Who is the author of The Leadership Moment?

The author of The Leadership Moment is Michael Useem.

Management & Leadership

The Leadership Moment Book Summary - The Leadership Moment Book explained in key points

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The Leadership Moment summary

Name: The Leadership Moment
Rating: 3.9 (36 reviews)
Author: Michael Useem

Michael Useem

Nine True Stories of Triumph and Disaster and Their Lessons for Us All

3.9 (36 ratings)

12 mins

Brief summary

The Leadership Moment by Michael Useem is a business book that features high-stake leadership stories and insights that can inform aspiring and practicing leaders. It underscores the importance of taking action and making critical decisions in difficult situations.

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Leadership

Table of Contents

The Leadership Moment
Summary of 5 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 5

What’s in it for me? Get inspired to take on leadership challenges.

Think about your experiences at work or in the community: are there times when you or someone else had to take the lead in important decisions? Well, such leadership moments can teach us something important about how to act as leaders. By analyzing the experiences of other leaders in these moments and asking yourself what lessons they teach, you can better anticipate what to do when faced with similar challenges.

In these blinks, we look at nine situations in which one leader was faced with a difficult challenge. The stories are about business leaders, astronauts, leaders of NGOs, civil war generals and mountain climbers, and they all give us insight into how to tackle decision-making in this fluctuating world – insight we can use when facing our own leadership moments.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

how a lack of action almost was the end of financial traders Salomon Inc;
That a lack of communication can be literally fatal; and
what an astronaut can teach us about quick and precise decision-making.

Seek out new challenges to grow your leadership skills.

Are you always on the lookout for new challenges? That’s a good thing. Taking on new responsibilities is usually stressful, and sometimes nightmarish! But it’s a surefire way to gain new skills and experience, which, in turn, prepares you for even more challenges.

For Clifton Wharton, the former US Deputy Secretary of State, challenging assignments were an opportunity to sharpen his skills and enrich his practical knowledge. A development economist, Wharton faced his first landmark challenge when he was elected president of Michigan State University.

In the eight years Wharton spent there, he successfully led and administered the university in spite of its huge campus and vastly complicated systems. When invited to head the State University of New York, Wharton accepted.

The State University of New York had an administration about ten times larger than that of Michigan State, and control was very centralized. But through his experiences at Michigan State and as a board member of large corporations, including Ford Motor Co., Wharton knew that even the largest, most resistant enterprises could be restructured. Again, Wharton was able to leverage lessons learned in previous challenges to solve another and eventually reshaped and improved New York State.

These experiences prepared Wharton for yet another huge challenge as he accepted a job offer from the Teachers Insurance and Annuities Association-College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF), the biggest non-government retirement provider for college and university professors.

With products ranging from retirement planning to life insurance, the TIAA-CREF had a lot on its plate. Clients of the TIAA-CREF were losing patience with their restricted investment options and lack of control over their own retirement funds. When the organization offered Wharton a position, they were in dire need of a solution for their inflexible structure.

In 1987, Wharton took office and began modernizing the state system. He created three top management teams to steer the enterprise while introducing greater autonomy and accountability in customer service. Clients were given access to diverse investment options, greater flexibility in transferring their funds and improved counseling services.

You, too, can immerse yourself in your current role and all the learning opportunities it offers. These will give you the tools to succeed in positions of greater responsibility later on.

Understand and adhere to your vision and values.

When on the hunt for a new job, which positions catch your eye? Probably those offered by companies that have goals similar to your own. Sharing a vision for the future with the organization you work for is also a prerequisite for great leadership, as is a deep understanding of your own values. This is something which Nancy Barry’s career reflects.

As a senior official at the World Bank, Barry was beginning to doubt whether their aid projects for developing countries actually did that much good. So she envisioned an alternative: alleviating poverty and hardship through microfinancing, providing financial and educational services to low-income groups to help them provide for themselves. The World Bank didn’t share this goal, but Women’s World Banking (WWB) did, which is why Barry accepted their job offer.

Stay calm and focused to make the right choice, even when time is tight.

Some leaders find themselves in life-and-death situations, where a failure to make the right choice fast can have devastating consequences. Eugene Kranz was one such leader. His brilliant leadership as the flight director of the Apollo 13 lunar mission shows that a decision made quickly needn’t be a decision made poorly.

In 1970, the spacecraft Odyssey, in flight, suffered an explosion. This was nothing short of a catastrophe – air pressure, electricity and fuel cells were being lost at an alarming rate. The astronauts had to return to Earth as soon as possible. The situation called for rapid action; the team had mere minutes to dash from the command module to the lunar excursion module following the explosion.

Leadership without communication can have disastrous consequences.

Back in 1949, Wagner Dodge was the chief of a 15-man crew of firefighters, working together for the very first time. One day, they were called to Mann Gulch, a rugged area of central Montana; a forest fire was burning. Dodge had vast experience dealing with forest fires. But it was a different story when it came to leading a crew.

A man of few words, Dodge rarely offered appraisals of the situation at hand, nor was he particularly adept at expressing and explaining his decisions. Unfortunately, Dodge’s poor communication skills had fatal consequences at the Mann Gulch fire.

Listen to your team and keep them involved in decision-making to win their support.

It was in 1863 that Colonel Joshua Chamberlain, who commanded the 20th Regiment of Infantry, Maine Volunteers, during the American Civil War, defended and secured Little Round Top, a crucial strategic point in Gettysburg. This would not have been possible without his top-performing army.

Given that a third of Chamberlain’s army were mutineers recently decommissioned from the 2nd Regiment of Maine, you wouldn’t think he’d have a very cohesive force on his hands. And yet, Chamberlain was able to win full cooperation of these mutineers by giving them what they needed: someone to voice their grievances to.

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What is The Leadership Moment about?

In The Leadership Moment (1999) we accompany leaders from a range of different fields on their incredible journeys, and learn, by witnessing their responses to critical challenges, some of the central principles of great leadership. From seeking out new opportunities to winning the trust of your team, these blinks are your guide to leading well in the trickiest of times.

The Leadership Moment Review

The Leadership Moment (1998) is a thought-provoking book that delves into the critical moments that shape great leaders. Here's why this book is worth reading:

Its compelling stories and case studies provide valuable insights into the challenges and decisions faced by leaders in difficult situations.
Through its exploration of real-life leadership events, the book offers practical lessons that can be applied to our own professional and personal lives.
With its focus on character, courage, and integrity, this book reminds us of the importance of ethical leadership, making it anything but boring.

Who should read The Leadership Moment?

Leaders of businesses, small teams and large organizations
Individuals interested in the aspects of good leadership today
Readers fascinated by real-life inspirational tales

About the Author

Michael Useem is a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania as well as the Director of the Center for Leadership and Change Management. Renowned for his expertise in the theory of leadership, Useem is also the author of The Leader’s Checklist and The Go Point: When It’s Time to Decide.

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