In his search for what is really crucial in leadership, Reinhard K. Sprenger decided to gain some practical experience once again. For a period of three and a half years he assumed operational responsibility in the executive committee of a company which generates a turnover of approximately 21 billion euro in almost eighty countries. He wished to experience the daily routine of management again, separate the wheat from the chaff and the indispensible from the merely desirable.

Dr. Reinhard K. Sprenger, promovierter Philosoph, gilt als der profilierteste Führungsexperte Deutschlands. Geboren 1953 in Essen, in Philosophie promoviert, lebt er heute in der Nähe von Zürich und in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Zu seinen Kunden zählen zahlreiche internationale Konzerne sowie fast alle DAX-100-Unternehmen. Neben »Mythos Motivation« zählen zu seinen erfolgreichsten Publikationen »Das Prinzip Selbstverantwortung«, »Die Entscheidung liegt bei dir«, »Vertrauen führt«, »Radikal führen« und »Das anständige Unternehmen«. Der Bestsellerautor ist bekannt als kritischer Denker, der nachdrücklich dazu auffordert, neues Denken und selbstbestimmtes Handeln zu wagen.Weitere Informationen unter www.sprenger.com.

ContentsIntroduction - What this book is not about 11What exactly is this book about then? 12Human beings within the organization 14What's new? 15Leadership 17Why leadership? 17The purpose of leadership 17That is not what you are being paid for 19Success - What is that? 21Does "good" leadership exist? 23What is leadership? 28Leadership as an incidental activity 28Leadership as a label 29In observation, who is observing who? 31Interdependence 34What shapes leadership behavior? 35Leadership - more than just being an executive 35The institution and the individual 37Good people? Or appropriate people? 40Work within the system and work on the system 42The manager: hero or victim? 43The system has a face 46How can leadership effect change? 47First core task: Organizing co-operation 51One for all and all for one 51A little natural history 51Co-operation as the core of the company 53What obstructs co-operation? 55The institution 57What enables co-operation 57Co-operation-supporting systems 68Small units 79Spatial proximity 82Altering the title 85The consequence for the selection of personnel 88The individual 92The otherness of the other 92When the other cannot co-operate 93Optimizing others 95Commitment to co-operation 99Second core task: Lowering transaction costs 103What are transaction costs? 103Shortage 103Efficiency 104From competitor to co-operation partner 105Internal markets 108Institution 112Checking planning and target agreements 113Increasing staff loyalty; reducing fluctuation 118Customer orientation 120Culture of trust 127The individual 132Seeing the invisible 133"Approaching the other" 135Risk awareness and self-confidence 138Third core task: Resolving conflicts 143Decisions 143A plethora of possibilities 143Ensuring decidability 145Decision or choice? 146"Right" decisions 150Goal conflicts and value conflicts 152The institution 154Dispensing with principles 154Putting up with contradictions 160Away from morality and towards the customer 162The individual 167Leadership - the art of 'as-if' 167Decisiveness 169Tolerating ambiguities 173Equanimity - the passion of balance 175Behavior when conflicts arise 177Decision-making with Sherlock Holmes' rule 179Fourth core task: Ensuring sustainability 181General Remarks 181We reactionaries 182The success trap 184Recipes for success: cause, effect and the problem ofthe future 186After the crisis is before the crisis 192Why resilience is gaining in importance 195The management's assignment to disturb 197The tension between sustainability and transactioncosts 199The institution 201Tents instead of palaces 201Experimenting 203Recognizing weak signals 205Thinking from the point of view of the future 208Project management 210Decentralized is stronger 212Mid-range planning 213Creating redundancies 214Disturbance 214The individual 215Awareness of opportunities and other requirements 216Recruiting the future 219Taking the offensive more often 222Interrupting yourself 224Developing trust in a common future 227Fifth core task: Leading staff 231Find the right staff! 232Who are we looking for? 233How do you recognize the best? 238Challenge them! 244What drives us on 244Being allowed to prove yourself 246Talk to each other frequently! 250Contact instead of praise 250Taking time 252Talking instead of writing 253" as yourself" 255Trust them! 256Why trust? 256What is trust? 258Creating trust 259Destroying trust 261Trust creates entrepreneurship 262Offer a good and fair salary! 264Get out of the way! 267Leadership to self-leadership 267What is to be done? 272Make your contribution! 274Literature 277Index