Leading Minds addresses a crucial and often ignored component of leadership -- the mind. What distinguishes the mind of an effective leader, and what is the mentality of his or her followers? Gardner links the study of creativity with the study of leadership to demonstrate the many similarities between traditional creators (artists and scientists) and leaders in business, politics and the military. He argues that the key to leadership is the creation of an arresting story -- one that grabs the followers' attention and inspires them to greater efforts. In portraits of a wide range of leaders -- from Oppenheimer to Gandhi -- Gardner re-creates each of their stories, shows where each fits in the matrix of "leader archetypes", and reveals the ways in which they ultimately succeed or fail.