How Great Leaders Think: The Art of Reframing

How Great Leaders Think: the Art of Reframing uses compelling, contemporary examples to show how more complex thinking is the key to better leadership. Leaders who understand what's going on around them see what they need to do to achieve the results they want. Bolman and Deal's influential four-frame model of leadership and organizations-developed in their bestselling book, Reframing Organizations: Artistry Choice and Leadership-offers leaders an accessible guide for understanding four major aspects of organizational life: structure, people, politics, and culture. Tapping into the complexity enables leaders to decode the messy world in which they live, see more options, tell better stories, and find strategies that are more effective. Case examples of leaders like Jeff Bezos at Amazon, Howard Schultz at Starbucks, Tony Hsieh at Zappos, Ursula Burns at Xerox, and the late Steve Jobs at Apple provide concrete lessons that readers can put to use in their own leadership. The book's lessons include:

• How to use structural tools to organize teams and organizations for better results
• How to build motivation and morale by aligning organizations and people
• How to map the terrain and build a power base to navigate the political dynamics in organizations
• How to develop a leadership story that shapes culture, provides direction, and inspires commitment to excellence

About the Authors

Lee G. Bolman holds the Marion Block Missouri Chair in Leadership at the Bloch School of Management, University of Missouri–Kansas City. He received a BA (1962) in history and a PhD (1968) in administrative sciences, both from Yale University. Bolman's interests lie at the intersection of leadership and organizations, and he has published numerous articles, chapters, and cases. He is coauthor of Reframing Academic Leadership (with Joan V. Gallos, 2011). Bolman has been a consultant to corporations, public agencies, universities, and public schools in the United States, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. For twenty years, he taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where he also chaired the Institute for Educational Administration and the School Leadership Academy. He has been director and board chair of the Organizational Behavior Teaching Society and director of the National Training Laboratories.

Terrence E. Deal has served on the faculties of Stanford, Harvard, Vanderbilt, and the University of Southern California. He received his BA (1961) from the University of La Verne (ULV), his MA (1966) from California State University at Los Angeles, and his PhD (1972) in sociology and administration from Stanford University. Deal has been a police officer, public school teacher, high school principal, district administrator, and university professor.

His primary research interests are in organizations, symbolism, and change. He is the author or coauthor of twenty-seven books, including the best seller Corporate Cultures (with Allan A. Kennedy, 1982) and Shaping School Culture (with Kent D. Peterson, 1999). He has published many articles on organizations, change, and leadership. He is a consultant to business, health care, military, educational, and religious organizations domestically and in Europe, Scandinavia, the Middle East, Canada, South America, Japan, and Southeast Asia. He is the founder of ULV's Deal Leadership Institute.

Bolman and Deal first met in 1976 when they were assigned to coteach a course on organization at Harvard University. Trained in different disciplines on opposite coasts, they disagreed on almost everything. It was the beginning of a challenging but very productive partnership. They have written a number of other books together, including Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership, and Leading with Soul: An Uncommon Journey of Spirit. Their books have been translated into multiple languages for readers in Asia, Europe, and Latin America.

For five years, Bolman and Deal also codirected the National Center for Educational Leadership, a research consortium of Harvard, Vanderbilt, and the University of Chicago.