Lead Like Ike – Ten Business Strategies From the CEO of D-Day tells the story of Operation Overlord from the time General Dwight D. Eisenhower was appointed leader of the effort to wrest control of Europe from Nazi domination, with the story carrying through to Ike’s eventual stint as 34th President of the United States. Author Geoff Loftus takes us on an historical journey through one of the most daunting military undertakings ever attempted to illustrate lessons which can be used in business today.
Loftus breaks the lessons into these ten key areas:
- Determine Your Mission
- Plan for Success
- Stay Focused
- Prioritize
- Plan to Implement
- Communicate
- Motivate Your People
- Manage Your People
- Avoid Project Creep
- Be Honest
To be sure, Ike did not always succeed at these ten things, but he did succeed where it counted and it brought great credit to him and the members of the Allied military forces. And, while success can teach lessons, failures can as well. Loftus points out where Eisenhower learned from his misques and became a better leader because of them – a lesson we can all benefit from.
While the focus is on Eisenhower’s efforts to lead the Allies during the latter part of World War II, Loftus further illuminates these ten points using events from businesses and business leaders past and present, from Henry Ford to Steve Jobs and from Enron to Time-Warner. It’s an interesting mixture of stories which helps put things into perspective.
As a history buff, I enjoyed the takeaways on how Ike handled things. The invasion of France on D-Day and the eventual campaign to defeat the Nazis was a huge task with only total victory being an acceptable end. The logistics alone bring to mind the worst headaches any business person could imagine. Combine this with having to manage a staff consisting of very strong and powerful personalities (such as Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery and General George S. Patton being the two most colorful) and you can see where Ike had to be a tremendous leader in order to manage the operation.
I recommend this book to anyone aspiring to leadership, whether in business or otherwise. If you are a history buff, I doubly recommend it. I learned a great deal of background information about D-Day which I found quite interesting.
Lead Like Ike by Geoff Loftus (Amazon affiliate link)
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