The Wise Fool's Guide to Leadership

Subtitled 'short spiritual stories for organisational and personal transformation, this is a real gem of a book. Many readers will be familiar with the Sufi tales involving the holy fool Mulla Nasrudin. Here Peter Hawkins applies the Nasrudin treatment to management consultancy and the results are hilarious. There are fifteen chapters with an average of five stories each. This gives plenty of scope - most stories are less than half a page and are introduced with a short commentary on the theme - such as unknowing, the value of failure, change leadership and 'don't trust the packaging'. Here is a snippet on leadership: 'Recent evidence of successful leaders in politics and business organisations suggests that a leader becomes great, not by being in the right place at the right time, but by avoiding being in the wrong place at the wrong time.' Essential reading for anyone working in an organisation.