Skip to Main Content (Press Enter)
A Passion for Leadership by Robert M. Gates
Add A Passion for Leadership to bookshelf
Add to Bookshelf

Look Inside

A Passion for Leadership

Lessons on Change and Reform from Fifty Years of Public Service

Lessons on Change and Reform from Fifty Years of Public Service

Lessons on Change and Reform from Fifty Years of Public Service

By Robert M. Gates

By Robert M. Gates

By Robert M. Gates

By Robert M. Gates

By Robert M. Gates
Read by George Newbern

By Robert M. Gates
Read by George Newbern

Best Seller

Category: Leadership

Category: Leadership

Category: Leadership | Audiobooks

Paperback $19.00

Jan 10, 2017 | ISBN 9780307949646

Ebook $6.99

Jan 19, 2016 | ISBN 9780307959508

Audiobook Download $20.00

Jan 19, 2016 | 486 Minutes

All Formats
+
    A Passion for Leadership by Robert M. Gates
    Paperback $19.00
    Jan 10, 2017 | ISBN 9780307949646

    Buy from Other Retailers:

    See All Formats (2) +
    • $19.00

      Jan 10, 2017 | ISBN 9780307949646

      Buy from Other Retailers:

    • Jan 19, 2016 | ISBN 9780307959508

      Buy from Other Retailers:

    • Jan 19, 2016 | ISBN 9781101888827

      486 Minutes

      Buy from Other Retailers:

    Buy the Audiobook Download:

    About A Passion for Leadership

    Having led change successfully at three sprawling, monumental organizations—the CIA, Texas A&M University, and the Department of Defense—Robert M. Gates offers the ultimate insider’s look at how leaders can transform large organizations and companies. For many Americans, bureaucracy and corporate structure are code words for inertia. Gates knows that it doesn’t have to be that way. With stunning clarity, he shares how simple plans, faithfully executed, can cut through the mire of bureaucracy to reform organizational culture. And he shows that great leaders listen and respond to their teams and embrace the power of compromise. Using the full weight of his wisdom, candor, and devotion to duty, he empowers leaders at any level to effectively implement his leadership strategies.

    About A Passion for Leadership

    From the former secretary of defense and author of the acclaimed #1 best-selling memoir Duty, a characteristically direct, informed, and urgent assessment of why big institutions are failing us and how smart, committed leadership can effect real improvement regardless of scale.

    Across the realms of civic and private enterprise alike, bureaucracies vitally impact our security, freedoms, and everyday life. With so much at stake, competence, efficiency, and fiscal prudence are essential, yet Americans know these institutions fall short. Many despair that they are too big and too hard to reform.

    Robert Gates disagrees. Having led change successfully at three monumental organizations—the CIA, Texas A&M University, and the Department of Defense—he offers us the ultimate insider’s look at how major bureaus, organizations, and companies can be transformed, which is by turns heartening and inspiring and always instructive.

    With practical, nuanced advice on tailoring reform to the operative culture (we see how Gates worked within the system to increase diversity at Texas A&M); effecting change within committees; engaging the power of compromise (“In the real world of bureaucratic institutions, you almost never get all you want when you want it”); and listening and responding to your team, Gates brings the full weight of his wisdom, candor, and devotion to civic duty to inspire others to lead desperately needed change.

    About A Passion for Leadership

    From the former secretary of defense and author of the acclaimed #1 best-selling memoir Duty, a characteristically direct, informed, and urgent assessment of why big institutions are failing us and how smart, committed leadership can effect real improvement regardless of scale.

    Across the realms of civic and private enterprise alike, bureaucracies vitally impact our security, freedoms, and everyday life. With so much at stake, competence, efficiency, and fiscal prudence are essential, yet Americans know these institutions fall short. Many despair that they are too big and too hard to reform.

    Robert Gates disagrees. Having led change successfully at three monumental organizations—the CIA, Texas A&M University, and the Department of Defense—he offers us the ultimate insider’s look at how major bureaus, organizations, and companies can be transformed, which is by turns heartening and inspiring and always instructive.

    With practical, nuanced advice on tailoring reform to the operative culture (we see how Gates worked within the system to increase diversity at Texas A&M); effecting change within committees; engaging the power of compromise (“In the real world of bureaucratic institutions, you almost never get all you want when you want it”); and listening and responding to your team, Gates brings the full weight of his wisdom, candor, and devotion to civic duty to inspire others to lead desperately needed change.

    Read An Excerpt

    Read An Excerpt

    Read An Excerpt

    Listen to a sample from A Passion for Leadership

    Also by Robert M. Gates

    Exercise of Power
    Duty
    See all books by Robert M. Gates

    Also by Robert M. Gates

    Exercise of Power
    Duty
    See all books by Robert M. Gates

    Also by Robert M. Gates

    Exercise of Power
    Duty
    See all books by Robert M. Gates

    About Robert M. Gates

    ROBERT M. GATES is the author of Duty, and A Passion for Leadership. He served as secretary of defense under presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. He was an officer in the United States Air Force and worked for the CIA… More about Robert M. Gates

    About Robert M. Gates

    ROBERT M. GATES is the author of Duty, and A Passion for Leadership. He served as secretary of defense under presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. He was an officer in the United States Air Force and worked for the CIA… More about Robert M. Gates

    About Robert M. Gates

    ROBERT M. GATES is the author of Duty, and A Passion for Leadership. He served as secretary of defense under presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. He was an officer in the United States Air Force and worked for the CIA… More about Robert M. Gates

    Product Details

    Category: Leadership

    Paperback | $19.00
    Published by Vintage
    Jan 10, 2017 | 256 Pages | 5-3/16 x 8 | ISBN 9780307949646

    Category: Leadership

    Ebook | $6.99
    Published by Vintage
    Jan 19, 2016 | 256 Pages | ISBN 9780307959508

    Category: Leadership | Audiobooks

    Audiobook Download | $20.00
    Published by Random House Audio
    Jan 19, 2016 | 486 Minutes | ISBN 9781101888827

    YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

    Praise

    Selection, Huffington Post 5 Political Books for Insight This Election Season (2016)
    Selection, Publishers Weekly Business & Economics Top 10 for Fall 2015

    “Full of strong advice for good leadership. . . . Provides interesting insight into Gates’s understanding of the impressive leadership positions he has held.” —The Huffington Post

    “A guide to leading large institutions through reform and change. . . . [Gates] brings [his suggestions] to life through stories of his own powerful and critical leadership roles.” —The Washington Post, Nine Leadership Books to Watch for in 2016

    “The book [politicians] should all admit to reading—and actually read… Refreshingly nonideological… Mr. Gates preaches the value of civility, internal transparency, and work-life balance.” —The Wall Street Journal

    Looking for More Great Reads?
    21 Books You’ve Been Meaning to Read

    Visit other sites in the Penguin Random House Network

    Raise kids who love to read

    Brightly

    Raise kids who love to read

    Today's Top Books

    Today's Top Books

    Want to know what people are actually reading right now?

         An online magazine for today’s home cook

    TASTE

    An online magazine for today’s home cook