In a clear and compelling voice, Frances Hesselbein delivers key leadership lessons. Tracing her own development as a leader, she narrates the critical moments that shaped her personally and professionally: from her childhood in Pennsylvania, to moving up from Girl Scout troop leader to Girl Scout CEO, to founding and leading the Leader to Leader Institute, to her friendships and experiences with some of the greatest leaders and thinkers of our time. Each chapter includes an inspirational story, a key lesson and how to apply it to daily life.

With Peter Drucker's five essential questions and the help of five of today's thought leaders, this little book will challenge readers to take a close look at the very heart of their organizations and what drives them. A tool for self-assessment and transformation, answering these five questions will fundamentally change the way you work, helping you lead your organization to an exceptional level of performance.

PRAISE FOR The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Organization

"The Leader to Leader Institute has done a great service in bringing us this monograph. Good leaders come up with answers, but great leaders ask the right questions--and this wonderful work helps all leaders do exactly that."
--Jim Collins, author, Good to Great and the Social Sectors

"An amazing resource that can help even the most successful organizations become more successful!"
--Marshall Goldsmith, author, What Got You Here Won't Get You There, winner of the Harold Longman Best Business Book of 2007

"Peter Drucker's Five Most Important Questions continue to be the indispensable questions an organization must ask itself, regardless of size or sector, if it is determined to be an organization of the future."
--Kathy Cloninger, CEO, Girl Scouts of the USA

"At a time when the need for more effective management and more ethical leadership is the moral equivalent of global warming, Drucker's common sense and courage should be modeled by everyone."
--Ira A. Jackson, dean, Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management, and board member, The Drucker Institute

"Nobody, not even Socrates, has ever asked better questions than Peter Drucker.All the personality, all the wisdom is here to make your work dramatically more effective."
--Bob Buford, author, Halftime and Finishing Well, and founding chairman, Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management

Die 'Leader to Leader Guides' basieren auf der preisgekroenten 'Leader to Leader'-Zeitschrift der Drucker Foundation. Sie widmen sich Themen von allgemeinem Interesse und vermitteln dem Leser eine Vielfalt von Meinungen und Ansichten zu einzelnen Themen. Dieses handliche, pragnante 4-bandige Set bietet wertvolle Informationen und Einsichten in Form praktischer und attraktiver Zusammenstellungen relevanter Artikel. Die ideale Lekture fur vielbeschaftigte Fuhrungskrafte. "On Mission and Leadership" enthalt die besten aktuellen Tipps, Ideen und Meinungen von Spitzenexperten zum Thema 'Inspired Leadership', Vision und zielorientiertes Management. Mit Beitragen von hochkaratigen Experten, wie z.B. Warren Bennis, Patrick Lencioni, Anita Roddick und Daniel Goleman, die brisante Themen pragnant auf den Punkt bringen. Die ideale Lekture fur vielbeschaftigte Fuhrungskrafte, denen wenig Zeit zum Lesen bleibt.

On Creativity, Innovation, and Renewal features the best thinking from top experts on strategic innovation, sparking creativity, and transforming organizations. Written in a concise style that is ideal for the busy executive with little spare time, the book presents a stellar roster of contributors. On Creativity, Innovation, and Renewal is one title in the Leader to Leader Guides, which draw from the most compelling articles that have appeared in Leader to Leader, the Drucker Foundation's award-winning journal.

On High-Performance Organizations features the best thinking from top experts on organizational effectiveness, sustaining growth, and strategy. Written in a concise style that is ideal for the busy executive with little spare time, the book presents a stellar roster of contributors. On High-Performance Organizations is one title in the Leader to Leader Guides, which draw from the most compelling articles that have appeared in Leader to Leader, the Drucker Foundation's award-winning journal.

"This is a treasure-trove of some of the best thinking today on leadership, management, and strategy."

--Journal of Management Consulting

"The Organization of the Future is required reading.... If you don't use this book to help guide your organization through the changes, you may well be left behind."

--Nonprofit World

What do employees expect from the organizations they support? How can organizations maintain stability in times of massive change? These are the questions modern organizations face as they struggle to grow and evolve. The Organization of the Future offers timeless responses from such leading authorities as Peter F. Drucker, C.K. Prahalad, Nathaniel Branden, Lewis E. Platt, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Jay R. Galbraith, and Deepak Sethi. Their incisive essays reveal:
* How to build "know-how" and "know-who" to develop successful teams
* How to prepare for "breakdowns" and create the nimble, change-adept company
* How to attract, motivate, and retain the best employees
* How seven basic policies can lead to high performance and high self-esteem
* How to support work-life balance and provide flexibility for knowledge workers
Each essay provides observations that will help leaders in business, nonprofits, and government keep their organizations healthy, competitive, and poised for the future.

On Leading Change features the best thinking from top experts on strategies for change, sustaining growth, and leading transition. Written in a concise style that is ideal for the busy executive with little time to read, the book highlights a stellar panel of contributors including Peter Drucker, Peter Senge, William Bridges, and Rosabeth Moss Kanter. On Leading Change is one title in The Leader to Leader Guides four-volume set that draws from the most compelling articles that have appeared in the Drucker Foundation's award-winning journal Leader to Leader.

With 26 inspiring chapters, this book celebrates the wisdom of some of the most recognized thought leaders of our day: emerging and established experts who share their unique vision of what the organization of the future should look like and must do to survive in the turbulent 21st Century. Outsmart Your Rivals by Seeing What Others Don't, Jim Champy Organization Is Not Structure but Capability, Dave Ulrich & Norm Smallwood The Leader's Mandate: Create a Shared Sense of Destiny, James M. Kouzes & Barry Z. Posner A Different Kind of Company, Srikumar S. Rao Free to Choose: How American Managers Can Create Globally Competitive Workplaces, James O'Toole Managing the Whole Mandate for the Twenty-First Century: Ditching the Quick-Fix Approach to Management, Paul Borawski & Maryann Brennan The Values That Build a Strong Organization, Thomas J. Moran Revisiting the Concept of the Corporation, Charles Handy Mobilizing Emotions for Performance: Making the Most of the Informal Organization, Jon R. Katzenbach & Zia Khan Beyond Retirement: Mature Workers Are Essential Talent for Organizations of the Future, Richard J. Leider The Best Hope for Organizations of the Future: A Functioning Society, Ira A. Jackson Reframing Ethics, Spirit, and Soul, Lee G. Bolman &Terrence E. Deal Environment Drives Behavior and Expectations, Bill Strickland with Regina Cronin Dynamic Organizations for an Entrepreneurial Age, Christopher Gergen & Gregg Vanourek Multidimensional, Multinational Organizations of the Future, Jay R. Galbraith Designing Organizations That Are Built to Change, Edward E. Lawler III & Christopher G. Worley Refounding a Movement: Preparing a One-Hundred- Year-Old Organization for the Future, Kathy Cloninger Three Challenges Facing Nonprofits of the Future: People, Funding, and Strategy, Roxanne Spillett Pioneering the College of the Future: Building as We Walk, Darlyne Bailey The Organization of the Future Will Foster an Inclusive Environment, Lee Cockerell The Leader as Subculture Manager, Edgar H. Schein The New High-Performance, Horizontal Organization, Howard M. Guttman The Leadership Blueprint to Achieve Exponential Growth, David G. Thomson Leadership Judgment: The Essence of a Good Leader, Noel M. Tichy & Christopher DeRose The Leader of the Future, William A. Cohen Leadership by Perpetual Practice, Debbe Kennedy

In this second volume of The Drucker Foundation's Wisdom to Action Series, twenty-seven remarkable thought leaders help today's leaders meet the challenge of releasing the power of innovation. Leading for Innovation brings together Clayton M. Christensen, Jim Collins, Howard Gardner, Charles Handy, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, C. William Pollard, Margaret Wheatley, and other thought leaders to offer you practical guidance on leading your organization to a new dimension of performance. This unprecedented collection explores the unique qualities required to lead innovators, and shows you the way to develop a culture that promotes innovation.

The contributors encourage you to take the time to think about innovation and describe how you must abandon practices that no longer work for advancing the practice of innovation. Filled with specific examples of the hands-on work needed to make innovation a reality for leaders and their organizations, Leading for Innovation offers a wealth of thoughtful and incisive essays that will help leaders everywhere take their organizations and communities to a new level of excellence.

"The manager's job is to make human strength effective and human weakness irrelevant."
--Peter F. Drucker

"I am often asked by management students and middle managers, 'How can we make the changes you talk about if we are not at the top?' I reply, 'You can begin where you are, whatever your job. You can bring new insight, new leadership, to your team, your group."
--Frances Hesselbein

"As they say, 'None of us is as smart as all of us.' That is good because the problems we face are too complex to be solved by any one person or any one discipline."
--Warren Bennis

These are just a few of the insights collected in "Leader to Leader," an inspiring examination of mission, leadership, values, innovation, building collaborations, shaping effective institutions, and creating community. Management pioneer Peter F. Drucker, Southwest Airlines CEO Herb Kelleher, best-selling authors Warren Bennis, Stephen R. Covey, and Charles Handy, Pulitzer Prize winner Doris Kearns Goodwin, Harvard professors Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Regina Herzlinger, and learning organization expert Peter Senge are among those who share their knowledge and experience in this essential resource. Their essays will spark ideas, open doors, and inspire all those who face the challenge of leading in an ever-changing environment.

For a reader's guide, see www.leaderbooks.org

"Beyond the walls is a battle cry that mobilizes . . . The walls that surround us, protect us, and embrace us can also inhibit movement, limit understanding, restrict engagement, and diminish our relevance in the wider world. I realized that my walls, and the walls of leaders everywhere, were not only the walls of current policy, practice, procedure, and assumption but also the walls of the past--safe, familiar, and secure. This recognition was just the first of several as we worked through a process to take ourselves and our organizations beyond the walls to new levels of performance and positive changes in the lives of people."
--from the Introduction by Frances Hesselbein
In Leading Beyond the Walls, twenty-nine great thinkers examine leaders adept at establishing partnerships, alliances, and networks both within and outside their organizations. They address the challenge of leading in an age when the old rules and conventional boundaries no longer exist. Peter F. Drucker, Stephen R. Covey, Peter M. Senge, Jim Collins, Noel Tichy, Regina E. Herzlinger, C.K. Prahalad, and Sally Helgesen are among those who explore new ways of building relationships, new approaches to strategy and marketing, new models of employee relations, and other innovations. Their essays herald a new world where success comes to those willing to move beyond the walls of tradition and inertia.
To read the first chapter from this book, click here.

"This book of essays is full of rampant idealism. Its authors--educators, think-tankers, corporate executives, consultants, book authors, nonprofit association executives, and a German politician--share a desire to better the world through their ideas and actions. Many qualify as do-gooders in the best sense of the phrase."
--Christian Science Monitor

This third volume from the acclaimed Drucker Foundation Future Series focuses on the basis of society itself--the community. Featuring the examples of successful communities from New York City to Hawaii, The Community of the Future presents insights from Peter F. Drucker, Stephen R. Covey, Arun Gandhi, Elie Wiesel, James L. Barksdale, and many others. Their powerful essays explore what our communities will look like tomorrow--how we will live, work, communicate, educate our children, and govern ourselves.

This collection shows readers:
* How to recognize and anticipate the trends that transform society
* The impact of new communications technology, including global and virtual communications
* How to create organizational communities and communities in the workplace
* How to envision and shape communities that will build values and embrace humanity

From businesses, to communities of faith, to schools, to cyberspace--the gamut of human communities is explored by the world's foremost thinkers.

Get insightful articles on leadership, management, and strategy written by today's leaders with this award-winning journal. Brought to you by the Frances Hesselbein Leadership Institute, Leader to Leader brings together a peerless selection of world-class executives, best-selling management authors, top consultants, and respected social thinkers. Leader to Leader poses provocative questions that challenge your leadership assumptions and provides compelling evidence powerful enough to change your leadership thinking while offering thoughtful analysis of complex leadership issues.

Get insightful articles on leadership, management, and strategy written by today's leaders with this award-winning journal. Brought to you by the Frances Hesselbein Leadership Institute, Leader to Leader brings together a peerless selection of world-class executives, best-selling management authors, top consultants, and respected social thinkers. Leader to Leader poses provocative questions that challenge your leadership assumptions and provides compelling evidence powerful enough to change your leadership thinking while offering thoughtful analysis of complex leadership issues.