3 Review(s)

The Mind of the Leader is a unique book on leadership, written through the prism of a seasoned professor of psychiatry and himself a leader in his field. For decades, T. Byram Karasu has treated, advised, and coached highly successful executives and captains of various industries. Some books on leadership focus on strategies, management styles, information systems, and other technical skills, such as being disciplined, proactive, a consensus builder, and courageous. This book starts where these how-to manuals end. Dr. Karasu offers a different paradigm for leadership-a course of personal growth as well as the cultivation and embodiment of these highly desirable qualities. The ultimate success for leadership is dependent on a leader's stability, namely having a coherent and cohesive state of mind--a synchrony of one's inner and outer worlds. With case vignettes, formal and informal encounters, and intertwined with old-world parables filled with uncommon wisdom, Dr. Karasu deals with leaders' reticence and their intimating "Alpha" presence. He demonstrates sources of formidable successes and causes of potential catastrophic failures. He identifies psychological fault-lines responsible for these personal and professional disasters and discusses not only how to recover from them but how to prevent them from re-occurring.