Leader of One: Shaping Your Future through Imagination and Design

by J. Gerald Suarez

Complete the following “I am most energized when . . .” “I have always dreamed of . . .” “I derive joy from . . .” If there is a disconnect between how you completed these statements and the reality of your present situation, then something is getting in the way of you and the future you desire. Most of us actually spend a great deal of time thinking about our future, yet it is something we rarely address in a formal way. Why is it that the very thing we think about so often is something for which we rarely receive guidance? Leader of Shaping Your Future through Imagination and Design changes that reality, helping us to envision our future and to take action to make it happen. We have all experienced the widening gap between where we are and where we wish to be. Life, we find, gets in the way. It becomes too easy in this hyper-dynamic world to confuse means with ends, busyness with importance, and activity with progress. We have a living to make after all, or, if we’re students, we must prepare to do so. For those of us in mid-career, there appear to be even more obstacles. In time, we discover we have drifted away from whatever it was we were passionate about, unaware that we were forfeiting a future that was ours to claim if only we had known how to unleash the “leader” within. Leader of One tells us how. Through Gerald Suarez’s engaging voice, we learn about a process called idealized design, a method first applied in corporations by the renowned Wharton Emeritus Professor Russell Ackoff and his team. Ackoff and Suarez worked together to apply the same methodology in the White House where Suarez served two presidents for over a decade. As an internationally recognized authority on leadership and organizational redesign, Professor Suarez found the process worked as easily in the classroom as it did in the boardroom. What works for large organizations works for individuals as well. The methodology is simple, but the implications are profound. Suarez describes a cycle of activities that begins with the mental creation of an idealized future and ends with its realization. He teaches us how to begin in the future and work backwards to the present, from B to A, so to speak. He has us examine assumptions about who we are and asks us to explore what we value, to “dig deep” for answers. He does not allow us to be passive observers. He requires we learn by doing. It is not enough to dream, we must have the courage to take action. Leader of One is a book to guide us as we move through our days. In one sense it is timeless. Readers will find it invaluable now, but worth revisiting in the years ahead as circumstances change and as new passions take hold.

180 pages, Paperback

First published June 4, 2014

Reviews

[Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for a class in an MBA program taught by the author. Taken in that context, it reads in very much the same way he teaches in. There are a lot of short examples to explain a lot of material. I wish there had been a little more meat to a lot of the stories he used, however for the most part they served the material well. As far as the softer classes go, this one was alright.

[James Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great overall book with a new approach on leadership! As a thinker who loves the futurist type of thought, I enjoyed the various activities of creative and design oriented thinking toward ones self development. The title may not suggest teamwork, but being motivated and focused is a key component to being able to effectively empower others. I keep this book on my office bookshelf and refer when needing to write personal leadership and professional development plans. Highly recommend to leaders who want to integrate creative story based approaches to their own development.