Leadership: the Hard Way (2008)

why leadership can't be taught -and how you can learn it anyway

by Dov Frohman with Robert Howard

"They say that leadership cannot be taught-at least not in classes and slides-but it can be learned, especially in turbulent times, with brilliance and open-spiritedness." -Bernard Avishai

- George Stalk

In this book, Frohman-iconoclastic innovator and founder of Intel Israel-and coauthor Robert Howard present a method of living and working that can truly facilitate the learning of leadership. Their method shows how to go against the current, fight conventional wisdom, and embrace the unexpected. It is about trusting oneself and valuing intuition, principles, and imagination as much as hard skills and analysis.

Contents

Introduction: Flying through a thunderstorm
1. Insisting on survival
-A wartime childhood
2. Leading against the current
-Apart from the mainstream
-From the periphery to the center
3. Leveraging random opportunities
-Turning a problem into a product
-Staying true to a vision
-Striking when the iron is hot
4. Leadership under fire
-Scud business as usual
-Delivering-No matter what
5. The soft skills of hard leadership
-Freeing up time
-The discipline of Daydreaming
-Trusting-and Testing-Intuitions
-Communicating through behavior
6. Making values real
-Being relentless about values
-Transparency, Not purity
7. Bootstrapping leadership
-Staying true to your passion
-Learning from your people

Epilogue: Knowing when to let go