In REED Mag: NAPOLEON NEVER SLEPT: How Great Leaders Leverage Social Energy

From the current issue of REED Magazine:

Napoleon Never Slept: How Great Leaders Leverage Social Energy, by Maren McConnell-Collins ’98, coauthor (Maren Ink, 2015). Maren and her father, Randall Collins, a sociology professor at the University of Pennsylvania, investigate the common thread in highly successful individuals throughout history. They share their discovery that charismatic leaders motivate and are motivated by emotional energy. “Charismatic leaders set in motion positive feedback loops: people in the group build up a shared emotion; the stronger the emotion, the more they feel themselves in tune with each other, and the more tightly they focus together. And the more tightly they focus, the more their shared emotion pumps each other up.” More at www.maren.ink.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Civil War Two, Part 1

by Randall Collins

Giveaway ends May 24, 2018.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

What would Steve Jobs or Napoleon say about Amazon's workplace culture?

Our new book is called Napoleon Never Slept: How Great Leaders Leverage Social Energy, and has to do with the fact that great leaders get to be successful at least partly because they have so much energy. Did Napoleon really not sleep? Evidently, not much. Does this mean workers shouldn't sleep, and work night and day like Amazon employees reportedly do? Not exactly.
   Our big thesis is about how great leaders, including Napoleon, Steve Jobs, Alexander the Great, and others, are energetic people (many of whom, like Napoleon, happen to sleep considerably less than 8 hours a night) who energize the people they lead, and are in turn further energized by own successes and by the energy shared by the people they lead. So no, sleeping less in and of itself isn't the secret to great success, either individually or as an organization.
   But seriously, folks, read the book. Not just because we want you to buy it, but because our thesis can't be neatly or fully conveyed in a soundbite or even in a single blog post. This is real social science, though it makes for not a very long book, and we tried to make it easy enough for the layperson who doesn't like jargon, without talking down to anyone. Suitable for pro scholars and non- alike.

UPDATE, 9/4/15
   You can buy a pretty, soothing-to-the-eyes PDF at the Maren Ink site for about $14, or a nice new Kindle edition on Amazon for nearly $40. More formats and outlets may be available eventually, depending on demand.

Cartoon credit: Rob Rogers, August 22, 2015, http://www.dailyfunnies.us

Yo-yos

[Luce wears a headset like someone might wear when teaching an exercise class. She talks loud and acts like the boss.]

Luce: OK, everyone, listen up. Nobody apologize to anyone for the rest of your lives.

[There's a murmur and some muttering among Everyone Else.]

Mannet: Do we have to take responsibility for our actions?

L: No. I don't want anyone taking responsibility for anything. Not your own actions, not anything else. And I don't want anyone apologizing. Do I make myself clear?

Noofy: What do we do now?

L: Just go about your business, do your jobs, and take long breaks to play cards and some games with marbles. And I don't want to hear any apologizing.

M: Hey! This guy just stepped on my toe!

L: So? What do you want me to do about it?

M [pouting]: Nothing.

L: If anyone even thinks about apologizing, I'm gonna use your head for a yo-yo. All of you. I'm gonna take all your heads and put them on strings from your necks and hold 'em all together like a bouquet of yo-yos. And play with 'em.

N: You said BOUQUET!

[Everyone But Luce gasps.]

L: You guys all suck. You don't deserve a playtime leader like me. I'm leaving. [Luce just stands there with arms folded across chest. Some of the others stare; others take out little toys such as marbles and yo-yos and start playing quietly.]

--THE END!--

---

[See the site of National Sketch Writing Month for the meaning of all this.]