Leadership Dubai Style

For the first time ever, the habits behind Dubai's success... Every now and then a story comes along that absolutely captures your attention. Dubai is one of those for me, but not just me--millions around the world yearn to come to Dubai. This global supercity, which just five decades ago was a cholera-plagued backwater, might just be the picture of a dream becoming reality. But how, exactly, did this incredible transformation take place? Leadership! But not your run-of-the-mill government leadership, nor typical corporate leadership, nor leadership taught in classrooms. This is Dubai-style leadership. Living and working in Dubai for the past decade, I've seen the leadership impact firsthand. As a leadership scholar and advisor to CEOs, I thought I was perfectly situated to discover the reasons behind Dubai's success. So, in 2008 I set out to discover the city's "secret sauce." Then the Global Financial Crisis hit! Disaster! I pressed the pause button on my research, and, like everyone in the city, held my breath. Well, what happened next confirmed that there is indeed something unique and special here. I spent the next three years researching, interviewing more than two hundred leaders, and identifying the city's leadership secrets, eventually whittling them down to twelve habits. My aim was to develop a replicable model that I could share with my readers--leaders in businesses, governments, and elsewhere. Anyone who is interested in leadership, and in particular achieving exceptional results, can benefit from understanding the twelve habits I outline here. To learn how to lead Dubai style, we need to walk the desert paths of the past to the superhighways of the future. Leadership Dubai Style retraces the city's journey and draws out the leadership habits that emerged over time. For decades Dubai brought in--imported--leading minds from every field to learn from them. Now it's time for Dubai to teach us--to teach us how to lead!