In the Face of Uncertainty: 25 Top Leaders Speak Out on Challenge, Change, and the Future of American Business

Written in the wake of September 11, 2001, the relevance of this book is reinforced in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Corporate scandals, terrorist attacks, war, and natural disaster have left our nation with a deep sense of uncertainty. This book draws insight from 25 leaders from various sectors (business, government, education, and more) to help us navigate these challenging times. All the chapters are helpful to those working in any area of career assistance. As a career coach and consultant, three chapters are particularly relevant. Those who coach leaders and executives will find the interview with John Alexander, President of the Center for Creative Leadership of particular interest. Alexander emphasizes the character of the leader and his authenticity. The leader must communicate in ways appropriate to his audience, from the front line employee, to the board room, yet remain consistent in his message. Alexander insists that this kind of integrity is what people want most. William Bridges and his organization, William Bridges and Associates, have become a premier resource for dealing with change. Many are familiar with his books including, Transitions, Job Shift, and Managing Transitions. In Bridges interview he distinguishes between change and transition. Change is the natural state of things. Everything we desire to hold on to was once the product of change. Change is what happens to us. Transition, on the other hand, is the way we assimilate change and adapt to it. The problem comes when change accelerates to the point that we are dealing with more frequent and faster change than we can transition and process, leaving us running a transition deficit. The challenge for leaders in organizations is to do more than announce and lead change. They must also lead through the transition process and its stages. Stephen G. Harrison is President of Lee Hecht Harrison, one of the countries largest outplacement firms. Harrison describes an emerging model for the company/employee relationship contrasting commitment, which implies a kind of blind loyalty and one-sided benefit, with engagement, a relationship in which company and employee are partners in a mutual mission until the purpose is achieved. Harrison also likens the recent era of corporate expansion and sudden contraction with a binge and purge eating disorder, in which the effects are stressful, expensive and destructive to companies and terminated employees alike. Career Professionals are working with people to set goals, establish a sense of purpose, and execute career management strategy in challenging and, for many, unsettling times. In the face of uncertainty offers much welcomed perspective and hope for such a task.

Martha Finney's In The Face Of Uncertainty interviews over twenty top leaders on the future challenges of doing business in America. Major CEOs and Presidents from various sectors, from nonprofits to government, provide insights on the future workforce and its special needs.

In the aftermath of the horrific events of September 11, 2001, it was inevitable that publishers would rush to produce books that would respond to the events and move us forward in history. We could expect all sorts of quality in content and production. The AMACOM contribution is worth reading, sharing, and keeping.The author is a veteran business journalist, management consultant, and speaker-the kind of person you'd expect to be able to communicate with respected leaders and draw out their thoughts, their feelings, and their advice. At a time that solid perspectives are needed, this book provides them.Let's talk about content first-the people who contributed to this work through their interviews. One might expect the customary parade of overpaid CEOs whose public relations agents seek more opportunities to gain image-building exposure. All the major companies would be represented, including the ones that are flaming out because of deficiencies in the very leadership that we need.Surprise! The interviewees are much more diverse, not always the top dog, and some are even retired. They're included in the book because they have something worthwhile to say...and be heard. While including lists like this are not particularly recommended in book reviews, I feel it's appropriate in this case. Their interviews, incidentally, are presented in alphabetical order to avoid suggesting that any is more important than another.You'll learn from Grant Aldonas, Under Secretary, International Trade, US Department of Commerce; John Alexander, President, Center for Creative Leadership; Charles Barclay, President, American Association of Airport Executives; Curtis Carlson, CEO & President, SRI International; Michael Carns, General (retired), US Air Force; Peggy Conlon, CEO & President of the Ad Council; Leo Daly III, Chairman & President, Leo O. Daly; Ronald Daly, President, R. R. Donnelley Print Solutions; Ralph Dickerson, President, United Way of New York City; Gerald Fitzgerald, President, PB Aviation; Joe Galli, President & CEO, Newell Rubbermaid; Stephen Harrison, President, Lee Hecht Harrison; Chester Haskell, President, Monterey Institute for International Studies; Sunir Kapoor, Founder, E-Stamp; Christopher Komisarjevsky, CEO Worldwide & President, Burston-Marsteller; James Lawrence, Chief Financial Officer, General Mills; Howard Learner, Executive Director, Environmental Law & Policy Center; James Madden V, Chairman, CEO, & President, Exult; Marilyn Carlson Nelson, Chairman & CEO, Carlson Companies; Marjorie Randolph, Senior Vice President, Human Resources, Walt Disney Studios; Leonard Schaeffer, Chairman & CEO, WellPoint Health Networks; Theodore Shackley, Associate Director of Operations (retired), Central Intelligence Agency; Ken Smith, CEO, President, & Founder, Jobs for America's Graduates; William Strickland, CEO & President, Manchester Bidwell Corporation, Tai-Chin Tung, Chief Financial Officer, Charles Schwab, and an epilogue wi

Martha Finney's insightful interviews with 25 distinguished American executives (actually 26, when the fine bonus interview at the end is added in) present uncommon wisdom on a wide range of critical contemporary issues from an equally wide range of perspectives. The starting point is the terrifying attacks of September 11, 2001 and the new uncertainties they have suddenly thrust into all our lives; bur the breadth of responses is far greater, for this varied group from richly diverse fields -- from business to technology to education to philanthropy to the CIA, and more -- offers advice on lifetime concerns that challenge us all. What makes this volume especially valuable is Martha Finney's ability to ask penetrating follow-on questions that elicit equally penetrating answers. The format of the interviews is especially good in that each unfolds a line of inquiry specific to the interviewee, and then concludes with the same three questions for all: (1)What are you certain of? (2)What are you uncertain of? and (3)What is the essential ingredient for resilience? The result is that the reader has both a set of unique occupation-related perspectives and a remarkable comparison on the questions of certainty and uncertainty; and on the latter -- despite the variety of fields represented -- there is remarkable consensus. Read this fine book and find out!