The virtue of quiet leadership: you can be a remarkably persuasive leader without being a dashing figure or a thundering orator.

• Author: Whitehead, John C.

As a young man of 22, John C. Whitehead led a landing party at Normandy on D-Day. As a man about to turn 80, he agreed to lead the rebuilding effort at the site of 9/11 as chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. In between these two historical moments was a life lived as a leader. He joined Goldman, Sachs & Co. in 1947, eventually heading the investment banking division and then co-chairing the firm from 1976 to 1984. He agreeably abandoned any plans to enjoy the retired life when he was pressed into service during the second Reagan administration to be deputy secretary of state. And he has readily answered the call from a multitude of corporations and nonprofit organizations to be a board member (and, often with the nonprofits, the board chair). The following is an excerpt from his autobiography A Life in Leadership, published in June 2005.

AS I LOOK BACK on my life, I'm struck by how often I have ended up in leadership positions, ranging from heading up a group of small boats to storm Normandy Beach on D-Day, or, 60 years later, leading the effort to rebuild Lower Manhattan after 9/11. And I have headed up more than a dozen other groups, large and small, in the many years in between.

I never set out to do any of that. At D-Day, I was just as frightened as anyone else, and I would have been happy to be left out of the landing itself, as it looked for a time that I would be. But once it became clear that I was going to be involved as a first-wave leader, I was determined to do the very best job I could. To me, this meant staying calm, maintaining our formation, and taking it upon myself to make whatever decisions were required.

Although I have always had a fairly deep-seated confidence in my ability to get things done, I don't have a huge ego, and have never felt a powerful need to be in charge. So why have I ended up running so many operations? I think that the answer is that I have simply sensed, possibly earlier and more strongly than others, the need for direction in every organization, and I have responded to that need by trying to provide it. I suppose the classic example was at Goldman Sachs in the fifties, when I alone started to worry about what would happen to the firm after Sidney Weinberg was gone. None of the other partners gave it a thought, just as many leaders of organizations often don't give much consideration to the large issues that are evident on the horizon but do not require immediate action.

At Goldman Sachs, I simply couldn't help myself; I had to act on my concern for the firm. True, some of my response stemmed from self-interest: If the firm went down, I would go with it. But I could see that my interests were the firm's interests, and vice versa. The firm and I would succeed or fail together. I think that is the difference: My sense of my own interests is wider than usual, and includes those of the entire group. That is an essential element of my definition of a leader.

Not my style

The classic image of an American leader is someone like Teddy Roosevelt, leading his men up San Juan Hill in a hail of bullets. General Douglas MacArthur, Lee Iacocca, Bear Bryant, and Bobby Knight are all in that mold--brash, charismatic, compelling, and seemingly fearless. That has never been my style, though. I've always believed in the virtue of what I call quiet leadership. My models are people like President Dwight Eisenhower, General George Marshall, David Rockefeller, Kofi Annan, and Mother Teresa. They are not the swashbuckling heroes of the Hollywood variety. Instead, they are quiet, patient, thoughtful people who rarely let their passions rule them. Their inspiration is calmer, almost spiritual in nature, as they are guided by high ideals. They are not thundering orators, nor dashing figures, but they can be remarkably persuasive all the same by appealing to the better side of a person. I think society can use more people like that; such people usually accomplish more than the loud, flamboyant types.

If I had one suggestion to a young person, it would be to think of yourself, whatever your personal style and whatever your chosen career, as a leader. The world cries out for leadership. Why not you! Just to think of yourself as someone others should look to for guidance is often the beginning of a discovery of your own leadership potential. If you want to bring positive change to the world and to make a difference in your life, you need to be a leader. Followers are important, but leaders are essential.

A lot of listening

Another quality: The best leaders do a lot of listening. As I counseled my new-business men at Goldman Sachs, you can't learn anything when you're talking. You are just repeating what you already know. To learn, you need to listen. When I am presented with a difficult problem, I call together the relevant experts and seek their advice. Afterwards, even if they disagree with the conclusion I reach...