4 out of 5]

Contemporary executives have more to manage than leaders did at any time in the past. They’re like plate spinners, juggling to keep all their firms’ interests – customers, employees, investors, regulators, suppliers and the environment – from crashing to the ground. David L. Dotlich, Peter C. Cairo and Stephen H. Rhinesmith bring years of leadership expertise – and the results of 20 interviews with senior executives about 21st-century management – to this examination of leading in a “complex, diverse and uncertain” world. Clearly, the old command-and-control, problem-solving, analytical ways of piloting a firm are out; what’s in and crucial is a new leadership model combining the strengths of leaders’ “head, heart and guts.” While occasionally repetitive and trite, this informative book includes useful end-of-chapter questions, plus helpful graphics about preparing yourself and your team to be “whole leaders.” getAbstract recommends this text as a practical addition to the libraries of seasoned executives, middle managers and those climbing the corporate ladder into the future of business. Just be aware that, as one expert in the book cautions, you “can spend decades climbing the ladder – only to realize too late” that you “have placed it against the wrong wall.”