Richard Couto

A leadership scholar talks about the essential qualities of a leader and how complexity keeps humanity moving forward.

We are currently working on curating this profile page. In the meantime, please see Richard Couto’s full oral history.

Born or Made?

“I think you can learn to be a leader and I think it’s a learned talent. But the motivation to learn it is, it has to be there, so maybe that’s innate.”

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Leaders Are Readers

  • “One of the primary reasons I write is to give voice to people who I think have a very interesting story that touches on the heart of who we think we are as Americans.”

Books I Recommend

  • The Emperor's New Clothes
    —by Hans Christian Andersen
    (Fiction; Fairy Tale)
  • The Powers to Lead
    —by Joseph Nye
    (Non-Fiction; Leadership)
  • A Very Short Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book About Studying Leadership
    —by Brad Jackson
    (Non-Fiction; Leadership)
  • Leadership and the New Science
    —by Margaret Wheatley
    (Non-Fiction; Leadership)
  • Leadership Without Easy Answers
    —by Ron Heifetz's
    (Non-Fiction; Leadership)
  • Leading Minds
    —by Howard Gardner
    (Non-Fiction; Biography)
  • Leadership for the Twenty-First Century
    —by Joseph C. Rost
    (Non-Fiction; Leadership)
  • The Journey to the East
    —by Hermann Hess
    (Fiction; Classics)
  • The Call of Service
    —by Robert Coles
    (Non-Fiction; Philosophy)

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