High-flyer

If you crave great characters, good plotting, and intense theological musings, then any of the Starbridge series will luxuriously satisfy these urges, especially this one. If you are otherwise leery of the theological aspects, then you owe it to yourself to expose yourself once to the gentle sampling in the "High Flyer," just to be sure it's an honest aversion rather than reactionary prejudice. By the way, another writer superb at combining Anglican theology and great mystery is Sara Maitland - check out her book "Ancestral Truths."

Set in 1990, this book is the latest installment in the Starbridge series and once again we see Alice, Nick Darrow, and the other denizens of the Healing Centre at St. Benet's church. This time, however, the story is told from the point of view of Ms. Carter Graham, a 35-year-old lawyer who nearly "has it all."

Carter's life is following her plan perfectly, and her most recent success is her marriage to Kim, a fellow lawyer-barracuda. Things aren't what they seem to be, though, and Carter finds herself sorely in need of the healing powers of Nick Darrow and crew.

As with all of Howatch's books, the emotional wrenching and soul-searching is so powerful that I found myself experiencing it on a personal level. Once again, the Ultimate Reality is explored and experienced, however reluctantly.

And now I know that I will be forced to wait several more years until Ms. Howatch produces another novel. My name will be on the waiting list!

In this, her current work, we're given a main character by the
name of Carter Graham who's a skilled and successful lawyer.
She's learned to be tough and work in the masculine world of
high flyers. Carter shuns her real name, Catherine and all of
the nicknames that are used by her family like Katie and Kitty.
In the shedding of her old names, Carter feels stronger and in
control of her life.

In her mid-thirties, she meets the man who appears to fulfill
her qualifications for marriage. Kim Betz is attractive, sexy,
dynamic and very successful. Carter falls in love and marries
Kim only to find out that he is haunted by his past. Kim's
life seems to be riddled with secrets. His involvement with a
psychic healer adds another twist to the story.

This is a love story wrapped up in mystery and lies. The author has combined a walk into mysticism and the occult into a fascinating tale. The mixture of characters makes this
vintage Howatch.

By comparison, most companies are looking for executives with the right stuff for today, not the future. Then in a Darwinian process of survival of the fittest, those with the best track records win the leadership roles. Professor McCall points out a very serious flaw in this model, in that many people progress without developing any better leadership skills. With more and more success, leadership skill may actually drop as strengths and competencies are more and more likely to turn into weaknesses as they become exaggerated and weaknesses stay weak. He uses a detailed case history of Horst Schroeder, who was fired as president of Kellogg's after only 9 months, to make these points.

On the usually-correct assumption that your company has not yet brought this new model to bear, the author presents an excellent appendix for helping an individual executive to plan and implement one's own development.

"The message of High Flyers is that leadership ability can be learned, that creating a context that supports the development of talent can become a source of competitive advantage, and that the development of leaders is itself a leadership responsibility." I suggest that you consider Jack Welch at General Electric as the embodiment of the truth of this statement.

Now let me share my concerns about this book. Most companies change strategies at least as often as they change CEOs. Many do it even more often. The average life of a strategy has to be about 3-5 years. That's too short a time to be the context for a leadership development program, unless the new strategy requires exactly the same kind of leaders -- which is unlikely to be the case. In such environments, leadership recruiting probably deserves more attention than leadership development. On the other hand, strategy should not change so often. As my co-author and I point out in The Irresistible Growth Enterprise, it is possible to have a constant mission, vision, and strategy in the midst of a rapidly changing business environment if you think through the issues of potential volatility in advance. In that sort of company, this book's approach will prosper, as will the company and its stakeholders. I urge you to combine these perspectives and approaches in that way.

My other concern is that mission, vision, and emotional context are more important than strategy to success. Professor McCall unaccountably ignored those other important "fit" and "development" issues. They should certainly be added back into this general model by anyone who is interested in systematically developing and providing more and better leadership.

After you have finished reading this excellent book, consider the next governmental election you are asked to vote in. How could government leadership be improved by using a similar process to develop the next generation of elected candidates? Certainly, the task of governing is becoming ever greater yet the current process has all of the flaws of "survival of the fittest" that Professor McCall describes here. We can do better. How should we?

How can this process be used in a nonprofit organization that you do volunteer work for?