Where Have All The Leaders Gone? by Lee Iacocca

Age permits a wide-view so that what seems like Iacocca's eclectic who's who name-dropping rant is really permeated with a wisdom that reminds me of Ecclesiastes. He wrote this to call the nation to apply a leadership test to the candidates that would eventually feature in the 2008 presidential election. It measures a prospective leader according to nine words all beginning with "c": curiosity, creative, communicate, character, courage, conviction, charisma, competent, common sense. Then he adds a tenth, crisis. Each point is illustrated anecdotally like a contemporary version of Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends & Influence People. The book is autobiographical, reflective, provocative, and confrontational and well worth reading even (perhaps especially) after the election is past.

Iacocca, Lee. Where Have All The Leaders Gone? 2007. Scribner. New York.