| We owe great debts to the many people who helped us develop our understanding of leadership. Our work together began at the Harvard Business School. We set out to create a version of Business Policy, a required "capstone" course addressing the work and responsibilities of general managers, that would explicitly address the question: What leads to outstanding performance as a manager? We found we could not answer the question fully without making a major effort to understand leadership. We received considerable initial encouragement and continued support in this effort from J. Ronald Fox, John Matthews, and Malcolm Salter, three of our colleagues at Harvard. Ronald Fox took a particular interest in our work, urging us on and constructively challenging our thinking. The ideas and comments of Abraham Zaleznik were also instrumental in the critical early phases of the work. |
| Once we decided to expand these efforts into a book, we were fortunate to have the cooperation of seven chief executives who committed their time to help us better understand the foundations of leadership. They are: Alexander d'Arbeloff, Ralph E. Bailey, James E. Burke, Reuben Mark, J. Richard Munro, Irving S. Shapiro, and Walter Wriston. We have great respect for these men and are grateful for their interest, openness, and candor and for sharing with us the rich understanding of leadership they had derived from many years of experience and reflection. |
| We are indebted to others who read all or parts of the manuscript at various stages of its four-year development. Their comments helped us refine our thinking in many critical areas. In addition to those mentioned above, we appreciate the contributions made by Kenneth Andrews, James Heskett, Paul Lawrence, Thomas McCraw, Don Miller, Andrall Pearson, |
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