Eyewitness to Power : The Essence of Leadership: Nixon to Clinton

Fresh from the political wars, where he served as a White House adviser to Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton, a campaign aide to Bush, and a close-up reporter of Carter, David Gergen assesses the key leadership lessons they offer for coming presidents. None possessed sufficient qualities to achieve the greatness historians reserve for Washington, Lincoln, and Franklin Roosevelt. A great leader must have seven core elements: personal character that inspires trust, a moral vision for the nation's future, the political skills of both a lion and a fox, a capacity to mobilize followers through the modern media, an ability to recover from defeat and face future crises, an ability to attract and listen to wise advisers, and a capacity to bequeath a workable legacy.

Gergen has watched these chief executives deal with decision making, with conflicting advice, with their private lives, the task of defining and conveying their goals, and their success or failure at capturing the public's imagination. He nominates a team of all-stars from the past nine presidencies.

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David Gergen is currently a professor of public service at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and Codirector of the school's Center for Public Leadership.