ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A great many people have helped us in our quest to learn more about the nature of leadership. Over the last five years, we have talked to hundreds of leaders at all levels in organizations. In most places in the book, we identify those we talked with, but in some cases, we have altered names and some personal details in order to protect confidentiality. We owe a huge debt to all of those who took the time to answer our questions and to share their experiences and insights.

Particular thanks are due to Norman Adami, Dawn Austwick, Belmiro de Azevedo, John Bowmer, Peter Brabeck, Bill Burns, Patti Cazzato, Paul Dennehy, Rick Dobbis, Greg Dyke, Niall FitzGerald, David Gardner, Pete Goss, Simon Gulliford, Franz Humer, Margaret James, John Latham, Pat Lawless, Alain Levy, Paulanne Mancuso, Nigel Morris, Rob Murray, Ian Powell, David Prosser, Thomas Sattelberger, Sir Martin Sorrell, Jean Tomlin, and Karel Vuursteen.

We learned a great deal, too, from their close colleagues (followers, if you will) and from the organizations within which they— and often we—worked. These include Adecco, Barclays Bank, the BBC, Capital One, Chime, Electronic Arts, Gap, GlaxoSmithKline, Heineken, Legal & General, Lufthansa, Marks & Spencer, Nestlé, PolyGram, PWC, Roche, Rodborough School, SABMiller, Sonae, Sony Music, Unilever, and WPP.

Our students at London Business School, Insead, Henley Management College, and elsewhere provided a ready source of opinion and devil’s advocates. Thanks in particular are due to our colleagues Estelle Bowman, Jay Conger, the late Sumantra Ghoshal, and John Hunt, all of whom provided advice, help, and encouragement along the way. Our agent Helen Rees once again helped us negotiate our way through the publishing world and we are grateful.

Practically, we would like to thank Caroline Madden for her helpfulness and patience with the manuscript and careful protection of our diaries so that, eventually, we finished the book.

At Harvard Business School Press, we were greatly helped by the patience, fortitude, and intellectual curiosity of Jeff Kehoe.

Successive editors of the Harvard Business Review—Suzy Wetlaufer and Tom Stewart—have encouraged our ideas, as have their editorial colleagues, in particular Diane Coutu. We are grateful for their continuing support. We are grateful, too, for the insights and editorial momentum provided by Stuart Crainer and Des Dearlove of Suntop Media.

Finally, thanks to our long-suffering families—Vickie, Shirley, Hannah, Tom, Rhian, Gemma, and Robbie—who have borne the costs of our often antisocial efforts to complete this book.

—Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones

London, June 2005