Rick Hillier

General Rick Hillier's views on leadership evolved over his three decades as a soldier, first by watching many of his superiors make bad decisions, then by learning from the school of hard knocks as the head of emergency rescue operations in Canada and international task forces in eastern Europe and Afghanistan. Never one to be shy with his opinions, Hillier is as frank and straightforward in Leadership Matters as he is in his #1 bestselling memoir, A Soldier First. For Hillier, leadership is all about people—embracing those in your charge and winning over those you need to work with—not about risk aversion or management fads. Leaders think long, and have a vision. Their actions speak, not their words, and they make their own luck. But leaders also act out of moral courage, accept failure, take advantage of crisis and are perpetually optimistic. Leadership Matters is an inspirational, easy-to-read and, in true Hillier fashion, always entertaining collection of principles that will challenge the way you run your business, start a project or take that next step in life.

In the summer of 2008, General Rick Hillier retired as Chief of the Defence staff of the Canadian Forces. You could almost hear the sigh of relief in Ottawa as Canada's most popular, and most controversial, military leader since the second World War left a role in which he'd been as frank, unpredictable and resolutely apolitical as any of his predecessors.

Born and raised in Newfoundland, Hillier joined the military as a young man and quickly climbed the ranks. He played a significant role in such domestic challenges as the ice storm that paralyzed much of eastern Ontario and Quebec in 1998, and quickly became a player on the international scene, commanding an American corps in Texas and a multinational NATO task force in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

But it was his role as General Rick Hillier, Canada's Chief of the Defence staff, that defined him as a Canadian icon. In Afghanistan, Canada faced its first combat losses since the Korean War, with every casualty becoming front page news. A country formerly ambivalent, or even angry, about its role in the conflict suddenly became gripped by the drama unfolding not only in a war zone halfway around the world but in unfriendly conference rooms in Ottawa.

There, as everywhere, Hillier pulled no punches, demanding more funding, more troops and more appreciation for the women and men fighting a war on foreign soil. This hard-hitting, honest account of Hillier's role -- told in his own words -- will be one of the most important books published in Canada this decade.