Tracy Goss’s The Last Word on Power: Executive Re-Invention for Leaders Who Must Make the Impossible Happen (1996) remains a landmark work in leadership literature. It is not a manual of tools or techniques. Instead, it is a call to transformation—a demand that leaders step beyond incremental improvement and take on the deeper task of reinventing themselves.
Goss argues that true leadership is not about having the right answers, strategies, or competencies. It is about being the source of possibility itself—the capacity to stand in the clearing of the future and declare what was previously unthinkable as possible.
Below, I offer a full chapter-by-chapter review. Each chapter begins with a central insight and then expands into the deeper structures Goss brings forward.
Chapter 1: The Power to Make the Impossible Happen
At the heart of Goss’s thesis lies a paradox. The very power that brought leaders to prominence is the same power that now prevents them from achieving extraordinary futures.
She writes:
“The power that brought you to your current position of prominence … is now preventing you from making the impossible happen.” (The Last Word on Power, p. 23)
Traditional forms of power—authority, expertise, influence—are necessary, but they are insufficient. They operate within the limits of what is already possible. What is required is a new form of power:
“The ability to take something that you believe could never come to pass, declare it possible, and then move that possibility into a tangible reality.”
This is the core promise of Executive Re-Invention: a process that shifts leaders from operating within the past to generating futures that cannot be predicted. Goss makes it clear that this shift is ontological. It is not about “doing differently.” It is about being different.
Chapter 2: Uncovering Your Winning Strategy
Every leader has a “Winning Strategy”—an unconscious formula for success developed early in life. This strategy works. It delivers results. But it also defines the boundaries of what is possible.
Goss explains:
“Your Winning Strategy is the existing source of power underlying your own individual success in the past. Continuing to operate with this kind of power will prevent you from creating and implementing any desired future outside the realm of what you currently consider possible.” (p. 41)
This Winning Strategy arises from what she calls the Compensating Power Principle: we overdevelop certain behaviours and perspectives to cover a perceived weakness or deficiency. For example, someone who feels invisible might overcompensate by becoming relentlessly competent or overbearing in communication.
The problem is not that the strategy is ineffective. The problem is that it blinds leaders to other possibilities. It becomes self-reinforcing, narrowing perception, and trapping them in repetitive cycles. To reinvent oneself, one must first expose and name this strategy.
Chapter 3: The Universal Human Paradigm
Here, Goss names the deeper worldview that governs human perception:
“There is a way things should be. When they are not that way, something is wrong.” (p. 72)
This is the Universal Human Paradigm. It seems innocent enough, but its implications are profound. It keeps us interpreting events as confirmations or violations of how things “should” be. It fosters blame, resentment, and continuous improvement.
Goss illustrates this with a workplace example. On your first day, you greet colleagues warmly, but they do not respond. Instantly, your mind fills with interpretations: They are unfriendly. They don’t like me. This organisation is cold. None of these interpretations are objectively true. They are projections of the Universal Human Paradigm at work.
This paradigm traps organisations as well. Leaders caught in it pursue incremental improvement, always trying to “fix what’s wrong,” instead of inventing futures unconstrained by the past.
Chapter 4: “Dying” Before Going into Battle
This chapter is perhaps the most striking. Goss draws on the practice of Japanese samurai warriors, who would remind themselves of death before battle. She writes:
“To experience ‘dying before going into battle’ is to own your own death fully, to accept it. When you accept death, you are free to engage fully in life without compromise.” (p. 96)
For leaders, this does not mean literal death. It means facing the loss of reputation, income, position, even relationships. Only by accepting these risks can one act with full freedom.
She insists:
“Life does not turn out the way it should. Nor does life turn out the way it shouldn’t. Life turns out the way it does.” (p. 97)
By relinquishing the illusion of control, leaders are liberated. They no longer act to preserve survival, but to generate futures worth playing for—even in the face of loss.
Goss reinforces this with the example of Huck Finn, who, believing he would go to hell for helping Jim escape, tears up his letter and says, “All right, then, I’ll go to hell.” This is the moment he moves beyond survival into authentic commitment.
Chapter 5: Creating the Re-Invention Paradigm
Having dismantled the Universal Human Paradigm, Goss offers an alternative: the Re-Invention Paradigm.
In this paradigm, leaders stop interpreting life as “right” or “wrong.” Instead, they treat life as a field of possibility shaped through language.
“Replace predicting the future with declaring the future and making bold promises to fulfil it.” (p. 122)
This is grounded in Heidegger’s claim that “language is the house of being.” By declaring, rather than predicting, leaders bring entirely new futures into existence.
To lead in this paradigm, one must learn to make declarations, take stands, and issue promises. These are not descriptions of reality but speech acts that create reality.
Chapter 6: Inventing an Impossible Future
Here, leaders are called to invent a game worth playing—a game currently impossible. Goss outlines five principles for such a game:
- It must assume failure as part of the process.
- Some commitments must be more important than others.
- It must be impossible within current reality.
- It must include bold promises and urgent timeframes.
- It must encompass all other accountabilities within it.
“Leaders are the clearing in which the future happens.” (p. 145)
This clearing (Lichtung, in Heidegger’s terms) is the space leaders open for others. By standing for an impossible future, they reinvent themselves in the process.
Chapter 7: Building the Bridge Between Possibility and Reality
Possibility must be translated into reality, and Goss makes it clear how: through conversations for action.
She explains that the bridge is built with requests, promises, and declarations. Leaders create alignment and movement not through interpretation but through commitment.
Failures and breakdowns are reframed as openings for learning and recommitment. Leaders are asked to practice three questions in the face of failure:
- What did I learn?
- What action can I take now?
- What future am I committed to?
By operating this way, leaders remain in the generative space of invention rather than collapsing back into explanation and blame.
Chapter 8: What Athletes and Performers Know About Being Extraordinary (That Executives Don’t)
The final chapter draws a stark comparison. Athletes and performers live in constant practice. They rehearse, embody, and refine their craft under conditions of pressure and visibility.
Executives, in contrast, often rely on past competence, avoiding situations where failure is public.
Goss insists:
“The price for being extraordinary calls for a relationship with practice that is equivalent to the commitment that artists and athletes have to the practices of their professions.” (p. 189)
To sustain reinvention, leaders must adopt this discipline. Reinvention is not a one-time event. It is a lifelong practice—an ongoing choice to live and lead from the Re-Invention Paradigm.
Conclusion: The Cost and Reward of Reinvention
Tracy Goss’s The Last Word on Power offers no easy answers. It is a radical proposition. Leaders must let go of the very success that made them. They must uncover their Winning Strategy, dismantle the Universal Human Paradigm, die before battle, invent impossible futures, and practice reinvention daily.
The cost is real: reputation, comfort, certainty. But the reward is extraordinary: the power to make the impossible happen.
Goss’s work remains deeply relevant for leaders facing complexity. In a time when incremental improvement is no longer enough, the challenge she offers is clear: Reinvent yourself, or be constrained by the very success that once defined you.