Issue No. 533 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting spotlights an expansive book by Henry Kissinger (age 99!) on six world leaders and six studies in world strategy. Profound! And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for my tribute to Dan Busby (1941-2022) and his legacy of leadership books and baseball books.
POP QUIZ! Identify the six world leaders from Henry Kissinger’s new book, Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy.
PART 1 OF 2: Kissinger on Konrad Adenauer, Charles de Gaulle, and Richard Nixon
Help me out, here! I can’t decide which lead sentence to use for my review of Henry Kissinger’s phenomenal 2022 book, Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy. So pick one:
[ ] Yikes! Henry Kissinger wrote this 528-page book at age 99. (What are you doing with your life?)
[ ] Maybe…if Liz Truss had consulted with Henry Kissinger (like Margaret Thatcher did), she wouldn’t now own the dubious world record for serving the fewest number of days (49) as the U.K.’s prime minister.
[ ] “The two questions Konrad Adenauer put to me during our final meeting in 1967, three months before his death, have gained new relevance: are any leaders still able to conduct a genuine long-range policy? Is true leadership still possible today?”
[ ] Invest just five minutes and listen to the first two pages of Leadership, by Henry Kissinger, and then discern: Have you ever heard a more eloquent description of leadership? (Click here for the 5½-minute audio on Libro.fm.)
[ ] Breaking News! Perhaps…Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy, by Henry Kissinger, will be my 2022 book-of-the-year.
OK, you’ve selected your favorite lead sentence (thank you)…so what’s the rest of the story? Simply this. Henry Kissinger’s voice at age 99—with his expansive sweep of history, relevancy, and insightful wisdom—is needed now more than perhaps ever before.
Frankly, I could write eight reviews (eight!) and you wouldn’t tire of Kissinger’s commentary and private conversations with six strategic world leaders:
• Introduction: “The Axes of Leadership” (listen to the first 5½ minutes)
• Konrad Adenauer, Chancellor of Germany (1949-1963)
• Charles de Gaulle, President of France (1959-1969)
• Richard Nixon, President of the U.S. (1969-1974)
• Anwar Sadat, President of Egypt (1970-1981)
• Lee Kuan Yew, Prime Minister of Singapore (1959-1990)
• Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the U.K. (1979-1990)
• Conclusion: “The Evolution of Leadership”
Kissinger’s big idea: these six world leaders (none from upper class backgrounds), forged new paths after World War II by leveraging six unique strategies. Five of them had devout religious upbringings and “all were known for their directness and were often tellers of hard truths. They did not entrust the fate of their countries to poll-tested, focus-grouped rhetoric.” To his complaining parliament on the Allies’ terms for a post-war Germany, Adenauer asked, “Who do you think lost the war?”
TWO TYPES OF LEADERS. Kissinger discusses “fortunate societies,” during times of crisis, and that “such times call forth transformational leaders. Their distinction can be categorized into two ideal types: the statesman and the prophet.”
So here's a taste of those two leadership types and six strategies. (Note: While I urge you to read this fascinating and important book, it would also make a spectacular Christmas gift for a friend or family member.)
PART 1 OF 2: Konrad Adenauer, Charles de Gaulle, Richard Nixon
THE STRATEGY OF HUMILITY
Konrad Adenauer (1876-1967), Chancellor of Germany (1949-1963)
Kissinger met with Adenauer about 10 times, including when Kissinger was a consultant to the Kennedy White House. He notes that “by an ironic twist of fate, more than twenty years after fleeing with my family from Nazi Germany,” he participated in the shaping of America’s policy toward Germany, then part of the NATO Alliance. Time magazine honored Adenauer as their 1954 Man of the Year. But imagine the task of bringing a defeated Germany back into the European community.
• HABITS. “As a student at the University of Bonn, he achieved a reputation for commitment through the habit of plunging his feet into a bucket of ice water to overcome the fatigue of late-night studies.”
• HUMILITY. After World War II, “instead of indulging in self-pitying nationalism once again, Germany should seek its future within a unifying Europe. Adenauer was proclaiming a strategy of humility.”
THE STRATEGY OF WILL
Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970), President of France (1959-1969)
Do you know the backstory on Charles de Gaulle? (There’s hope for all of us.) Kissinger writes that “…leaders who alter history rarely appear as the endpoint of a linear path.” The “resistance movement” was hardly resisting and not yet a movement at the beginning of World War II, but “…arriving in London with effectively nothing but his uniform and his voice, de Gaulle catapulted himself out of obscurity and into the ranks of world statesmen.” His ultimate goal: “the renewal of the soul of France.” (No small BHAG!)
• BISHOPS. “Occasionally exasperated, Churchill once quipped: ‘Yes, de Gaulle does think he is Joan of Arc, but my…bishops won’t let me burn him.’”
• BOLDNESS. “De Gaulle defined his goals in the visionary mode of the prophet, but his execution was in the mode of the statesman, steely and calculating.”
• BOREDOM. “After ten years in the presidency, de Gaulle had achieved the historical tasks available to him and was left with the management of day-to-day events. But such mundane matters were not what had motivated his legendary journey. Observers began to detect the settling-in of boredom, almost melancholy.”
THE STRATEGY OF EQUILIBRIUM
Richard Nixon (1913-1994), President of U.S. (1969-1974)
Nixon appointed Henry Kissinger as his national security advisor (“the second-highest-ranking presidential appointment not subject to Senate confirmation”). Kissinger also served both Nixon and Gerald Ford as secretary of state from 1973 to 1977. He received the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating a ceasefire in Vietnam. The Nixon chapter runs 80 fascinating pages.
• SECRETS. Under Nixon’s direction, “The first secret meeting between the Nixon White House and Vietnamese officials took place in [the French ambassador to Hanoi Jean] Sainteny’s elegant apartment on the rue de Rivoli. He introduced us to the Vietnamese with the injunction not to break any furniture.”
• SOVIETS. Seeking to align the Soviet Union with U.S. goals for Vietnam, Nixon met with Soviet ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin. “Pulling a yellow legal pad from his desk in the Oval Office, Nixon handed it to the ambassador, saying, ‘You’d better take some notes.’”
• SUITS. “Crisis management sometimes produces incongruities.” When Kissinger informed Nixon of Syrian’s invasion of Jordan, the President was bowling in the basement of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. “Characteristically, Nixon was not prepared to manage a crisis in the White House in bowling clothes. He disappeared for a few minutes to change into a business suit to join [Assistant Secretary of State Joe] Sisco and me in the Situation Room.”
Memo to any and all 2024 U.S. presidential candidates (and future UK prime ministers!): Drink deeply from this Kissinger well of wisdom.
Next Blog - PART 2 OF 2: Anwar Sadat, Lee Kuan Yew, Margaret Thatcher
(Stay tuned. Three more strategies/three more leaders.)
To order from Amazon, click on the title for Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy, by Henry Kissinger. Listen on Libro (19 hours, 9 minutes). And thanks to the publisher for sending me a review copy.
YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Note: Play the 5 ½-minute audio from Kissinger’s introduction on leadership and then ask your team this question. Kissinger says that leaders must have courage and character. “Courage summons virtue in the moment of decision; character reinforces fidelity to values over an extended period.” What else must leaders have?
2) Kissinger writes that those close to Charles de Gaulle “began to detect the settling-in of boredom…” Have you noticed this in some leaders—or even in yourself after X years in the same position? What should you do? (Note: Perhaps read The 6 Types of Working Genius: A Better Way to Understand Your Gifts, Your Frustrations, and Your Team. Too bad Lencioni wasn’t yet writing books during Charles de Gaulle’s era!)
Mastering 100 Must-Read Books - Part 1: How to Read a Book!
Book #4 of 100:
Besides the Bible: 100 Books that Have, Should, or Will Create Christian Culture
For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by spotlighting Book #4 in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books.
Besides the Bible:
100 Books that Have, Should, or Will Create Christian Culture
by Dan Gibson, John Pattison, and Jordan Green
I’m a sucker for book lists, such as Book #3 of 100 which featured a list of 100 business books. Today’s Book #4 highlights 100 faith-based books—with a few surprises.
• Read my review.
• Order from Amazon: Besides the Bible: 100 Books that Have, Should, or Will Create Christian Culture
• Download John’s 100 Must-Read Books list.
The list of books in Besides the Bible spans the centuries and culture:
• Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, by John Foxe
• The Practice of the Presence of God, by Brother Lawrence
• The Cost of Discipleship, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
• The Apocrypha
• The Hiding Place, by Corrie Ten Boom
• A New Kind of Christian, by Brian McLaren
• Blue Like Jazz, by Donald Miller
• The God Trilogy, by Timothy Keller
I was delighted they included one of my all-time favorites, Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson (see my Book #91). Are you reading profitably? I appreciate this quotation from Orison S. Marden on “Intention, Attention and Retention” (noted by Charlie “Tremendous” Jones):
“To read profitably one must keep these three things in mind: intention, attention, and retention. It is worth noting that the word retention comes from the Latin retces, a net. Nets are made so that the smaller and worthless fishes may slip through the meshes. So the mind trained to retention allows trivial things to escape and holds in memory only things of greater importance.”
THE UNICORN WITHIN: HOW COMPANIES CAN CREATE GAME-CHANGING VENTURES AT STARTUP SPEED Launch in Just 12 Weeks! I was very skeptical of Linda K. Yates’ claim that a large corporation could harness the entrepreneurs in their company to launch a new product, program, or service in just three months. Then…I read The Unicorn Within. It’s very compelling. Read more on the Pails in Comparison blog.
PEARPOD | TELLING YOUR STORY. Many of our clients have leveraged books and eBooks to creatively communicate their mission and stories. If you have a book idea, we can help you from concept to publishing to high impact promotion. Contact Jason Pearson at Pearpod (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).
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