A Life in Leadership: From D-Day to Ground Zero

In November 2001, New York's Governor Pataki asked Whitehead to head up the Lower Manhattan Development Council. Although Whitehead reports that he was initially reluctant to take the job-he had just retired and wanted to spend some time traveling and catching up on reading-he eventually consented because he wanted to contribute to his city's redevelopment in the wake of 9/11. For this memoir, Whitehead trudges through the events of his life from his childhood in New Jersey and his years in the Navy to his leadership of Goldman Sachs and his part-ownership of the New Jersey Devils in tedious, meticulous detail. Whitehead observes that he learned most his leadership lessons (honesty, loyalty) from his years as a Boy Scout. He recalls how those years in scouting also led to lifelong friendships, such as the one with John McMullen, the friend with whom he later co-owned the Devils hockey team. He recalls with humor the time that he drove Henry Ford to his New York hotel in a Chevrolet, and he recounts his many years of work for non-profit organizations such as the International Rescue Committee. Finally, Whitehead offers a few lessons in leadership: ""The best leaders do a lot of listening,"" leaders should be willing to delegate tasks and ""effective leadership has to have an ethical dimension.""