Mother Teresa, CEO

In the early 1990s, at age 19, author Ruma Bose worked as a volunteer in Calcutta (now Kolkata) with Mother Teresa. Now Bose and co-author Lou Faust have identified eight key leadership principles Mother Teresa practiced diligently as she built the Missionaries of Charity into a global organization with billions of dollars in revenue. The authors include stories from their entrepreneurial and corporate experiences, easy-to-follow discussions, and incidents from Mother Teresa’s life to show how each principle can benefit you personally and professionally. When reflecting on Mother Teresa’s unique life and single-minded dedication, you may be tempted to view her gentle spirit, charitable work, and lofty goals as inspired by faith and somehow not relevant to the modern world. That would be misguided thinking. In fact, “you don’t have to be a saint” to gain from the fundamental tenets of her leadership, which are useful to managers at all levels. While some may think this short book is a bit simplistic, getAbstract finds that its very simplicity is a large part of what makes it so powerful.