KC native, KU graduate and Harvard professor Robert S. Kaplan can add his name to a prestigious list of political and business leaders — former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, Supreme Court chief Justice John Roberts, Vice-President Joe Biden; former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and NBC Anchor Tom Brokaw to name just a few — when he speaks at the Dole Institute on Nov. 17. (See below for more information.)

The author of “What to Ask the Person in the Mirror: Critical Questions for Becoming a More Effective Leader and Reaching Your Potential” published by Harvard Business School Press, Kaplan is no stranger to the spotlight. His business expertise and insight is often sought by the media — Bloomberg Business Week, the Boston Globe, Glamour Magazine and the local NBC Action News to name just a few.

Kaplan left Goldman Sachs in 2005 on a one-year leave of absence to teach at Harvard. He enjoyed it so he chose to stay at Harvard, something he calls “a fantastic thing.”

“In 2005 I was sitting on top of the world. It’s hard to get to the very top of a firm. You’re sitting there and life is pretty fun. You only do what you want to do. It was a blast,” he said.

He started thinking about the change a few years before he made it because he didn’t feel as good anymore about what he was accomplishing in the business world. It took him a few years to build up the courage to take the leave of absence.

“Once I came here to teach, I realized it was a fabulous thing. I think I can survive outside of Goldman and I think I can have a more positive impact in the world doing something else,” Kaplan said he told himself.

As he got more comfortable with teaching, he got more comfortable with the idea of writing a book.

“The truth is I have more access now to more leadership than I ever had, and I have a lot bigger impact than I ever had,” he said.

This is Kaplan’s first book. He enjoys writing and has written articles for Psychology Today and Huffington Post. As a professor, he is expected to do some writing so it’s something he has had to learn.

“I ran businesses. English was always a good subject for me but I would have never thought myself to be a writer,” he said.

Now he enjoys it.

“I like it more and more. I like teaching and I like writing. It’s been fun,” he said.

Kaplan didn’t write his book, however, because the university expected him to.

“I had written a couple of very popular articles in Harvard Business Review and they had felt like, gee if you write a book a lot of people are going to read it.”

“But more than that, I would say in the aftermath of the whole economic crisis I tried to help so many people that I finally decided I had a lot more to say than what I had said and a book might actually be worth writing. I had a zillion anecdotes about what I think leaders need to do and I hadn’t read anything out there like I was going to write,” he continued.

Kaplan was originally surprised he had the stuff to write a book. In fact when he was first approached, he turned down the offer.

“I said I can’t write a book. That’s not me. I’m the wrong guy. I don’t have a book in me. Then I realized that maybe, shockingly, maybe I do. But I have to feel pretty strongly to write a book and we’ll have to see if that happens again in the future.”

The book is No. 2 on Inc.com’s list of bestsellers for business executives and has been for the past three months. It’s gotten excellent reviews and is recommended to all levels of leadership from volunteers all the way to CEOs.

“A leader, by my definition, is anybody who spends time deciding what they believe and has the courage to act on it. So if you write a column, you are a leader. A single mother? That’s a leader. You can be in the military. That’s a leader.”

“On the flip side, you could manage thousands of people and not be a leader at all. You might be a good manager, but you’re not a leader. There are lots of managers out there that aren’t great leaders. They don’t ever try to figure out what they truly believe and have the courage to speak out and act on it,” he said.

The reason Kaplan believes the book has a broad appeal is because this book is written for that person.

“I wrote this to help that person who is struggling and striving to do that. That is not, by the way, an easy thing to do,” he said.

As already noted, the book has been selling well.

“A lot of companies are buying it and giving it to all their people. First the CEO reads it. Then he gives it to the top 20 people. Then they like it and say let’s give it to the top 500. That’s happened a lot,” he explained.

The son of Florence and the late Meyer Kaplan, he moved to the East Coast in 1981. But he returns to the area often to visit his mother, a member of Congregation Beth Shalom. He mentions his parents in the book’s dedication.

“To my parents, who taught me to never stop asking questions, and to all those who over the generations have protected our right to do so.”

Kaplan serves on a variety of boards for charitable organizations, including Project A.L.S. where he is chairman. He chose that particular organization in 1999 because his friend who founded the organization, Jenifer Estes, had the disease and eventually died from it. He has chaired or co-chaired it ever since.

When he’s passionate about something, like ALS, Kaplan said he dives in and studies it. Learning about ALS raised his interest in medical research. Former Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius was interested in both his business and medical research expertise, and invited him to become a member of the Kansas Healthcare Policy Authority Board (2006-2010), even though he no longer lived in the state.

“I had to go before the legislature and get approved and make sure I was committed to come to Kansas once a month,” he explained.

Now that he’s an educator, he feels he has more opportunities to actually help people. For instance he plans to visit Haiti in January to share his leadership expertise with the local case workers.

“I couldn’t have done that five years ago. Five years ago I would have been a spectator. Now I can actually be central to helping them. I actually know how. I love that.”

Professor speaks Nov. 17

Author Robert S. Kaplan, a professor at the Harvard Business School, former Vice Chairman of Goldman Sachs Group and KU alumnus, will discuss the fundamentals of successful leadership at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 17, at the Dole Institute on the University of Kansas campus. This event will include a book sale and signing of “What to Ask the Person in the Mirror: Critical Questions for Becoming a More Effective Leader and Reaching Your Potential.” The event is free and open to the public; no reservations are required.