Scott A. Snook

Scott Snook is currently the MBA Class of 1958 Senior Lecturer of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School.

He graduated with honors from West Point earning the Royal Society of Arts Award for the most outstanding overall cadet in his class.  Following graduation, he was commissioned in the US Army Corps of Engineers where he served in various command and staff positions for over 22 years, earning the rank of Colonel before retiring in 2002. He has led soldiers in combat. Among his military decorations are the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and Master Parachutist badge. He has an MBA from the Harvard Business School, where he graduated with High Distinction as a Baker Scholar. Dr. Snook earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University in Organizational Behavior winning the Sage-Louis Pondy Best Dissertation Award from the Academy of Management for his study of the Friendly Fire Shootdown in Northern Iraq. Until July of 2002, Colonel Snook served as an Academy Professor in the Behavioral Sciences and Leadership Department at the United States Military Academy. He also directed West Point's Center for Leadership and Organizations Research as well as its joint Master's Program in Leader Development.

Scott’s passion is to help others live more "meaning-full" lives. More specifically, he is  interested in unpacking and understanding transformational leader (human) development experiences --how to make the most out of life's curriculum, as well as how to create high-leverage/high-impact interventions to accelerate the growth of leaders.

Professor Snook's book, Friendly Fire was selected by the Academy of Management to receive the 2002 Terry Award as the most influential book on managerial thinking published during the past two years. He has also co-authored a book that explores the role of "common sense" in leadership titled, Practical Intelligence in Everyday Life (2000) and co-edited The Handbook for Teaching Leadership: Knowing, Doing, and Being (2011). Most recently, he co-authored The Discover Your True North Fieldbook (2015), which is the primary text for “Authentic Leader Development,” the popular MBA elective he has taught for over ten years. Professor Snook has shared his leadership insights in formal executive education programs at Harvard and with numerous corporate audiences around the world.

Scott currently lives in Concord, Massachusetts with his wife Kathleen.

Books

• Craig, Nick, Bill George, and Scott Snook. The Discover Your True North Fieldbook: A Personal Guide to Finding Your Authentic Leadership. Rev. and updated ed. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2015. View Details
• Snook, Scott, Nitin Nohria and Rakesh Khurana, eds. The Handbook for Teaching Leadership: Knowing, Doing, and Being. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2012. View Details
• Snook, Scott. Cadet Leader Development System. West Point, NY: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2002. (booklet.) View Details
• Sternberg, Robert J., George B. Forsythe, Jennifer Hedlund, Joseph A. Horvath, Richard K. Wagner, Wendy M. Williams, Scott A. Snook, and Elena L. Grigorenko. Practical Intelligence in Everyday Life. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2000. View Details
• Snook, Scott A. Friendly Fire: The Accidental Shootdown of U.S. Black Hawks Over Northern Iraq. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000. (Winner of George R. Terry Book Award Granted annually to the book judged to have made the most outstanding contribution to the advancement of management knowledge presented by Academy of Management.) View Details

Journal Articles

• Craig, Nick, and Scott Snook. "From Purpose to Impact: Figure Out Your Passion and Put It to Work." Harvard Business Review 92, no. 5 (May 2014): 105–111. View Details
• Khurana, Rakesh, and Scott A. Snook. "Identity Work in Business Schools: From Don Quixote, to Dons and Divas." Special Anniversary Issue Journal of Management Inquiry 20, no. 4 (December 2011): 358–361. (Commentary on The Scholar's Quest, an essay by James March.) View Details
• Snook, Scott, Paul T. Bartone, Jarie Eid, Bjorn Helge Johnsen, and Jon Christian Laberg. "Big Five Personality Factors, Hardiness, and Social Judgment as Predictors of Leader Performance." Leadership & Organization Development Journal 30, no. 6 (2009): 498–521. (Winner of Emerald Literati Network Outstanding Paper Award presented by Emerald Group Publishing​.) View Details
• Snook, Scott A. "Love and Fear and the Modern Boss." Special Issue on HBS Centennial. Harvard Business Review 86, no. 1 (January 2008). View Details
• Snook, Scott, and Paul T. Bartone. "Psychosocial Development and Leader Performance of Military Officer Cadets." Leadership Quarterly 18, no. 5 (October 2007): 490–504. View Details
• Snook, Scott, and Rakesh Khurana. "Comments on Glenn Hubbard's Business, Knowledge, and Global Growth." Capitalism and Society 1, no. 3 (December 2006). View Details
• Snook, Scott, Philip Lewis, Paul Bartone, Forsythe B. Forsythe, Craig Bullis, and Patrick Sweeney. "Identity Development During the College Years: Findings From the West Point Longitudinal Study." Journal of College Student Development 46, no. 4 (July–August 2005). View Details
• Snook, Scott. "Be, Know, Do: Forming Character the West Point Way." Compass 1, no. 2 (spring 2004): 16–19. View Details
• Snook, Scott. "Review of Leading with Purpose: The New Corporate Realities, by Richard R. Ellsworth." Academy of Management Review 28, no. 4 (October 2003): 675–677. View Details
• Snook, Scott, Jennifer Hedlund, George B. Forsythe, Joseph A. Horvath, Wendy M. Williams, and Robert J. Sternberg. "Identifying and Assessing Tacit Knowledge: Understanding the Practical Intelligence of Military Leaders." Leadership Quarterly 14, no. 2 (April 2003): 117–140. View Details
• Bartone, Paul T., Scott A. Snook, and Trueman R. Tremble Jr. "Cognitive and Personality Predictors of Leader Performance in West Point Cadets." Military Psychology 14, no. 4 (October 2002): 321–338. View Details

Book Chapters

• Snook, Scott, and Rakesh Khurana. "Studying Elites in Institutions of Higher Education." Chap. 6 in Handbook of Qualitative Organizational Research: Innovative Pathways and Methods, edited by Kimberly D. Elsbach and Roderick M. Kramer, 54–65. New York, NY: Routledge, 2015. View Details
• Snook, Scott, Nitin Nohria, and Rakesh Khurana. "Teaching Leadership: Advancing the Field." Chap. 1 in The Handbook for Teaching Leadership: Knowing, Doing, and Being, edited by Scott Snook, Nitin Nohria, and Rakesh Khurana. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2011. View Details
• Snook, Scott, Herminia Ibarra, and Laura Ramo. "Identity-Based Leader Development." Chap. 22 in Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice, edited by Nitin Nohria and Rakesh Khurana, 657–678. Harvard Business Press, 2010. View Details
• Snook, Scott A., and Rakesh Khurana. "The End of the Great Man." In The Essential Bennis, edited by Warren Bennis, 138–159. Jossey-Bass, 2009. View Details
• Snook, Scott, and Jeffrey C. Connor. "The Price of Progress: Structually Induced Inaction." Chap. 10 in Organization at the Limit: Lessons from the Columbia Disaster, edited by M. Farjoun and W. Starbuck, 178–201. Blackwell Publishing, 2005. View Details
• Snook, Scott, and Rakesh Khurana. "Developing 'Leaders of Character': Lessons from West Point." In Leadership and Governance from the Inside Out, edited by Robert Gandossy and Jeffrey Sonnenfeld. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2004. View Details
• Forsythe, George B., Scott Snook, Philip Lewis, and Paul T. Bartone. "Making Sense of Officership: Developing a Professional Identity for 21st Century Army Officers." Chap. 24 in The Future of the Army Profession, edited by Lloyd J. Matthews, 357–378. McGraw-Hill, 2002. View Details

Cases and Teaching Materials

• Snook, Scott, Brittany Raetzman, Christine Schoppe, and Jennifer Schoppe. "Bandwidth.com: Answering the Call." Harvard Business School Case 416-014, August 2015. View Details
• Snook, Scott A., and Bradley Lawrence. "Coach Hurley at St. Anthony High School." Harvard Business School Case 413-091, March 2013. View Details
• Snook, Scott A., and Doug Crandall. "Scotty Smiley." Harvard Business School Case 412-058, September 2011. (Revised October 2011.) View Details
• Snook, Scott A., and Jeffrey C. Connor. "Children's Hospital Boston (A)." Harvard Business School Case 411-041, November 2010. View Details
• Groysberg, Boris, and Scott A. Snook. "Leadership Development at Goldman Sachs (TN)." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 407-080, May 2007. (Revised April 2010.) View Details
• Snook, Scott A. "Leader(ship) Development." Harvard Business School Case 408-064, October 2007. (Revised June 2008.) View Details
• Snook, Scott A. "Friendly Fire (TN)." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 408-078, November 2007. View Details
• Snook, Scott A., and Steven Shafer. "Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (TN)." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 408-065, October 2007. View Details
• Groysberg, Boris, Scott A. Snook, and David Lane. "Leadership Development at Goldman Sachs." Harvard Business School Case 406-002, November 2005. (Revised March 2007.) View Details
• Groysberg, Boris, Scott A. Snook, and David Lane. "The Pine Street Initiative at Goldman Sachs." Harvard Business School Case 407-053, November 2006. View Details
• Snook, Scott A. "Coach Knight: The Will to Win and Coach K: A Matter of the Heart (TN)." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 406-103, April 2006. View Details
• Snook, Scott A., Leslie A. Perlow, and Brian DeLacey. "Coach K: A Matter of the Heart." Harvard Business School Case 406-044, August 2005. (Revised December 2005.) View Details
• Snook, Scott A., Leslie A. Perlow, and Brian DeLacey. "Coach Knight: The Will to Win." Harvard Business School Case 406-043, August 2005. (Revised December 2005.) View Details
• Polzer, Jeffrey T., and Scott A. Snook. "Army Crew Team, The (TN)." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 404-117, June 2004. (Revised March 2005.) View Details
• Snook, Scott A., Robert Kaderavek, and Jeremy Schneider. "Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A)." Harvard Business School Case 404-089, January 2004. (Revised August 2004.) View Details
• Snook, Scott A., Robert Kaderavek, and Jeremy Schneider. "Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (C): Role for CPT Flip Finnegan." Harvard Business School Exercise 404-133, April 2004. (Revised August 2004.) View Details
• Snook, Scott A., Robert Kaderavek, and Jeremy Schneider. "Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (B): Role for 2LT Hank Smith." Harvard Business School Exercise 404-134, April 2004. (Revised August 2004.) View Details
• Snook, Scott A., Robert Kaderavek, and Jeremy Schneider. "Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (D): Role for LTC Hanson." Harvard Business School Exercise 404-135, April 2004. (Revised August 2004.) View Details
• Snook, Scott A., Leslie J. Freeman, L. Jeffrey Norwalk, and Bridget Gurtler. "Friendly Fire." Harvard Business School Case 404-083, January 2004. (Revised June 2004.) View Details
• Snook, Scott A., and Jeffrey T. Polzer. "Army Crew Team, The." Harvard Business School Case 403-131, January 2003. (Revised March 2004.) View Details
• Nohria, Nitin, and Scott A. Snook. "DISC (A) (Abridged)." Harvard Business School Case 496-029, October 1995. View Details
• Nohria, Nitin, and Scott A. Snook. "DISC (A-1) (Abridged)." Harvard Business School Supplement 496-030, October 1995. View Details
• Nohria, Nitin, and Scott A. Snook. "DISC (B) (Abridged)." Harvard Business School Case 496-031, October 1995. View Details
• Nohria, Nitin, and Scott A. Snook. "DISK (A)." Harvard Business School Case 496-032, October 1995. View Details
• Nohria, Nitin, and Scott A. Snook. "DISC (A-1)." Harvard Business School Supplement 496-033, October 1995. View Details
• Nohria, Nitin, and Scott A. Snook. "DISC (B)." Harvard Business School Case 496-034, October 1995. View Details
• Nohria, Nitin, and Scott A. Snook. "DISC (C)." Harvard Business School Supplement 496-035, October 1995. View Details

Presentations

• Snook, Scott. "Leading in Difficult Times." , Quito, Ecuador, April 01, 2012. View Details
• Snook, Scott. "Leading Complex Organizations." Paper presented at the Risky Business Conference, Boston, MA, November 01, 2011. View Details
• Snook, Scott. "Values Based Leadership." Paper presented at the Boston Leadership Summit, Boston, MA, October 01, 2011. View Details
• Snook, Scott. "Values & Leadership Education." Paper presented at the HBS Global Leadership Forum, Boston, MA, June 2011. (Co-chaired conference with Nitin Nohria and Rakesh Khurana.) View Details
• Snook, Scott. "Leading Under Conditions of Uncertainty." Paper presented at the Interdisciplinary Center, Hertseliyah, CEO Forum, Herzliya, Israel, May 1, 2011. View Details
• Snook, Scott. "Leading in a VUCCA World." Paper presented at the Children's Hospital, Boston, Senior Physicians Leader Development Program, Boston, MA, February 2011. View Details
• Snook, Scott. "Imagining the Future of Leadership." Paper presented at the HBS Global Leadership Forum, Boston, MA, June 2010. View Details
• Snook, Scott. "Leading in Difficult Times." Paper presented at the Harvard Business Review Latin America Leaders Symposium, Mexico City, Mexico, November 25, 2009. View Details
• Snook, Scott. "Leading under Ambiguity." National Health Service (Great Britain), Blackpool, England, October 16, 2009. View Details
• Snook, Scott. "Leading under Crossed Fire." , Santiago, Chile, June 26, 2009. View Details
• Snook, Scott. "How Can Leadership Be Taught?" Paper presented at the HBS Global Leadership Forum, June 2009. View Details
• Snook, Scott. "Adult Development and Leadership Development." Paper presented at the Developing Leaders: Challenges to Concepts, Practices and Research Symposium, Institut Européen d'Administration des Affaires (INSEAD), Fontainebleau, France, December 3–9, 2009. View Details
• Snook, Scott. "Advancing Leadership: Theory and Practice." Paper presented at the HBS Centennial Colloquium, Boston, MA, June 2008. View Details
• Snook, Scott, Barney Forsythe, and Phil Lewis. "Professional Identity Development." Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, Chicago, IL, September 1, 2007. View Details
• Snook, Scott. "What Good is Leadership? New Insights from Viewing Leadership from a Positive Organizational Scholarship Perspective." Paper presented at the Academy of Management Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, August 01, 2007. (Professional Development Workshop.) View Details
• Snook, Scott. "Teaching Leadership." Paper presented at the Academy of Management Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, August 01, 2007. (Professional Development Workshop.) View Details
• Snook, Scott. "Grading and Feedback at HBS: A Developmental Perspective." Paper presented at the HBS Faculty Colloquium on Teaching and Learning, Boston, MA, October 01, 2006. View Details
• Snook, Scott. "Leader Development at HBS." Paper presented at the Harvard Business School Alumni Reunion, New York City, September 01, 2006. View Details
• Snook, Scott. "A Different Way of Thinking about Leading." Paper presented at the University of Bath School of Management, Seminar in Leadership, Change and Performance in Organisational Settings, Bath, UK, August 01, 2005. View Details
• Snook, Scott. "State of the Embassy." Outbrief to Ambassador Zalmay Khalizad, United States Embassy (Iraq), Baghdad, Iraq, July 01, 2005. (Outbrief to Ambassador Zalmay Khalizad.) View Details
• Snook, Scott. "Rethinking Baghdad: Options for the New Abassador." Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, DC, April 1, 2005. View Details
• Snook, Scott. "Managing the Unexpected: Assuring High Performance in an Age of Complexity." Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center, Jacksonville, FL, February 1, 2005. View Details
• Snook, Scott. "A Different Way of Thinking about Leading and Change." Paper presented at the Tufts Leadership Seminar, Cambridge, MA, February 01, 2005. View Details
• Snook, Scott. "The Price of Progress: Structurally-induced Inaction." , New York City, October 01, 2004. View Details
• Snook, Scott. "The Lessons of Jurassic Park or How to Lead Recess." Edinburgh, Scotland, City Council, Edinburgh, Scotland, July 1, 2004. View Details
• Snook, Scott. "Practical Drift in Complex Organizations." Paper presented at the Harvard University Social Psychology Research Workshop, Cambridge, MA, April 27, 2004. View Details
• Snook, Scott. "A Different Way of Thinking about Leading and Change." Paper presented at the Ernst and Young Minority Leadership Conference, Dallas, TX, November 01, 2003. View Details
• Snook, Scott. "Competence and Character." Paper presented at the National Association of Black Accountants Annual Convention, Boston, MA, July 01, 2003. View Details
• Snook, Scott. "Friendly Fire and National Security." United States National Security Agency, Washington, DC, July 1, 2003. View Details
• Snook, Scott. "Leading in Complex National Security Environments." Paper presented at the Center for International Security and Cooperation Seminar, Palo Alto, CA, June 01, 2003. View Details
• Snook, Scott. "Friendly Fire Over Northern Iraq." Paper presented at the Senior Executive Workshop, Boston, MA, September 08, 2002. View Details
• Snook, Scott A. "The Seduction of Command and Control." Paper presented at the Wharton Leadership Conference, Wharton School, Philadelphia, PA, June 06, 2002. View Details
• Snook, Scott. "Leading Complex Organizations." Paper presented at the Director of Central Intelligence Agency's Leadership Seminar, Williamsburg, VA, February 02, 2002. View Details
• Snook, Scott. "Friendly Fire." Paper presented at the Senior Executive Staff, Leadership Development Seminar, Washington, DC, January 02, 2002. View Details
• Snook, Scott. "Practical Drift in Medicine." Paper presented at the Hasting Center Project on Patient Safety, Garrison, NY, January 02, 2002. View Details
• Snook, Scott. "Leadership Under Fire." Paper presented at the Leadership ... Program (Harvard Business School Executive Education), Boston, MA, January 1, 2002. View Details

Other Publications and Materials

• Snook, Scott. "Practical Drift: The Friendly Fire Shootdown Over Northern Iraq." Diss., Harvard Business School, 1996. (Winner of Sage-Louis Pondy Best Dissertation Paper Award Recognizes the best student authored paper based on a dissertation presented by Academy of Management.) View Details

Research Summary

My broad research interests include leadership, leader development, leading change, and organizational failures. However, my current focus for the past several years has been around LEADER DEVELOPMENT: How do leaders develop? How can we assist in the development of leaders? In the past, I've conducted longitudinal research around a multitude of potential leadership variables over time and explored a series of potential paths from tacit knowledge to transformational leadership theory. As part of my broader work to develop/refine a theory of leader development, I have recently focused my attention on specific developmental experiences that seem to facilitate the development of leaders. This is largely qualitative research. I'm also attempting to identify potential natural experiments within these stories that may control for some of the more fundamental variables in my theory.

Awards & Honors

Won a 2010 Emerald Literati Network Award for Excellence for an Outstanding Paper in Leadership & Organization Development Journal for "Big Five Personality Factors, Hardiness, and Social Judgment as Predictors of Leader Performance" with Paul T. Bartone, Jarle Eid, Bjorn Helge Johnsen, and Jon Christian Laberg (2009).

Winner of the Sage-Louis Pondy Best Dissertation Award in 1996 from the Academy of Management for "Practical Drift: The Friendly Fire Shootdown Over Northern Iraq" (Harvard Business School, 1996).

Winner of the 2002 George R. Terry Book Award from the Academy of Management for Friendly Fire: The Accidental Shootdown of U.S. Black Hawks Over Northern Iraq (Princeton University Press, 2000).

Areas of Interest

• executive development
• leadership
• leading change
• organizational behavior
• organizational change and transformation
Additional Topics
• complexity
• crisis management
• education
• emotions
• ethics
• happiness
• moral leadership
• organizational development
• qualitative research
• top management teams
• trust
Industries
• banking
• defense
• education industry
• energy
• executive search
• federal government
• financial services
• health care
• investment banking industry
• pharmaceuticals
• professional services
Geographies
• Africa
• Europe
• South Africa
• Southern Africa
• Western Europe

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