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Leadersh!t: A Look at the Broken Leadership System in Corporate America That Accepts Leaders Who are Really Good at Being Bad
With humble beginnings in a small, low-income home in Pittsburgh to over 40 years of business experience including serving as a Chairman, Vice-Chairman and member of several corporate boards of directors, being a corporate officer and running a $20 billion global operation for Johnson Controls, Inc., Automotive Operations, Worldwide, Rande Somma has seen some things in the context of leadership that deeply disturbed him.
Somma brings an empathetic top-down perspective to the problem of corporate leadership and the chasm of disconnect that often exists between the workers, management, and the C-suite executives. His book looks at lowered standards for leaders, higher compensation, and the path of convenience, fraud, greed, and corruption that leaders are more often choosing over obligation to their duties.
Recently, American businesses have been looking for and hiring leaders who are willing to do anything to elevate our companies to be “successful”, to be the “best”. The author contends that what is considered to be “successful” and the “best” has changed over the past several years or decades to refer almost exclusively to financial gain. While leaders we hire are supposed to be individuals talented in the art of leading people, they are now those guys and gals who are more talented at being financial wizards and creating the illusion that the business is fundamentally sound. This book is about what we have surrendered in the process of our hyper focus on financial gains, and that includes the exceptional return on investment of integrity.
The author presents a narrative about what he perceives as a serious and disturbing truth that is incrementally infecting companies both large and small. This truth that was once unacceptable has now become not just acceptable but expected and normal with regard to leadership in corporate America.
Somma demonstrates through his personal stories and others’ experiences how corporate American leadership has descended into leadershit.
While many of his stories are based on his own experience in the auto industry, Somma sees the problem as a more pervasive issue. It was not just the auto industry having a bad year or two; the pattern was repeated in other companies and industries and in other leadership situations. He recognized this as a leadership system that doesn’t serve us anymore, and therefore, it is the system that is the problem.
Somma shows how we – all of us – are paying for leadershit’s lack of commitment to absolute integrity, authenticity, and real performance. While this book walks through Somma’s own tangles with the facets of leadership over the course of his professional career with many organizations, he encourages the reader to recognize the challenges that we all face and for all of us to emerge with solutions and as authentic leaders.
Somma brings an empathetic top-down perspective to the problem of corporate leadership and the chasm of disconnect that often exists between the workers, management, and the C-suite executives. His book looks at lowered standards for leaders, higher compensation, and the path of convenience, fraud, greed, and corruption that leaders are more often choosing over obligation to their duties.
Recently, American businesses have been looking for and hiring leaders who are willing to do anything to elevate our companies to be “successful”, to be the “best”. The author contends that what is considered to be “successful” and the “best” has changed over the past several years or decades to refer almost exclusively to financial gain. While leaders we hire are supposed to be individuals talented in the art of leading people, they are now those guys and gals who are more talented at being financial wizards and creating the illusion that the business is fundamentally sound. This book is about what we have surrendered in the process of our hyper focus on financial gains, and that includes the exceptional return on investment of integrity.
The author presents a narrative about what he perceives as a serious and disturbing truth that is incrementally infecting companies both large and small. This truth that was once unacceptable has now become not just acceptable but expected and normal with regard to leadership in corporate America.
Somma demonstrates through his personal stories and others’ experiences how corporate American leadership has descended into leadershit.
While many of his stories are based on his own experience in the auto industry, Somma sees the problem as a more pervasive issue. It was not just the auto industry having a bad year or two; the pattern was repeated in other companies and industries and in other leadership situations. He recognized this as a leadership system that doesn’t serve us anymore, and therefore, it is the system that is the problem.
Somma shows how we – all of us – are paying for leadershit’s lack of commitment to absolute integrity, authenticity, and real performance. While this book walks through Somma’s own tangles with the facets of leadership over the course of his professional career with many organizations, he encourages the reader to recognize the challenges that we all face and for all of us to emerge with solutions and as authentic leaders.
312 pages, Paperback
Published November 20, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 28, 2019
This book was very interesting, I bought it for a co worker who insisted that I read it. This really is an eye opener about leadership for big companies.
February 13, 2021
My mother-in-law gave me this book as she’s Rande’s distant relative. I wasn’t sure what to expect as I’d only met Rande once briefly at a birthday party and didn’t really get a chance to talk with him.
My first impressions of the book is that it was written by someone who is not a typical book author. Meaning that the structure of the book and the topics are presented in what is to me an unfamiliar style. That doesn’t mean the story he tells isn’t compelling, it certainly is. Yet, this reads as more of a long Medium post that something you’d pick up at the bookstore.
If you have an interest in being a better leader, car manufacturing in the late 90s to early 2000s, or corporate governance this book is worth your time. While the ideas behind it, ethics, treating people right, long term planning, are all things you’ve heard before Rande talks more about where the rubber meets the road and how hard it is, and how poorly corporate culture incentivizes, those often stated leadership goals.
This book to me is a challenge for myself to be a better leader and to live my stated values all the time and not only when it’s convenient.
My first impressions of the book is that it was written by someone who is not a typical book author. Meaning that the structure of the book and the topics are presented in what is to me an unfamiliar style. That doesn’t mean the story he tells isn’t compelling, it certainly is. Yet, this reads as more of a long Medium post that something you’d pick up at the bookstore.
If you have an interest in being a better leader, car manufacturing in the late 90s to early 2000s, or corporate governance this book is worth your time. While the ideas behind it, ethics, treating people right, long term planning, are all things you’ve heard before Rande talks more about where the rubber meets the road and how hard it is, and how poorly corporate culture incentivizes, those often stated leadership goals.
This book to me is a challenge for myself to be a better leader and to live my stated values all the time and not only when it’s convenient.
November 23, 2021
As someone who works for one of these large corporations, I can confirm that much of what Mr. Somma is stating is common practice. Unfortunately we see the erosion of ethics everywhere in our society, not just in business. Great book. In reflection, I realized that the majority of people are decent and want to do the right thing. However a minority of people are steering the ship and they have no moral compass to keep them from taking advantage of the situation. This seems true everywhere, not just business.
Count me as jaded.
Count me as jaded.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews