Louis Gerstner’s book Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance is a fascinating account of the former IBM CEO’s historic turnaround of the tech giant. One lesson I took away from the book (available on Audible.com) was that Gerstner initially made no major decisions, but rather spent time talking with different divisions. One when he had a clear idea of IBM’s needs across the organization, did Gerstner develop an overarching strategy that served to right the ship. This collaborative approach relates to author Steven Kotler’s statement in Stealing Fire about the kind of leader Google was seeking in a CEO: someone able “…to let go of his ego, merge with the team…” Stealing Fire by Steven Kotler and Jamie Wheal is available on Audible.com.
How Google used Burning Man to find a CEO who was familiar with group flow pic.twitter.com/saUgEX2q2r
— Business Insider (@businessinsider) January 19, 2019