Leadership Without Easy Answers | Ronald Heifetz | Exceptional from start to finish

Leadership Without Easy Answers | Ronald Heifetz | Classic leadership text

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Leadership Without...

	Leadership Without Easy Answers Ronald Heifetz Harvard University Press, 1998 - 348 pages average customer review:based on 17 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The economy uncertain, education in decline, cities under siege, crime and poverty spiraling upward, international relations roiling: we look to leaders for solutions, and when they don't deliver, we simply add their failure to our list of woes. In doing do, we do them and ourselves a grave disservice. We are indeed facing an unprecedented crisis of leadership, Ronald Heifetz avows, but it stems as much from our demands and expectations as from any leader's inability to meet them. His book gets at both of these problems, offering a practical approach to leadership for those who lead as well as those who look to them for answers. Fitting the theory and practice of leadership to our extraordinary times, the book promotes a new social contract, a revitalization of our civic life just when we most need it. Drawing on a dozen years of research among managers, officers, and politicians in the public realm and the private sector, among the nonprofits, and in teaching, Heifetz presents clear, concrete prescriptions for anyone who needs to take the lead in almost any situation, under almost any organizational conditions, no matter who is in charge, His strategy applies not only to people at the top but also to those who must lead without authority--activists as well as presidents, managers as well as workers on the front line.

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Exceptional from start to finish

I read this book in 1994 when it was first published and then again recently. It is excellent and establishes a philosophical approach to leadership that is grounded in problem solving rather than visionary mission. The visionary hero is a threat to democracy as evidenced by such leaders as Adolph Hitler and Napoleon Bonaparte. Ronald Heifetz draws a portrait of the leader that is far different from the heroic leader who tries to convince society of easy answers and moves people to action through prejudice and stereotypes. The modern leader takes actions that allow people to adapt to challenge so as to survive. The modern leader recognizes that social problems are embedded in history, custom, special interests, and competing interests. This leads to the two analogies that Heifetz employs to draw a picture of his model. The first analogy is that of the balcony and the dance floor. Heifetz says the leader must emerse themselves in the lives and challenges of the people, experience the chaos and competing interests. They must dance on the floor. However the leader must also leave the dance floor and go to the balcony where they may observe the pattern of the waltz and thus reflect on the direction that the community/society is taking and how this may be adaptive or dangerous. The second analogy is the image of the pressure cooker. The leader must apply enough pressure to bring people together to solve problems even if they have competing interests and ideas. There must be enough pressure to bring people to the negotiation table and to keep them at the table while at the same time keeping the pressure from building to the point of blowing up. Adaptive leaderships is far different from visionary leadership.

I especially enjoyed the sections on informal and formal leadership and the way these two forms of leadership may join forces to move society to more adaptive strategies. The example of LBJ and MLK was masterful.

In some ways this book does support great men ideas of leadership in that there is considerable talent needed to reflect on adaptive strategies needed for societal survival and progress, bring opposing forces to the negotiation table, and play roles of informal or formal leadership.

In other ways the book supports challenging times approaches to leadership theory in that challenging times call for societal adaptation, never an easy step for any society to make.

If you come to this book with the idea that leadership is imposition of ideology on the masses; if you think Ronald Reagan or Lenin were great leaders, then this book is not for you. Leadership is messy business because it means solving real difficult problems in a world of conflicting interests.

If you come to this book with the idea that leadership is based in the ability to motivate the masses with slogans and simplified answers to complex problems; if you think George W Bush is a great leader, then this book is not for you. Social problems are complex and slogans and simple answers only increase the complexity.

Franklin Roosevelt would stand out as the type of leader that Heifetz would identify as adaptive and successful in his leadership. He moved a broken nation out of the depression and he moved an isolationist nation into a just war against Hitler. Both required that he reflect from the balcony and maintain the pressure on the pressure cooker without creating an explosion.

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Classic leadership text

Heifetz' definition of leadership revolves around the concept of influence rather than subordination or coercion. Using contrast to sharpen his own definition of leadership, he wrote that there is an important difference between imagining that a leader influences a community to follow her vision and influencing a community to face its problems.

In the first instance, influence is the mark of leadership; a leader gets people to accept his vision, and communities address problems by looking to him. If something goes wrong, the fault lies with the leader. In the second, progress on problems is the measure of leadership; leaders mobilize people to face problems, and communities make progress because leaders challenge and help them do so. If something goes wrong, the fault lies with both leaders and the community (pp. 14-15.

It is the second description that Heifetz defined as leadership, which is simply put as "mobilizing people to tackle tough problems" (p. 15). Heifetz was less willing than Peck (1977/2002) to say that the task of leadership is spiritual growth of self and others. Rather, he put the problem into a depth psychology perspective with practical organizational implications, and he used "four criteria to develop a definition of leadership that takes values into account":

"First, the definition must sufficiently resemble current cultural assumptions so that, when feasible, one's normal understanding of what it means to lead will apply. Second, the definition should be practical, so that practitioners can make use of it. Third, it should point toward socially useful activities. Finally, the concept should offer a broad definition of social usefulness"(p. 19).

By inserting values, Heifetz argued, he created a "prescriptive concept of leadership" (p. 19) rather than a descriptive or proscriptive one. Using his four criteria, Heifetz was able to state that Hitler, for example, was not a leader because he "exercised leadership no more than a charlatan practices medicine when providing fake remedies" (p. 24).

Later in his book, he defined the task of addressing "tough problems" in the clearest terms:

"Leadership, as used here, means engaging people to make progress on the adaptive problems they face. Because making progress on adaptive problems requires learning, the task of leadership consists of choreographing and directing learning processes in an organization or community. Progress often demands new ideas and innovation. As well, it often demands changes in people's attitudes and behaviors. Adaptive work consists of the process of discovering and making those changes. Leadership, with or without authority, requires an educative strategy" (p. 187).

Heifetz identified the principal limitation of his book when he wrote that his book was concerned with the "short-run task of making progress on an adaptive challenge" and not about the "long-term task of leadership--developing adaptive capacity" (p. 129). This is a fruitful area to explore for scholars of servant-leadership because a major focus of Greenleaf's was precisely the development of this adaptive capacity.

Heifetz also provided leaders with a "seven practical suggestions for bearing the responsibility that comes with leadership without losing one's effectiveness or collapsing under the strain. These included "getting on the balcony"; separating yourself from your role; externalizing conflict; utilizing partnerships; listening; "find a sanctuary"; and keeping your purpose clear (p. 252). Leaders under stress would do well to remember to read through these pages, which essentially offer some tips about resilience.

The following includes several key concepts through direct quotation.

* The concept of adaptation arises from efforts to understand biological evolution. Applied to the change of cultures and societies, the concept becomes a useful; if inexact, metaphor. Species change as the genetic program changes; cultures change by learning. Evolution is a matter of chance--a fortuitous fit between random variation and new environmental pressures' societies by contrast, can respond to new pressures with deliberation and planning. Evolution has no "purpose"--survival is our only measure of its success; societies generate purposes beyond survival. (pp. 30-31)
* The mix of values in a society provides multiple vantage points from which to view reality. Conflict and heterogeneity are resources for social learning. . . . Leadership will not consist of answers or assured visions but of taking action to clarify values. (p. 35)
* I define authority as conferred power to perform a service. This definition will be useful to the practitioner of leadership as reminder of two facts: First, authority is given and can be taken away. Second, authority is conferred as part of an exchange. (p. 57)
* A holding environment consists of any relationship in which one party has the power to hold the attention of another party and facilitate adaptive work. [italics original] (pp. 104-105)
* Attention is the currency of leadership. (p. 113)
* The pitfall of charisma, however, is unresolved dependency. (p. 247)

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Thought provoking

I thought the book was good when I read it first. It took me a second read to realize how exceptional it is. The book's reviews on Amazon site range from 5 star to 1 star, from people who were amazed by its brilliance to those who could not despise it enough. I think this is the best accolade that a leadership book can ever get - it takes a stance, it provides direction, and it chooses to be for a great cause irrespective of whether it is loved or hated. This book cannot and must not be ignored.

Best Leadership book I have read

I have been studing leadership for over 15 years both by reading and experience. I consider this book to be the best book I have read because it describes leadership as a learned activity. It also says that leadership is in motivating people to do their own work in solving difficult problems. I found that as President of my congregation I was continually going back to the concepts in the book to lead it through a very difficult situation involving placement of the flags in the sanctuary. It was very difficult to get people to do their own work and not try to step in to solve everything. (That would have been impossible anyway) I found that he described President Lyndon Johnson as a successful leader (civil rights) and unsuccessful leader ( Vietnam). His discussion on leading without authority is new ground for me. If you want to discuss the book with others there is an on-line book study at the Work and Worship Institute website. I found it was a good way for me to get more from the book. This is a great book with great stories of a variety of leaders in our society.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

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