Human-Scale Heroism - Brief Article - Bibliography

Everyone looks for inspiration. If you sing, you might read up on how Maria Callas or Mariah Carey developed her vocal skills. If you play tennis, you watch Wimbledon, and marvel at the technique and grit of Goran Ivanisevic.

Business inspiration comes from any number of sources, including magazine profiles, biographies of brilliant CEOs, and tales of corporate excellence (or folly). But authors today are reaching far outside the realm of everyday business for stories to inspire those of us who are up to our eyeballs in hiring forecasts, budget projections, and market-share analyses.

You want to learn leadership? Here's Jesus, CEO. Laurie Beth Jones puts a modem business spin on Jesus, "who took a disorganized 'staff' of 12 and built a thriving 'enterprise.'"

How about management? In Moses on Management, Rabbi David Baron gives 50 lessons from Moses including, "How to bring your staff out of the slave mentality."

You want to learn how to stay on the top rung of a shaky business enterprise? Take some tips from Elizabeth I, CEO, by Alan Axelrod. There are 136 pointers from the monarch's life, including "Forgive, but Don't Forget." Mary Queen of Scots was an exception, I guess.

There are dozens more, but my favorite titles are Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun, and Make It So: Leadership Lessons from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Sometimes, of course, it's useful to apply a fresh analogy to a situation. Tom Wheeler, author of Take Command! Leadership Lessons from the Civil War, describes how he found himself, as the CEO of a small software company working on business strategy with his crew, diagramming "not the network we were building, but the Battle of Chancellorsville. Our company needed a bold and audacious move," and Robert E. Lee's battle plan was the perfect metaphor.

But as Amazon.com reviewer Robert Morris says, the gimmick can sometimes go too far. He's waiting for Caligula on Management to show up next. (If you're a writer, it's now time to call your agent). He has a point. Not every great spiritual or political leader was a great business leader. As Amazon.com reviewer Linda Noel slyly points out about Moses, "How could someone who took 40 years to make an 11-day journey possibly be the greatest manager of all time?"

Another danger lies in the gap between who these great people were and who we are. Elizabeth I was tenacious, wily, and brave. But if people didn't cooperate with her, she had the Tower of London and the executioner at her disposal. How would that kind of management be viewed at your company?

Wheeler addresses this hero gap in his book, pointing out that many of the war's great deeds were not accomplished by the famous leaders. At the Battle of Gettysburg, a college professor held the far end of the Union line. The youngest brigade commander in the Union army risked court-martial to intercept and execute an order for someone else. Wheeler sees connections in companies like 3M, Southwest Airlines, and Nortel Networks, which empower their employees to do great things.

That's where I'll turn for my inspiration this month: To the unsung risk-takers and line-holders. Human-scale accomplishment is just the right size for me.

COPYRIGHT 2001 ACC Communications Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group