The Power of Giving Away Power: How the Best Leaders Learn to Let Go

Product Description
“This book is a breakthrough. It’s beautifully written, perfectly timed and heralds a new way forward. I’m buying a dozen copies to share with friends and colleagues.” -Seth Godin, Founder of altMBA and author of The Practice If you let go of hierarchy, chaos will reign...or so many leaders believe. But when leaders find the courage to distribute rather than hoard power, creativity multiplies, trust deepens, and inclusivity expands... and a new kind of order emerges. \nA few rare leaders have learned to embrace a new organizational shape and mindset: Constellations. Organizations designed as constellations are dynamic and flexible networks of distinct yet interwoven individuals. Each member of the team feels like a singular star and is also connected to others to form something greater. That is how Visa reimagined how we pay for things, how Wikipedia beat the richest company in the world and how Barack Obama and his grassroots team revolutionized political campaigning. These leaders did what most leaders dread – they gave away power.\nBarzun brilliantly layers lessons across history and industries with his own experiences as an internet entrepreneur, political organizer, and US ambassador to the United Kingdom and Sweden.
The Power of Giving Away Power shows how the Constellation mindset shines in some of the most impactful organizations and innovations the world has ever known. And it encourages us all to recognize, as Barzun writes, "the power we can create by seeing the power in others" — and making the leap to lead. Together.
Review
“He can indeed make his constellation theory sound appealing…
The Power of Giving Away Power is surprisingly (and refreshingly) nonpartisan.”\nThe Wall Street Journal\n“Bravo. These are ideas that can heal and inspire in a time when we are suspicious, tribal, at each others’ throats.” \nKen Burns, Documentary Filmmaker\n“Matthew Barzun might well be the first modest man to write a great book on leadership. This is a gift."\nRichard Thaler, Nobel Prize Laureate and co-author of
Nudge\n"This is the manifesto we need right now. Barzun shows that sharing power, counterintutively, magnifies everyone's impact and helps leaders get more done."\nCharles Duhigg, Author of
The Power of Habit and
Smarter Faster Better\n"A brilliant challenge to conventions that have held back organizations for decades and a crisp playbook for making distributed leadership work for everyone."\nTed Sarandos, Co-CEO and Chief Content Officer, Netflix\n“A gift. This is certainly the path to the collective leadership we need to tackle today’s challenges and shape a better future.”\nWendy Kopp, Founder, Teach For America\n"Fun, informative, and mind-expanding for everyone, whether you're leading a business, a country, or a family." \nDanny Meyer, CEO of the Union Square Hospitality Group\n"A remarkable book about creating order without control and freedom without chaos, from an original and counterintuitive leader and thinker."\nDaniel H. Pink, Author of
When,
Drive, and
To Sell Is Human\n“An engaging, compelling, and welcome rebuttal to the distressingly widespread win/lose theories of leadership.”
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Drew Faust, President Emerita, Harvard University\n"Unexpected encounters! Barzun introduces you to people and ideas you never knew but should if you really care about leadership." \nVint Cerf, Internet Pioneer\n“An extraordinary book about human flourishing, about linking ourselves properly to the best bits of ourselves and of others to move mountains. Enlightening and brain reviving.”\nAlain de Botton, Author of
How Proust Can Change Your Life\n"Anyone who seeks to be a better, stronger, wiser and more effective leader would do well to read this collection of engaging stories about the power of empowering others."\nMichael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies and Mayor of New York, 2002-2013\n"Delightfully paradoxical and deeply insigh