Leader

Clearly, the writers do not believe in "closed" management (the direct and control sensibility of the days of yore). To a one, they advocate investing in those below you, creating leaders in all sectors and at all levels, trusting, collaborating and "leading with vision." Some particularly interesting essays were "Leading from the Grass Roots" by Sally Helgesen, "Leadership and Organizational Culture," by Edgar H. Schein, the "father" of organizational psychology, and "The Ultimate Leadership Task: Self-Leadership" by Richard L. Leider. In general, the section with essays entitled "Learning to Lead for Tomorrow," which was about education and executive training and development was the most engaging for me.

I bought this book because I read a very engaging portrait of Marshall Goldsmith in the New Yorker in April, who is a very successful "executive coach," helping executives with personal problems in their organizations turn their relationships around. The book overall had a kind of hypnotic effect, as it repeated the same message throughout. Here's a representative excerpt:

"The challenges ahead will require leaders to identify, promote, reinforce, and live as role models of key core values; inspire diverse groups to common, shared action in which they trade some of their autonomy for a long-term greater common good; and give their best efforts in pursuit of that common good." This is from an essay by George B. Weber who is listed as the secretary-general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

It's mildly interesting. I would recommend reading it in bits between other, different books.

Peter F.Drucker writes in his foreword, "Leadership must be learned and can be learned-and this, of course, is what this book was written and should be used for." And hence, he defines simple but basic characteristics of effective leaders:

1. The only definition of a 'leader' is someone who has 'followers.' Some people are thinkers. Some are prophets. Both roles are important and badly needed. But without followers, there can be no leaders.

2. An effective leader is not someone who is loved or admired. He or she is someone whose followers do the right things. Popularity is not leadership. 'Results' are.

3. Leaders are highly visible. They therefore set 'examples.'

4. Leadership is not rank, privileges, titles, or money. It is 'responsibility.'

After this excellent foreword, Frances Hesselbein, Marshall Goldsmith and Richard Beckhard divide this seminal book into four parts. Here, they note that "These parts have been chosen in a somewhat arbitrary manner. We deliberately gave the authors a free hand, and our revisions have been only mirror. The authors are all experts in their own right, and we wanted you to hear their views in an unfiltered form."

It is a great chance to read never before published essays of 37 distinguished authors under one roof.

Highly recommended.

Some of my favorite quotes from this book,
* If you reproduced yourself in another leader, would you be pleased with the results?
* Don't wait until you hold a leadership position to begin building your inner circle
* People teach what they know, but they reproduce what they are.
* Do no limit your people, lift them.
* Your inner circle should make you more complete

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Oh how I hate it, I read 5 of his books on leadership, and they all share very similar information. If you read his other books, you probably will not find many new ideas here.

Take Hudson Armerding's book "Leadership," and fuse it with Roger Ailes's book "You are The Message: Getting what you want by being who you are" and cut it up into templated nuggets keyed to periodic readings, and something like this is what you might get. The difference, qualitatively, is that Maxwell has really worked his leadership examples from the Bible, and for the most part keeps them in historic context while pulling out lessons for contemporary application. In the flyleaf/back pages, you can see how he is hawking the same things on a web site and on a tape series, to transform these lessons into sermons for ministers who need a little defibrillation.

Having read James MacGregor Burns on "Leadership" some years ago, and being impressed ever since (although bothered by the weird Oedipal analyses Burns applied to guys like Gandhi, Martin Luther and others), Maxwell is refreshingly Biblical without being too preachy. Non-Christian or Non-Jewish readers should be able to see things in here other than some former Bible-college student constantly telling us how he revitalized the three churches he pastored before becoming a fund raising consultant and a leadership conference organizer. The book gets beyond that and stays on point.

This is a sign that Christian business/leadership writing is coming into its own. Looking at a lot of other leadership books which grope for an over-arching metaphor drawn from polar expeditions, evolution (yawn) or other meta-physics, makes you realize that the ancient lessons recorded in the Bible can be just as gripping. I would think other faith traditions could do the same, hopefully also getting past the jingoistic level of "Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun."

The main problems I had with the book stemmed from the concept of the leadership ladder or ascent, with sequential steps. The problem with that metaphor lies in traditional views of leadership. Ascent up a leadership ladder reflects the mental images we have - "rising to the top", "leading from above". It would be radical to envisage leadership from the margins - that is from a place of vulnerability, or from the center - a "lowly" position among the people.

To be a leader does not necessarily mean to be "at the top", the best, the most gifted, the most intelligent, the strongest or the fastest (see e.g. the foot of page 79 "[people] watched his rapid climb to the top with awe"). This image is inherent in the ladder metaphor.

A cyclical or circular model would be more helpful. A leader must cycle through the character and capacity dimensions of leadership development. The issues are to be re-visited continually, rather than sequentially. The cycle involves a consistent relationship with God, and awareness of and dependence on a community of grace (chapter 3, also see page 71).

The "community of grace" concept is excellent, but we have to be careful what we mean by it. It is not merely an being gracious towards each other. Currently, grace is tending to be confused with "graciousness". Of course "graciousness" should be a derivative of grace. But the context of grace must be one in which all participants live by applying the Gospel of grace in their lives, in their attitudes, actions and words.

The weakness of Chapter 7 is that "truth" is only dealt with in terms of "truth" learned from others. Where is the role of God, His Word and the Holy Spirit? See, for example, the Johari diagram on page 99 which lacks an interaction between God (and His Word), others and self.

This may be addressed by making the right hand and bottom axes refer to "Known to God" (diametrically opposite "Known to others"), with the vertical axis finishing at "Revealed to Self" (beside "Unknown to Self), and the horizontal axis pointing to "Revealed to Others" (beside "Unknown to Others).

When the authors deal with the fourth rung (ch 8), the essentiality of a submissive spirit in all areas of life is emphasized - humility, submission and obedience include paying the cost - submission to sacrifice. This must be a continuous process of character development, not merely a sequence of steps.

According to the authors, there are two starting points for regaining that perspective. They picture a "fork in the road" where one embraces and learns from failures, and thus chooses recovery, or else by default takes the path to failure. If they took the cyclical model, this would be entail re-entering the circle at the specific point of character or capacity weakness.

Theladder metaphor struck me as too static and mechanical rather than organic and dynamic, especially when dealing with the fifth rung, "destiny". This conveys an air of inevitability. The idea is of increasing "convergence" - the sharpening and focussing of best skills to an ultimate destiny in leadership. The writers did not pay enough attention to the dynamics of personal development through a growing relationship with God, in a frequently changing context under diverse influences and adverse pressures. None of us knows how long we have to live, or with what quality of life, or in what contexts, or with what unforeseen opportunities.

I accept the basic concepts for capacity and character development, but clarify grace and truth, and put them into a cyclical model, and you would have a better, more Biblically accurate book on leadership development.

In the 21st century, leadership cannot be effective with people who are unbalanced either in character or capacity. In spite of our capcities, however, it is character that builds a lasting positive influence or an enduring legacy.

This book is clearly based on spiritual principles, and has many applications to congregations. Congregational leaders must have capabilites and capacities. It is just that capacities without character will be empty and dishonest. Character without capacities boost morale, but may not help congregations fulfill their mission.

Read this book because these guys have something to say and are going to be around for a long while!

I especially found Patler's section on perspective to be extremely enlightening and useful in my daily activities. Changing the way I view a problem or potential solution to a problem, opens my "thought-field-of-view" and changes my actions appropriately. This helps me continually stay a giant step ahead of my competition.

No business leader should be without, "Don't Compete.... Tilt the Field," in his or her bookshelf - or the bookshelves of their staff.

50+ untrained artists execute infantile drawings in pencil, crayon, and poster paints. The ideas for a perfect world are either predictable (Ingrid Newkirk, founder of PETA, covers a page with pro-vegan messages; Harold Bloom-in a particularly embarrassing scrawl-draws a girl reading) or so nebulous as to be incomprehensible without an essay (Alan Dershowitz fumbles through three pages without clarifying his painting). I have no doubt the contributors are well-intentioned, but the contributions themselves are surprisingly rote, praising family, ecology, industry, religion, and the like without any unique take on the individual's hopes or desires for the world. A book that drew its responses from grade schoolers might have better artwork or more surprising ideas.

But man, I can't stop looking at that Harold Bloom scribble.