Booklist Review

The animal metaphors for business seem to stick--after elephants that can't dance come mammalian and reptilian leaders. White, now president of the University of Illinois (with a nearly $4 billion annual budget), ponders four quadrants of leadership competencies, giving examples from his work life at Cummins Engine and corporate directorships. This is an important topic, considering that 30-50 percent of CEOs are prematurely ousted. He builds a pyramid with to-be-expected qualities--ability, character, integrity, and the like--as the foundation. Reptilian (read critical, detached, analytical) and mammalian (or nurturing, engaged, emotional) traits balance each other, topped by the five secret ingredients--innovation, risk taking, appetite for talent, helicopter view, and sparkle factor. Simplistic almost to a fault, all these characteristics, he claims, are critical to the making of today's and tomorrow's leaders; the author devotes his last chapter to the art of becoming. Yet with many acclaimed U.S. CEOs close to retirement (or already there, e.g., Jack Welch, Lawrence Cassidy), the question then becomes, where have all the leaders gone? Appended: The Nature of Your Leadership. --Barbara Jacobs Copyright 2006 Booklist