Leadership lessons to live by - Harvey Schachter

Kouzes ... Posner ... Bennis. Three hallowed names in the literature of leadership, and they’re offering new gifts for the fall reading season – simple gifts, in the shape of books with clearly stated ideas, unadorned but punchy, and certainly wise.

James Kouzes and Barry Posner, professors at Santa Clara University in California, write as a team. They are best-known for their 1987 bestseller The Leadership Challenge, which offered a principled and practical view of leadership.

Warren Bennis, a distinguished professor of business administration at the University of California and chairman for the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University’s Kennedy School, is viewed as the founder of leadership studies. His 1985 book Leaders with Burt Nanus is a talisman for many executives, and he has collaborated on a string of books (my favourites are Organizing Genius, about great groups, and Co-Leaders, about pairs of effective leaders).

Professors Kouzes and Posner are continually asked what is new in leadership ideas. The more they pondered that question, they more they realized that good ideas aren’t new, but have stood the test of time. They describe their new book, The Truth About Leadership, as “a collection of the real thing – no fads, no myths, no trendy responses – just truths that endure.”

They discuss 10 such enduring truths, backed by research they and others have carried out over the years:

You make a difference: Before you can lead, you have to believe you can make a positive impact on others. You have to believe in yourself.

Credibility is the foundation of leadership: As well as believing in yourself, you have to behave in a way that will spur belief in you. “If people don’t believe in you, they won’t willingly follow you,” the authors advise.

Values drive commitment: People want to know what you believe in and you need to know what others treasure if you are going to create the commitment needed to bring everyone together into a powerful force.

Focusing on the future sets leaders apart: Leaders need the capacity to imagine and articulate exciting future possibilities. They need a long-term perspective.

You can’t do it alone: Leadership is a team sport.

Trust is paramount: If you rely on others, you will need their trust. That will only come if you trust them first.

Challenge is the crucible for greatness: Exemplary leaders don’t maintain the status quo, they change it. “Change invariably involves challenge, and challenge tests you. It introduces you to yourself. It brings you face-to-face with your level of commitment, your grittiness, and your values,” they write.

You either lead by example or you don’t lead at all: Leaders must keep their promises, and be role models for the values and actions they espouse.

The best leaders are the best learners: Learning is the master skill of leadership.

Leadership is an affair of the heart: Leaders are in love with their colleagues and their constituents. They make others feel important, and graciously show appreciation. And they love their work, or they wouldn’t be successful at it.

Prof. Bennis’s new book, Still Surprised, is a memoir describing his experiences in the Second World War as a leader of others at age 19; his mentorship by a towering figure in organizational psychology, Douglas MacGregor; the excitement of being at the cusp of the new breakthroughs in social sciences and management in the 1950s and 1960s; his experiences as provost at the State University of New York at Buffalo during the student activism of the 1960s and later as president of the University of Cincinnati; and, most poignantly, his feelings, at age 85, about growing old, as his body (and sometimes mind) fails him, and he experiences the insults of ageism.

The memoir is suffused with insights in leadership, such as how, at both Buffalo and Cincinnati, he learned the dangers of coming on too strong as a newly hired outsider, and the need to master a new culture before trying to change it. Or how he resigned from the helm at Cincinnati after being asked a simple question he couldn’t answer: “Do you love being president of the University of Cincinnati?” The answer turned out to be that he would be happier as a professor than a president.

Whether leadership lessons are learned from Prof. Bennis’s memoir or from the detailed advice from Professors Kouzes and Posner, either book makes for rewarding reading.