Story Library
Real leaders.
True stories.
Fear gets compliance. Trust gets commitment. These 34 true stories are the proof: crews, projects, turnarounds and companies that would not have made it without one leader who held the line. Every one ends with a lesson you can use on Monday.
Featured story
Captain Al Haynes and United 232
A DC-10 with no flight controls, a crew that shared command, and a city that had already rehearsed the worst day of its life.
Read the story →Crews Under Pressure
When the engines quit, leadership is all that's left.
Captain Al Haynes and United 232
No hydraulics, no flight controls, and a captain who asked for everyone's help.
Gene Kranz and Apollo 13
Three men, a crippled ship, 200,000 miles out. The room stayed calm.
Captain Sullenberger and Flight 1549
208 seconds, no engines, 155 people. The crew had trained for this moment.
Ernest Shackleton and the Endurance
His ship sank in Antarctic ice. Every one of his 28 men came home.
Built on One Leader's Vision
Projects and products that would not exist without one person who held the line.
Kelly Johnson and the Skunk Works
America's first operational jet fighter, built in 143 days under a circus tent.
Joe Sutter and the Boeing 747
He said no to the double-decker, kept his engineers, and built the jumbo jet.
Alan Mulally and the Boeing 777
He put the airlines, the mechanics and the bad news on the table from day one.
Admiral Rickover and the Nuclear Navy
Underway on nuclear power, and decades of reactor operation without a reactor accident.
Ben Rich and the F-117 Stealth Fighter
A Soviet paper, a young engineer's math and a boss who bet on a flat, ugly diamond.
Akio Morita and the Sony Walkman
His engineers said nobody would buy a tape player that couldn't record.
Frank Crowe and Hoover Dam
He finished the biggest dam on earth two years early. He also got it wrong.
Joseph Strauss and the Golden Gate Bridge
Nineteen men fell from the Golden Gate Bridge and lived. Here's why.
Back From the Brink
Companies one leader brought back when everyone else had written them off.
Alan Mulally and the Red Slide at Ford
Ford was losing billions and every chart said green. Then one red slide changed it all.
Lou Gerstner Keeps IBM in One Piece
IBM was about to be broken up. An outsider went and asked the customers first.
Gordon Bethune Takes Continental from Worst to First
The worst airline in America. A $65 check for every employee. First place within months.
Anne Mulcahy Refuses to Let Xerox Fail
Advisers said file for bankruptcy. She said no, and went out to meet the people.
Jørgen Vig Knudstorp Brings LEGO Back to the Brick
LEGO was running out of cash. The fix was doing fewer things, and doing them better.
Satya Nadella Turns Microsoft into a Learn-It-All
Microsoft was rich and stuck. The new CEO started by changing how its leaders behaved.
Patrick Doyle and the Domino's Pizza Turnaround
Customers said the crust tasted like cardboard. Domino's put that on national TV.
Steve Jobs and the Four-Box Apple
Apple was weeks from insolvency. He drew four boxes and cut everything else.
People First
Leaders who paid well, honored their people, and got commitment in return.
Toyota and the Andon Cord
GM's worst plant became its best, with the same workers. A cord made the difference.
Herb Kelleher and Southwest Airlines
Employees first, customers second, shareholders third. It worked for 47 years.
Jim Sinegal and Costco
Wall Street said he paid workers too much. His workers stayed and the profits came.
Hewlett, Packard and the Nine-Day Fortnight
1970: HP had to cut 10%. Nobody was fired; most took every other Friday off.
Ken Iverson and Nucor
When steel crashed, the CEO's pay fell furthest. Nobody got laid off.
Horst Schulze and the Ritz-Carlton
Any employee could spend $2,000 to fix a guest's problem. No approval needed.
David Marquet and the USS Santa Fe
A captain gave an order that couldn't be done. The crew obeyed anyway.
Ed Catmull and Pixar
Toy Story 2 was nearly deleted, then nearly broken. Candor saved it.
Doing Right When It Cost Them
The standard that held when it was expensive to hold it.
James Burke and the Tylenol Crisis
Seven people died. He pulled 31 million bottles before anyone made him.
Paul O'Neill and Alcoa
His first speech to investors wasn't about profits. It was about injuries.
Aaron Feuerstein and the Malden Mills Fire
His factory burned two weeks before Christmas. He kept paying everyone anyway.
Mary Barra and GM's Ignition-Switch Reckoning
Weeks into the top job, she inherited a deadly defect. She refused to move on.
Fly the Airplane
Leaders who chose the destination and committed to it.
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