Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Introduction to the Second Edition
- 1 Athletic Leadership Explained
- 2 The Agenda and Practices of Athletic Leaders
- 3 Effectiveness of Athletic Leadership: Outputs and Outcomes
- 4 Vitaly Saveliev: Passion and Innovation at the Old Airline
- 5 Eugene Kaspersky: Saving the World
- 6 Alexander Dyukov: Quiet Transformation of Gazprom Neft
- 7 Herman Gref at Sberbank: Entrepreneurship in the Least Likely Place
- 8 Athletic Leadership in Other Regions: Roger Agnelli, Dong Mingzhu and Jeff Bezos
- 9 Athletic Leadership for Non-Athletes
- Appendix: Research Methodology
- Index
9 - Athletic Leadership for Non-Athletes
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 October 2019
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Introduction to the Second Edition
- 1 Athletic Leadership Explained
- 2 The Agenda and Practices of Athletic Leaders
- 3 Effectiveness of Athletic Leadership: Outputs and Outcomes
- 4 Vitaly Saveliev: Passion and Innovation at the Old Airline
- 5 Eugene Kaspersky: Saving the World
- 6 Alexander Dyukov: Quiet Transformation of Gazprom Neft
- 7 Herman Gref at Sberbank: Entrepreneurship in the Least Likely Place
- 8 Athletic Leadership in Other Regions: Roger Agnelli, Dong Mingzhu and Jeff Bezos
- 9 Athletic Leadership for Non-Athletes
- Appendix: Research Methodology
- Index
Summary
I start early, and I stay late, day after day after day.
– Lionel MessiDon't let anybody work harder than you do.
– Serena WilliamsYou only stop learning when you quit playing.
– Ruud GullitAthletic leadership is not a universal model of business leadership. It is highly contextual and situational. The athletic CEOs described in this book operate in turbulent contexts with a high level of government intervention and vertical leadership tradition. They started with a relatively low base – their companies lagged behind competitions or did not exist at all in the industries with lucrative domestic and international markets. However, its implications go beyond superambitious, curious, highly energetic chief executives operating in rapidly changing, turbulent environments with high levels of government participation. We believe that ‘non-athletic’ CEOs, aspiring leaders, politicians and most of us living in today's world can learn a lesson from the protagonists of this book and borrow some of their practices. In this concluding chapter we present key insights for each category of readers and outline some avenues for future research.
Lessons for Business Leaders
The practice of athletic leadership on a daily basis is a challenging and highly demanding task. It may not suit everybody's tastes or abilities. However, other leaders can benefit from it by using the following approaches.
Borrowing Some Elements and Instruments of Athletic Leadership to Complement Current Leadership Practice
While working on this research project we presented the model of athletic leadership at a workshop for CEOs. Our participants recognized a pattern that they had previously seen in some of their colleagues but generally dismissed athletic leadership as aggressive and egoistic. None of the seven attendees wanted to be an athletic leader. A few months later, three of them told us that they had started using some of the tools we discussed, specifically the metapractice of ‘slack rope’; the setting of a leadership agenda with financial and transformational goals; and the practice of ‘going out, going down, and going deep’. The CEOs had found these experiences positive, even though they had not turned into fans of athletic leadership.
We have repeated throughout this book that business leadership is highly situational: it is up to business leaders themselves to choose the elements of athletic leadership that will work in their contexts.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Athletic CEOsLeadership in Turbulent Times, pp. 179 - 194Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2019