Authentic Leadership: Courage in Action (A Joint Publication in the Jossey-Bass Public Administration Series, the Jossey-Bass Nonprofit Sector Serie)

Rating:
Summary: Takes us from past perspectives to leadership in action.
Review: Terry's book is an excellent summary of the traditional ideas about leadership combined with a new call for "authenticity." "Authentic Leadership" is a solid book for all interested in leadership and leadership development--scholars, students and practitioners. Thumbs up!

Rating:
Summary: Very poor fare indeed
Review: This book is the surest evidence yet that Mr Terry has way too much time on his hands, following his abject failure to drive the innovation group to a respectable position in the market. I would be tempted to classify Mr Terry's book with other quick fixes of the genre, such as the one minute manager. There is no doubting Mr Terry's drive and ambition, nor his ability to galvanise a group of friends to answer to his beck and call, but these are not necessarily hallmarks of a good management ethos. On the contrary they are, in the case of Mr Terry, indicative of a man who will drive forward in the face of both good business and management sense, to the ultimate detriment of a series of companies and his own personal reputation.

Authentic leadership is the poorest case yet made for the value of this genre, and its 80s jargon and jingoism only lends itself to the overall unsatisfactory feel one derives from turning its pages.