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 enlarge | Author: Steven B. Sample
Publisher: Jossey-Bass
Category: Book
List Price: $18.95
Buy New: $9.52
You Save: $9.43 (50%)
New (48) Used (25) Collectible (1) from $6.10
Rating:  31 reviews
Sales Rank: 31312
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.1 x 0.9
ISBN: 0787967076
Dewey Decimal Number: 658
UPC: 723812486625
EAN: 9780787967079
ASIN: 0787967076
Publication Date: April 2, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new item. Over 3.5 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Order with confidence. Code: A20081114105739W
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| Customer Reviews:
 A Practical Primer January 11, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Steven Sample has led USC for the past 15 years. He is by training an engineer and probably holds the patent on the control circuit that runs your dishwasher. This book is not about leadership theory, it states what Steven Sample believes works for him and why he believes that. Many of the concepts work anywhere, others are dependent upon the leaders situation both within the organization and the type of organization. If you are looking for something that restates current pop management buzzwords of the day this isn't it.
This book for me had many "Aha! I never thought of it that way type of moments" and I've been a successful leader for over 30 years with a Masters degree.
One Of A Kind. March 17, 2006
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
Steve Sample is a very unusual University President.
The most surprising aspect of his career is that he wasn't run off.
Sadly, I do not think a Steve Sample could happen again in the current environment where unorthodox men of subtle mind, unusual patience, and serious commitment to achievement are run out by lesser men and women of banal sensibilities.
The Contrarian's Guide to Leadership has its appeal to Contrarians. A conformist will never become such a person.
The Conformist will hit .225 and the Contrarian will always be slamming off-speed pitches into the power alleys.
Sample is an example of the best of what has happened in leadership the last 30 years: the migration of engineering discipline into the mainstream of executive management.
But Sample is what most engineers are not: an obviously selfless kind of leader who can bring to bear his immense abilities on executive management because he obviously doesn't need the applause of his public.
Perhaps the best advice Sample gives in his book is the confidence he places in quality of input rather than the hectic and insipid filling of one's mind with contemporary trends.
Sample tells us to read and re-read the "supertexts." I have the happy experience of daily indulging as deeply and often as I can into the Scriptures, so it's especially invigorating to me for someone of Sample's caliber and achievement to boldly tell others that such a practice is essential for leading others.
In the final analysis, it doesn't matter a lot what I say about this book, because Sample's achievements in his field of endeavor are most remarkable, and speaks beyond my plaudits.
After all, USC is not your average college.
I can tell you this book is an interesting read, and if it was taken seriously by leaders in higher education, we'd be in a lot less trouble as a nation.
A must for college and university planners October 23, 2005
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
The literature on leadership is a little like outer space: vast and mostly empty. This little book is one of the brighter stars. Begin reading Chapter 11, the Case Study. Sample's record of achievement in this chapter will open your mind and heart to principles that are eloquently argued in the rest of the book. While the principles apply to all types of organizations, academic insitutions will get the most from them. Every research university in America can benefit from Sample's experience, wisdom, and exemplary leadership.
 Fresh Insignts September 8, 2005
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
What do you think it would take to be a great leader is the challenge that Steven Sample's tasks our most inventive critical thinking skills. He says leadership can be taught and learned and that it is a study that is open to investigation and change. He challenges us to be an intellectual and independent thinker.
"Think grey, see double, never completely trust an expert, read what your competition doesn't read, never make a decision that you can reasonably delegate to a subordinate, ignore sunk costs, work for those who work for you, know which hill you are willing to die on, shoot your own horse, sometimes allow the led to lead the leader and know the difference between being leader and doing leader"
First chapter starts with "Thinking Grey, and Free". Sample's basic tenet? Don't form an opinion about an important matter (i.e. suspending judgement) until you've heard all the relevant facts. Refuse to indulge in black and white or binary thinking and always keep one's mind open to the possibilities. Maintain your intellectual independence and not feel pressured into the "herd" mentality. Then he even pushes the envelope further by asking us to stay with the outrageous idea even to the point of being mentally painful to do so.
Artfull Listening is his second chapter and is important in the acquiring of new ideas and gathering and accessing information which he dubbs as the process of "seeing double" from both the other's point of view while maintaining your own.
Leadership for the rest of us May 20, 2005
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
I would highly recommend this book to any leader.
Some of the most challenging ideas from the book were the idea of thinking gray (which is the discipline of not forming an opinion about an important matter until you've heard all the relevant facts) and reading the super texts.
This book further established in my mind the importance of the supertexts and reading old books.
The final chapter describing the transformation of the University of Southern California under Sample's leadership was excellent and inspiring.
Most striking from that chapter for church leaders was the decision to keep USC in a rough part of L.A. rather than flee to Malibu or Orange County. They stayed put and made a positive inpact on the surrounding neighborhood. They became good neighbors and radically changed the surrounding area. Sounds like something churches should be doing. But how many times do churches flee to the suburbs and abandon the inner-cities?
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