The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell: A Book Review

Overview of Powell's Career and the Book's Purpose

The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell. Oren Harari. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002. 278 pages.

Despite humble beginnings in Harlem, Colin Powell's life and career made him a four-star general, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and eventually Secretary of State — the highest foreign policy office in the United States. His two tours in Vietnam, his position as National Security Advisor to President Reagan, and his command role in the first Gulf War, Operation Desert Storm, all helped to form and reflect the basic leadership principles that made Powell such a success in military and public service, and such an inspiration to many in America and around the world. These principles are explicitly described by Oren Harari in The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell, a book that promises to shape the face of leadership in both the public sector and the business world if its lessons are heeded and taken to heart.

As a professor of management, Harari certainly intends for his immensely readable volume to be used in business administration programs as well as in other leadership courses. This intention might be thwarted by Powell's — and Harari's — insistence that theories of management are virtually worthless, a contention that, if accepted by the academic community, would leave many current professors and authors without a job. Be that as it may, this book is far more understandable and more directly applicable to the practical concerns of day-to-day leadership than most texts on management and leadership theory, while remaining anticipatory of and responsive to long-term, big-picture scenarios and goals. Powell's approach to leadership was highly practical and down-to-earth, and Harari's tone matches the attitude of his subject incredibly well.

Though The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell details many specific events and typifies many general periods in Powell's life and career, the book does not attempt to be a complete biography, nor should it be read as such. Rather, Harari presents the episodes he — and presumably General Powell himself — found essential in the formation of the leadership principles identified and exemplified by Powell. This book is not an inspirational life story from which lessons can be gleaned; it is a leadership instruction manual based on the intensely honest and unapologetic life of a man who spent the majority of his adult years leading others, and doing it well. The true grit and no-nonsense attitude that Powell espouses as the only real way to lead comes through Harari's text as clearly and cleanly as the subject of its inspiration could demand, without any extraneous fluff.

Organization, Tone, and Harari's Approach

As a case in point, Harari wastes absolutely no time setting the tone for the book or outlining the principles Powell credits with making him such an effective leader. The first chapter is titled "Know When to Piss People Off," and after initially stressing Powell's undying politeness and even keel, the chapter goes on to explain Powell's belief that no good leader can ever make everybody happy at the same time. Not being afraid to confront others in order to improve the success of an organization is the first of many lessons Harari presents, with ample anecdotal evidence and explanation from Powell himself to give the rather straightforward and self-evidently effective advice added credence and strength.

The book is organized similarly throughout, with the basic lesson of each chapter presented early and directly — usually in the title of the chapter itself — with biographical information and ruminations from General Powell forming the bulk of the text. Harari's hand and voice are evident throughout, but it is also clear that Powell is the type of figure who leads even when he is unaware of it. His approach and basic philosophy of leadership inform every aspect of the book, making it completely practical and non-ephemeral.

There is no mention of team-building seminars or proactive communication frameworks; building teams requires communication, and according to Powell it is up to the leader of an organization to ensure that such communication happens honestly and directly. No one should need a week at an airport hotel engaged in role-playing and trust exercises to figure this out. Powell believes in facing every situation with fresh eyes and an open mind, never ruled by platitude. The absence of organizational charts, affirmations, and aphorisms stands out conspicuously in a book that purports to be a management text — but they are not exactly missed.

Core Leadership Principles Powell Espouses

Harari makes it clear, however, that Powell never led thoughtlessly or without placing his decisions in larger contexts — just the opposite, in fact. He simply did not believe that any single decision-making process could ever be equally effective in all situations. There is no magic management potion, in other words. Even the title The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell is revealed as somewhat tongue-in-cheek by the halfway point of the book; there are no dramatic revelations or hidden gems of innovative thought, but rather a calm and honest elucidation of those principles we were taught to admire in leaders as children but which were forgotten by most — honesty, accountability, recognition of others, a willingness to be proven wrong and the ability to accept it gracefully, and the resolve to stick to one's guns until that time comes.

Due to the direct and even elemental nature of the wisdom found in this book, it is difficult to identify even a single assertion in its pages that is unsubstantiated or could reasonably be argued with. This has less to do with the respect and presence that the figure of Colin Powell commands than with his and Harari's blunt method of laying out the facts. The length of the book also illustrates this point: though it provides both a comprehensive view of General Powell's leadership philosophy and many of the details and episodes of his life and career, it comes in significantly under three hundred pages. Succinct hardly begins to describe the tone of the book or the advice it imparts; terse is a somewhat closer description, yet the candor and unmistakable goodwill with which the information is imparted renders that term too harsh. It can simply be said that Harari and Powell are to the point, and never off it.