The Leadership Secrets Of Colin Powell Summary

After reading The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell (Harari, 2002), Mr. Powell defines leadership as Leadership is the art of accomplishing more than the science of management says is possible. Management is easy. Leadership is motivating people, turning people on, getting 110% out of a personal relationship. I don’t know that leadership in the twenty-first century will be essentially different from the leadership shown by Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and their colleagues 200 years’ age. Leadership will always require people who have a vision of where they wish to take “the led”. Leadership will always require people who are able to organize the effort of (others) to accomplish the objectives that flow from the vision.
The career of Colin Power encompassed him serving in four Presidential administrations as both a Soldier and a civilian. Mr. Powell maintained many philosophies pertaining to the responsibilities of leaders. Colin Powell experience as a leader began while he as attending college, he was a member of the ROTC program where he achieved the rank of company commander of the Pershing Rifles unit. As a young leader, he learned a valuable leadership lesson and committed not to ever fail again as a leader. While serving as the company commander his goal was to win both
Powell is an advocate of challenging the process. By not challenging the process or tradition, a leader hurt both their own creditability and their organization’s performance. A quote from Mr. Powell as it applies to challenging the process, “Making people mad was part of being a leader. As I had learned long ago an individual’s hurt feelings run a distant second to the good of the service” (Harari, 2002). Challenging the process is what leader’s do, to better position our organization for success, and to develop our direct report or constituent’s leader must ultimately challenging the process. I personally believe that we evolve as a species by challenging the