John F. Kennedy on Leadership: The Lessons and Legacy of a President by John A. Barnes

Product Description

Whether in business, politics, or the community, today's leaders have more in common with their legendary predecessors than they may realize. Intensely scrutinized by their constituents, colleagues, the media, and the public, leaders make decisions that affect lives far beyond their immediate surroundings. Perhaps no figure in recent memory more fully personifies leadership than President John F. Kennedy. Leading the nation in a time of unprecedented turbulence, challenge, and opportunity, Kennedy led his administration (and the country) with a courage and determination that even his harshest critics respected.

John F. Kennedy on Leadership identifies eleven core principles that made Kennedy, both before and during his presidency, a unique and dominant force who would serve as the standard by which future leaders would measure themselves-and by which they would be judged. Current and aspiring leaders would do well to adopt these principles, which include:

* Questioning the status quo: Progress is change, and no leader ever became great without breaking rules.
* Turning liabilities into pluses, making the best of miscalculations and misjudgments, and staying educable: There is value in mistakes, and there is always more to learn.
* Making decisions: Although you solicit and incorporate many viewpoints, know that the buck stops with you.
* Presenting an idealized view of what the future can be: Some may feel that "vision" is a tired concept, but properly crafted and communicated, it is a powerful motivator.
* Finding your own "Bobby": In building your team, surround yourself with people who not only are trustworthy and competent but who also make your job easier.
* Being the coolest person in the room: In times of crisis, take the reins. Your people will be looking to you; give them confidence.

John F. Kennedy on Leadership doesn't shy away from the well-documented darker side of Kennedy's life: the seemingly nonstop parade of lovers and the chronic and multiple illnesses. Every leader faces personal challenges that affect the ability to lead. This book shows how legendary leadership can exist even in the face of substantial limitations.

Kennedy led his nation through some of its most extraordinary challenges, from the volatile civil rights movement to the nearly catastrophic Cuban missile crisis. The extraordinary skills he exhibited in bringing America and the world into a new era are yours to embrace, emulate, and employ as you take your people and your vision forward.
Product Details
Amazon Sales Rank: #621524 in Books
Published on: 2005-05-26
Number of items: 1
Binding: Hardcover
240 pages
Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Following up on Ulysses Grant on Leadership, journalist Barnes offers 12 concept-based chapters that draw on the life and presidency of JFK. "Vision" centers on the "Ask Not..." inaugural address; "Resilience" touches on the West Virgina primary (where JFK found a way around "the Catholic issue" to score an upset victory); "Team Building" looks at the JFK-RFK relationship and at Kennedy's crack staff of advisors (as well as when he did and didn't listen to them). Barnes gets to the anecdotal material quickly enough in each chapter to keep his rather thin concepts from buckling, and he presents it clearly and without jingoism. And Barnes does not back away from "Miscalculations and Misjudgements" and "Faults and Failings." The result is suggestive, if not overly inspiring.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Houston Business Journal
"Clear and concise, the book covers all the fundamentals for success."

Review

"Cecil Johnson, nationally syndicated columnist: ""John F. Kennedy on Leadership is a worthy addition to the books that use history to add flavor to lessons on leadership.""


Houston Business Journal: ""Clear and concise, the book covers all the fundamentals for success.Written in an inviting and accessible style, this skill-building book is an essential tool for becoming an effective, confident new manager.""


The Globe & Mail (Toronto): ""It’s a tight, tough, thought-provoking biography-cum-leadership book that is fun to read.""


NationalReview.com: ""[John Barnes] dazzles me [still] with his sharp eye for the unnoticed detail – and his fascinating insights into the minds of the great and not-so-good."
Customer Reviews

weLEAD Book Review by the Editor of leadingtoday.org
Some of the most effective books to read on leadership development are biographies that examine historical characters. One of the most popular was Donald Phillip's Lincoln on Leadership which became a best seller. John F. Kennedy on Leadership falls into this category and illuminates the
leadership skills of JFK in a way seldom appreciated.

Most people think of Kennedy as a privileged son of a wealthy businessman with powerful political connections who used his good looks and charisma to ultimately achieve the presidency. However, little attention has been given to his difficult struggle with a chronic disease, a severe physical
handicap and personal shyness. Further, few authors have closely analyzed how well Kennedy mastered the new medium of television, or fostered teamwork within the Whitehouse. What about the leadership skills that inspired him to create the Peace Corps, or the way he cautiously maneuvered during the Berlin crisis or the Cuban missile crisis in October 1962?

Author John Barnes deftly covers various attributes of sound leadership like vision, resilience, communication, team building, decision making and crisis management. He takes each of these qualities and weaves them into actual historical episodes within Kennedy's brief life. For example, Barnes clearly demonstrates JFK's powerful use of vision from his proclamation of America entering a "New Frontier", his remarkable Inaugural Address and his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech of June 1963. At the conclusion of this chapter, Barnes offers the reader some thoughtful ways to create their own vision using the lessons learned from Kennedy's example.

This is an excellent book and is a pleasure to read. John F. Kennedy on Leadership is not a book that simply idolizes the achievements of JFK. Kennedy is honestly examined and all his personal strengths and weaknesses are frankly revealed. The final chapter entitled, Faults and Failures strips away the veneer of the Camelot myth. But even here... there is much for the reader to learn from JFK's unpleasant character flaws.

John F. Kennedy on Leadership is a readable book that beautifully merges real historical events with a man whose leadership skills changed the world we live in today. This is the kind of book that provides a satisfying rumination of thought when the back cover is eventually closed.

Marketing, not leadership
The Kennedy presidency is a great example of modern day marketing--not leadership. The book, John F. Kennedy on Leadership, by John A. Barnes is a textbook published by the American Management Association. Each chapter contains short chronicles of the Kennedy presidency combined with academic management lessons.
Barnes reveals the hidden, behind-the-scenes activities that promoted and projected Kennedy's public image while concealing the not-so-attractive underbelly. More than 40 years after his death, recent polls rate JFK as the second-greatest president of all time. His approval rating at 70 percent is the highest average approval rating of any president ever measured by Gallup.
Kennedy's leadership is not something to be admired. During WWII, JFK was reckless and frequently jeopardized his PT crew needlessly. General MacArthur and others say he should have been court-martialed. By some miracle, his misadventures in the South Pacific turned heroic and propelled him into a national figure.
During the 1960 presidential election, Kennedy harped on the "missile gap" that did not exist and repeated the slogan "getting the country moving again" when the national economy was healthy.
In the 1961 Inaugural address, JFK read a highly crafted speech:
Let the word go forth from this time and place...let every nation know...that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and success of liberty...
On the 62nd day of his presidency, Kennedy made a forceful speech declaring the nation would acknowledge its treaty obligations and support the goal of a neutral and independent Laos. In an extraordinary move, Kennedy bypassed Secretary of State Dean Rusk and the traditional role of the State Department when he appointed his man, Averell Harriman, to negotiate a toothless treaty with the Communists. Within a short period, Laos fell to the Communists. The Ho Chi Minh Trail, constructed on Laos territory, gave North Vietnam the logistical avenue to sustain its aggression in the south.
Kennedy viciously attacked the Eisenhower Administration for their "weakness" in dealing with the Cuban situation. Instead of helping to come up with the best plan to overthrow Castro and evict the Communists, Kennedy and Schlesinger devoted their efforts to disassociate the Presidency from the conspiracy--plausible deniability. Kennedy ordered changes to the CIA plan that crippled its effectiveness, and in the last hour, Kennedy dealt the deathblow. Although Kennedy wanted to blame the CIA and the military, the failed mission was the result of Kennedy's actions.
The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 would not have occurred if the 1961 Bay of Pigs plan had succeeded. Instead of immediately ordering a blockade, JFK formed a special committee to examine the options and reach a consensus while he went on a campaign trip. JFK again bypassed normal State Department channels and worked a secret agreement with Khrushchev that called for the removal of Jupiter IRBMs in Turkey and pledged never to invade Cuba.
Back on the subject of leadership and management, JFK relied on a "kitchen cabinet" similar to that of Andrew Jackson in 1829. Although cabinet officials were selected by him, Kennedy stifled the cabinet as a major decision-making body. Truman's Secretary of State Dean Acheson was returned to the White House as a special advisor to the president. Instead of using the Joint Chiefs of Staff, retired General Maxwell Taylor was returned to provide personal military advice to the President.
The West Wing of the White House was unofficially promoted to policy-makers and the cabinet secretaries had to compete in meetings on a level equal to the staff. The author noted Vice President Johnson was never taken into Kennedy's confidence, and was excluded from some of the most dramatic moments.
Landing an American on the Moon didn't make the South Vietnamese fight any harder and it didn't cause any Viet Cong to change sides. Kennedy ignored good advice from his Presidential Science Advisor and accelerated the manned space program for the sole purpose of upstaging the Russians. The author admires Kennedy's efforts to seek outside advice, but he limited his consultations with space enthusiasts such as Wernher von Braun, who were willing to underestimate costs and forecast overly optimistic schedules.
When Kennedy went before Congress to call for landing a man on the moon "before this decade is out," one wonders if the arbitrary deadline was the result of a speechwriter's quest for bumper sticker slogans.
The book John F. Kennedy on Leadership makes a good textbook on leadership and management--it is just unfortunate John A. Barnes chose JFK as a standard bearer for leadership.

JFK ADOPTED WINSTON AS PATRICIAN???
I hate reacting to another post but to say that the VERY Irish JFK turned to Winston Churchill as spiritual father is a tale from another planet. It's like saying Oliver Cromwell inspired James Joyce (well, actually the EFFECTS of Cromwell's genocide inspired Joyce's suppressed rancor). Read JFK's Why England Slept? to find how he forever incurred ultimately fatal British enmity. Read the speeches in Ireland a few months before his murder by British intelligence services.

That poster daring to breathe W in the same sentence as JFK recalls what this book most clearly delineates and contrasts with current commanders: JFK's brilliant and sharp intelligence and leadership and how we may apply that today. Simply replay the JFK Inaugural and ANYTHING since. THe greatest speech you will never hear is the Second JFK Inaugural. La lucha sigue!

I realize this is no BLOG, but come on already!