Apples Are Square: Thinking Differently About Leadership, by Susan Smith Kuczmarski, Ed.D. and Thomas D. Kuczmarski
Posted by Dan Janal, Your Fearless PR LEADER | October 22nd, 2007
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Question: Who is the intended audience?
Answer: The employee as well as the leader within all kinds of settings–business, academia, technology, sports, entertainment, arts, non-profit, spiritual, and government.
Q: What is the book about?
A: Imagine the opportunity to talk with 25 of America’s most respected leaders—-people like Craig Newmark, founder of craigslist; Mary Ellen Weber, former NASA astronaut; Susan Anton, Broadway star and actress; Dean Kamen of Segway; and Dipak Jain, dean of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School—-to learn firsthand what makes them so effective in their lives and work. Through our conversations, a new leadership model emerges, one that says there are effective ways to manage organizations and make profits without leaving a sense of humanity at the office door. More and more, at the helm of successful companies, you’ll find a different sort of leader. Collaborators, not controllers, they are “square apples,” bold men and women who dare to create success by reshaping the workplace with our 6 innovative values.
Q: Why are you the best person to write this book?
A: We are the co-authors of the pioneering book Values-Based Leadership. Susan has taught leadership skills to audiences ranging from youth organizations to the United Nations. Tom has taught innovation for 27 years at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Authors of 7 books, our research, speeches, seminars, teaching, and pragmatic consulting have made us leading experts in the field of leadership.
Q: How is this book different from other books on this topic?
A: Our new leadership model is guided by 6 critical values: humility, compassion, transparency, inclusiveness, collaboration, and values-based decisiveness.
Q: Is there anything else we should know about this book?
A: “Square apples” symbolically stand for a new way to lead and measure success. Just as former NFL star Chris Zorich’s mother took rotten apples and reshaped them into something edible and appealing, we need to take bruised work environments, cut off the bad spots, and reshape them into dynamic, inclusive, and collaborative organizations
