Bookshelf 9 - Leadership

Dilemmas of Leadership
By Tudor Rickards, Murray Clark
Pub Routledge Published Sept 2005 ISBN 0415355850

A Manager’s Guide to Leadership
By Mike Pedler, John Burgoyne, Tom Boydell
Pub McGraw Hill 2004 ISBN 0077104234 £19.99
This book is UK based and there is an emphasis on action and learning.  It starts by posing questions:  “What do you think leadership is?  And how does it differ from management?  What do you think is the best way to learn about leadership?”  It is based on research, experience and a wide reading of the leadership literature.  Leadership and management are seen as linked and overlapping, with leading more concerned with finding direction and purpose in the face of critical challenges.  Most other models are based on personal competency and focus on the individual, whereas the model here has three domains – challenges, characteristics and context and all are important.  Rather than seeing leadership as modelled on heroic individuals, this proposes “the connected individual creating a better world in good company”.  The responsibility is on the person, but in company and relationship with other people.  Seven core practices are given – On Purpose, Power, Living with Risk, Challenging Questions, Facilitation and Networking, and then 21 key leadership challenges are posed with explanation activity and further reading.  An enormous amount of useful stuff in one book, and easily used in an arts setting.
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Principle-Centred Leadership
By Stephen R. Covey
Pub Simon & Schuster 1992 ISBN 068485841X

“Principle-centred leadership introduces a new paradigm – that we centre our lives and our leadership of organisations and people on certain “true North” principles”.  The book deals with what the principles are, why we need to become principle-centred, and how we attain this quality.  Fairness, equity, justice, integrity; honesty and trust – these are what Covey suggests as a self-evident and self-validating natural laws that don’t change or shift.  “Correct principles are like compasses – they are always pointing the way”.  Values, Covey says are like maps – and maps are not the territory, but the more our values are aligned with correct principles – the more accurate and useful they will be.  The book examines the practice of principle-centred leadership at four levels – personal, interpersonal, managerial and organisation..  People are at the centre, and the thinking is holistic, and recognises organisations as ecosystems.  With links back to his own Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and to other management thinkers’ models, this book provides a rich resource for those leading arts organisations.

The Leader of the Future - New Visions, Strategies, and Practices for the Next Era
Eds Frances Hesselbein, Marshall Goldsmith and Richard Beckhard
Pub: Jossey-Bass 1996 £11.50 0 787909351
Written for the American not-for-profit sector, this is a compendium of new thought. A wonderful book, and great for busy people as it is a collection of short chapters or essays written by different 'big names' from the world of management thinkers and Chief Executives from US corporations and not-for-profits. Here are the distilled thoughts of Peter Drucker, Charles Handy, Edgar Schein, Peter Senge, Ken Blanchard, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Stephen Covey and plenty of others, on the leadership required to move us into the exciting unknown of the future.
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Inspirational Leadership: Timeless insights from Shakespeare’s greatest leader
By Richard Olivier
Pub Spiro Press 2004 ISBN 1904298214 £10.99
Henry V is Shakespeare’s greatest leader – inspired and inspiring, visionary yet pragmatic, powerful yet responsible. The book draws on Richard Olivier’s intimate knowledge of the play and its absorbing central character, to unmask the secrets of inspirational leadership and reveal the timeless lessons it holds for managers and leaders today.
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The Leadership Challenge: The Most Trusted Source on Becoming a Better Leader
By Kouzes Posner
Pub Jossey Bass 2002 3rd Ed ISBN 0787968331 £12.00 [£16.64 inc p&p]
A big book that describes itself as a field guide to take along on your leadership journey.  Written to strengthen your abilities and uplift your spirits – the principles and practices are based solidly in research.  It describes what leaders actually do, explains fundamental principles that support leadership practice and provides case examples of real people who demonstrate each practice.  The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership revealed by the research are: Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart.  Credibility is seen as the foundation of Leadership, and values are your guides.  While aimed at American business, there is much here that can be translated for UK cultural leadership.
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The Way of The Leader: Applying the principles of Sun Tzu and Confucius – Ancient strategies for the modern business world
By Donald G Krause
Pub Nicholas Brealey 1997 ISBN 1857881370

The rulers of ancient China spent a great deal of time studying and thinking about leadership, and here the concepts of the famous general Sun Tzu and the great philosopher Confucius are brought together and applied to 21st Century business.  The ideas are not, of course, new but time and again over the last 2500 years, they have worked well.  The book first introduces “Leadership Basics” from the philosophy of Sun Tzu and Confucius as it applies to business; then introduces the SPARKLE principles – Self-Discipline, Purpose, Accomplishment, Responsibility, Knowledge, Laddership (you’ll have to read the book for an explanation of this), and Example.  The Third Section, “Lessons in Leadership” contains a series of anecdotal discussions about famous leaders from more recent history including George Washington, Winston Churchill and Thomas Edison.

Perfect Leader: All you need to get it right first time
By Andrew Leigh & Michael Maynard
Pub Random House 2003 ISBN 1844131475 £6.99 [£9.59 inc p&p]
A clear, concise piece of writing with some very interesting material in it.  One of the authors was an actor, and both now promote leadership, teamwork and change management through training (including drama-based work), consultancy and publications.  Working from the premise that Old Style ‘command and control’ leaders belong to yesterday, they promote a new style of facilitating and empowering through relationships.  Being a leader depends on others, and they will be supporters rather than followers.  Most leaders are made not born, and leaders keep learning, growing, and know themselves and what they want.  Leaders need to practise a personal repertoire of leadership styles.  The book then uses a 7 ‘I’s model of leadership – Insight, Initiative, Inspiration, Involvement, Improvisation, Individuality, Implementation – to explore the topic in some detail.
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Effective Leadership: How to develop leadership skills
By John Adair
Pub Macmillan 1993 ISBN 0330302302 £6.99
An acknowledged “classic” on the subject of leadership from the world’s first professor of “leadership studies’. The three sections cover the theoretical, the more applied aspects and finally how to ‘grow’ leadership both as an individual and in an organisation. Many of the schools of thought on leadership are discussed in the course of the book and are drawn together through the three circles model of “action –centred leadership”. This model illustrates the three areas of concern for all leaders: task, group and individual. The relationship between these complementary but competing circles is the basis of the leadership challenge. What you have to be and what you have to do to achieve this balance. “Leaders should always be aware of the group and the individual and seek to harmonise them in the service of the common task”.
There are numerous diagrams, examples and anecdotes to illustrate the text and some exercises to try out your own knowledge and skills. The book is dated in the sense that it concentrates on the individual rather than relational oriented notion of leadership that is finding increasing if sporadic advocacy amongst organisations but is nevertheless a good starting point for leadership studies.Out of Stock

Maverick: The success story behind the world’s most unusual workplace
By Ricardo Semler
Pub Random House 1999 ISBN 0712678867 £5 [£8.07 inc p&p] Special Offer
A tale of flying in the face of accrued business wisdom.  Richard Semler puts freedom and democracy at the heart of this business – employees are free to book a desk, sofa, or café table at any one of four offices spread across San Paulo, Brazil and he tells his people constantly “we’ve all learned to answer email on Sundays, but none of us has learned to go to the movies on Monday afternoon.”  He talks of “growth without bondage”, and that “control is passé and a badge of incompetence”.  There are no policies, no rules, no dress code, no receptionists or other boring jobs.  The company has absolute trust in its employees – in fact it describes them as partners.  Managers set their own salaries, decide when to come to work and go home, and all staff have access to the company’s financial information.  The book is the incredible story of the company’s growth, and the surprising and unorthodox decisions taken along the way.
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Bookshelf 9