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The Ambitious Leader

Leading at Light Speed is a powerful leadership book for businesses, public agencies, and nonprofits revealing the 10 specific ways an organization must act and behave to build trust, spark innovation, and create a high-performing organization.

The Ambition Paradox is a concept in Leading at Light Speed described in Chapter 9 along with three other Leadership Paradoxes. The other three are available upon purchase of the book.

True leaders are ambitious – but their ambitions are in service to something greater than themselves. Martin Luther King, Jr., Jimmy Carter, Cesar Chavez, Barack Obama – each of these ambitious men knew how to contain their personal ambition for the good of the larger cause. Renowned management consultant Peter Drucker describes it as a dedication to the fundamental needs of the organization. When Louis Gerstner took over at IBM, he saw the need for far greater customer focus. When Jack Welch took over at General Electric, he saw the need to divest the company of any business that wasn’t number one or two in its marketplace. When Darwin Smith took over at Kimberly-Clark, he saw the need to sell the mills and focus on the paper products business. Make no mistake: Each of these men was ambitious. But more importantly, each believed they knew what it was that the organization needed from them. No one told Gerstner or Welch or Smith to do these things. Each was motivated to find the means to the end. At the same time, these were the things that needed to be done.

Leaders master the fine line between self-serving ambition and selfless ambition. In the end, it boils down to the fact that effective leaders are willing to do the things that are right for the organization – even though it will challenge the organization and cause some people pain. So when faced with the ambition paradox, ask yourself: “Am I willing to suffer some personal loss – even up to losing my comfortable way of life or my job – in order to do what’s right?” If the answer is yes, then you’ve found the path through the ambition paradox.

Take this free work survey to discover how well your company measures up to the 10 key practices of high-performing organizations.

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