Real Change Leaders:: How You Can Create Growth and High Performance at Your Company

The consulting firm McKinsey & Company supported and encouraged Katzenbach to address an issue facing all organizations--change. It's the same issue that has Vice-President Al Gore talking about ``reinventing government'' and Peter Drucker urging managers to ``rediscover leadership.'' Numerous corporations are downsizing, restructuring or revamping. Yet the steps taken to do so may limit the resulting organizations' ability to further adapt, because workers with superior skills are terminated and middle managers with leadership skills are eliminated. Katzenbach et al. argue that the key to changing performance capability in dynamic companies is a new breed of middle manager--The Real Change Leader (RCL). Common characteristics of RCLs are outlined and illustrated with examples. The RCLs connect three forces of organizational change: top aspirations, work force productivity and marketplace reality. This book is highly recommended to all corporate executives who want to learn about effective leadership in large organizations. (Jan.)