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Summary: weLEAD Book Review by the Editor of leadingtoday.org
Review: Author James O'Toole is definitely not afraid of creating controversy. His book is a refreshing approach to leadership in many ways. Stylistically and philosophically, Leading Change is a different kind of book about leaders and the natural resistance of the change process. O'Toole left a comfortable 20 year university chair in academia to begin working with the Aspen Institute. This experience was a major inspiration in writing this enterprising book. Perhaps the most daring aspect of Leading Change is O'Toole's clear repudiation of the contingency theories so prevalent today in leadership research and coaching programs. He obviously did not come to this conclusion frivolously. This work includes his observations and experience from over two decades of working with both corporate leaders and with respected mentors such as Bennis, Drucker, Gardner, DePree and others! O'Toole loudly proclaims that the contingency theories so revered today simply don't work in the long run. He maintains that by their very design they typically destroy trust between leaders and followers. He then offers a values-based alternative, which is a primary focus of the book. Leading Change begins with O'Toole drawing a number of deep analogies from a painting by James Ensor. He immediately draws you into the books theme by probing a number of profound leadership questions and scenarios analogous to paintings theme. As an author, he seeks to answer three related questions: 1. What are the major causes of resistance to change? 2. How can leaders effectively and morally overcome that resistance? 3. Why is the dominant philosophy of leadership, based on contingency theory, neither an effective nor a moral guide for people who wish to lead change? To answer these questions O'Toole divides the book into two halves. The first half deals with leaders and the second half with followers. The main theme of his work is to seriously question the validity of contingency theory and propose the alternative of value-based leadership behavior. O'Toole writes, "Instead, values-based leadership is an attitude about people, philosophy, and process. To overcome the resistance to change, one must be willing, for starters, to change oneself. In essence, then, values-based leadership is "unnatural."" If you want to read and digest a book that will challenge both you and much present thinking about leadership, this book is definitely for you!
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Summary: interesting approach - but look for an update
Review: By all means, I recommend you to read this book. However, since this book came out in 1995, a NEW VERSION is available in paperback. The new version includes an extra preface and some revisions to chapter 2 and chapter 8.
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Summary: O'Toole Debunks Situational Leadership
Review: I consistently use Leading Change in a class I teach on leadership and decision making. The author, James O'Toole, does a particularly good job of debunking the the popular myths of situational leadership -- and it should be a must read for that reason alone -- but he also does a great job of explaining why leading social and/or cultural changes are so much more difficult than leading technological changes. And in doing so, he explains why most of the popular books on business and leadership are no more useful than the plethora of diet books on the market.
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Summary: Breath of Fresh Air
Review: If you are a liberal arts major who found yourself ending up in the business world, you will eat up this book. Starting with an analysis of leadership thru the meaning of Christ Comes to Brussells, an 19th century early expressionist work, the author leads you thru Plato to Evans-Pitchard in an analysis on leadership. It also provides a great rebuttal for moral relativism
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Summary: "Why aren't they following me?"ÿ
Review: It is extremely difficult to overcome what James O'Toole calls "the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom." In Leading Change O'Toole explains the causes oif resistance. Only by understanding those causes can a leader overcome them. O'Toole insists that organizations and their leaders must not simply change to accommodate new realities. To do so would merely be expediency. Also, such accommodation could create other (perhaps even more painful) new realities Organizatiopns must transform themselves constantly and effectively while, and here is a key point, sustaining certain non-negotiable core values. According to O'Toole, "today's executives believe they are struggling with an unprecedented leadership challenge to create internal strategic unity within a chaotic external environment...Executives know what needs to be done and even how to do it. Nonetheless, they are unable to lead change effectively. Explaining the sources of this paradox and offering a practical way to resolve it are the purposes of this book." After many years of active involvement with all manner of organizations, O'Toole obviously understands why there is such great resistance to change. Also, he knows why visionaries such as Robert Owen fail to attract the support they need. However the magnificence of a given vision, only effective leadership can ensure that such a vision has a sustainable, enduring impact. O'Toole concludes this brilliant book with a rejection of leadership by command, manipulation, or paternalism...insisting once again that only value-based leadership can be both moral and effective. "Once a leader makes that commitment, all the other pieces will eventually fall into place, bit by bit." Those who admire this book as much as I do are encouraged to read the recently published Leadership A to Z in which O'Toole provides a "guide for the appropriately ambitious." It is a stunning intellectual achievement. Also, with the O'Toole wit in top form, it is also a joy to read.
Rating:
Summary: "Why aren't they following me?"ÿ
Review: It is extremely difficult to overcome what James O'Toole calls "the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom." In Leading Change O'Toole explains the causes oif resistance. Only by understanding those causes can a leader overcome them. O'Toole insists that organizations and their leaders must not simply change to accommodate new realities. To do so would merely be expediency. Also, such accommodation could create other (perhaps even more painful) new realities Organizatiopns must transform themselves constantly and effectively while, and here is a key point, sustaining certain non-negotiable core values. According to O'Toole, "today's executives believe they are struggling with an unprecedented leadership challenge to create internal strategic unity within a chaotic external environment...Executives know what needs to be done and even how to do it. Nonetheless, they are unable to lead change effectively. Explaining the sources of this paradox and offering a practical way to resolve it are the purposes of this book." After many years of active involvement with all manner of organizations, O'Toole obviously understands why there is such great resistance to change. Also, he knows why visionaries such as Robert Owen fail to attract the support they need. However the magnificence of a given vision, only effective leadership can ensure that such a vision has a sustainable, enduring impact. O'Toole concludes this brilliant book with a rejection of leadership by command, manipulation, or paternalism...insisting once again that only value-based leadership can be both moral and effective. "Once a leader makes that commitment, all the other pieces will eventually fall into place, bit by bit." Those who admire this book as much as I do are encouraged to read the recently published Leadership A to Z in which O'Toole provides a "guide for the appropriately ambitious." It is a stunning intellectual achievement. Also, with the O'Toole wit in top form, it is also a joy to read.
Rating:
Summary: Strategies for Challenging the Status Quo
Review: It is extremely difficult to overcome what James O'Toole calls "the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom." In Leading Change), O'Toole explains why. Organizations and their leaders must not simply change to accommodate new realities; they must transform themselves effectively. According to O'Toole, "today's executives believe they are struggling with an unprecedented leadership challenge to create internal strategic unity within a chaotic external environment....Executives know what needs to be done and even how to do it. Nonetheless, they are unable to lead change effectively. Explaining the sources of this paradox and offering a practical way to resolve it are the purposes of this book." Leading Change is divided into two parts within which O'Toole addresses three related questions: 1. What are the causes of resistance to change? 2. How can leaders effectively and morally overcome that resistance? 3. Why is the dominant philosophy of leadership, based on contingency theory, neither an effective nor a moral guide for people who wish to lead change? For O'Toole, values-based leadership is provided by those he calls "Rushmoreans": They possess courage, authenticity, integrity, vision, passion, conviction, and persistence. To vary degrees, "Rushmoreans" listen to others, encourage dissenting opinion among their closest advisers, grant ample authority to their subordinates, and lead by example rather than by power, manipulation, or coercion. Granted, history produces very few Washingtons, Jeffersons, Lincolns, and Roosevelts. Nonetheless, according to O'Toole, there is much of value to learned from them by those who struggle with an unprecedented leadership challenge to create internal strategic unity within a chaotic external environment..." In Part One, O'Toole explains why values-based leadership is more effective than any other, notably "tough" or "amoral" leadership which is frequently (and inaccurately) characterized as being "realistic." For O'Toole, democratic leadership "is not about voting; it is about the democratic value of inclusion. There is nothing oxymoronic, chaotic, or ineffective about leadership based on that moral principle." In Part Two, O'Toole shifts his attention to followers inorder to discover why we all resist change that would be in our self-interest to embrace, and, why followers so often resist the leadership they claim to crave. For O'Toole, Shakespeare had it right when explaining resistance to change: "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars/But in ourselves." In Chapter 7, O'Toole briefly examines 33 of the most popular hypotheses concerning the root causes of change. They include the usual suspects: homeostasis (ie change is unnatural), stare decisis (ie status quo is preferable), inertia (ie difficulty of altering course), self-interest (ie What's in it for me?), and fear (ie of unknown). Of course, there are exceptions to each of the 33; also, all 33 are never present in the same situation; moreover, no single one can totally account for all forms of resistance to change. Peter Drucker asks a very important question: "What is the environment ready for? One has to do it [ie seek change] at the right time." Hence the importance of timing as well as having all of the Rushmorean values. But together, they are still insufficient if (for whatever reasons) there are no followers. In Chapter 9, O'Toole discusses J. Edwards Deming inorder to illustrate this "curious and troubling aspect of human behavior": reasonable men and women often resist acting on social knowledge which will advance their collective self-interest." How ironic that Deming's managerial methods which were so effective in helping to defeat the Japanese during World War II were then rejected by American industry but refined and and employed by the Japanese to win world markets and then, and only then, were Deming and his managerial methods embraced by American industry in desperation to learn the "secrets of Japanese management." In Chapter 10, O'Toole shifts his attention to Robert Owen (1771-1858) whose "paternalistic" treatment of his own employees earned an immense personal fortune for him but, meanwhile, he was widely reviled for mollycoddling the workforce (and thus not creating even greater profits) or for being a manipulative capitalist "in the government's pay." Alas, as O'Toole notes, "Owen never learned how to overcome the deeply rooted resistance to change, a skill that is a prime characteristic of great moral leadership." As a result, "humanity suffered for nearly a century from that singularly consequential flaw of one of history's gentlest souls." In the final two chapters of Leading Change, O'Toole examines what he calls "the despotism of custom" and "the ideology of comfort." Anyone in any organization (regardless of size or nature) who has attempted to be a change leader is already familiar with both. The question remains, how to overcome them? Everything which precedes these two final chapters creates a frame-of-reference within which O'Toole correlates and galvanizes his key points. Obviously, he fully understands why there is such great resistance to change. Also, he fully understands why visionaries such as Robert Owen fail to attract the support they need. He concludes this brilliant book with a rejection of leadership by command, manipulation, or paternalism...insisting once again that only value-based leadership can be both moral and effective. "Once a leader makes that commitment, all the other pieces will eventually fall into place, bit by bit."
Rating:
Summary: Strategies for Challenging the Status Quo
Review: It is extremely difficult to overcome what James O'Toole calls "the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom." In Leading Change), O'Toole explains why. Organizations and their leaders must not simply change to accommodate new realities; they must transform themselves effectively. According to O'Toole, "today's executives believe they are struggling with an unprecedented leadership challenge to create internal strategic unity within a chaotic external environment....Executives know what needs to be done and even how to do it. Nonetheless, they are unable to lead change effectively. Explaining the sources of this paradox and offering a practical way to resolve it are the purposes of this book." Leading Change is divided into two parts within which O'Toole addresses three related questions: 1. What are the causes of resistance to change? 2. How can leaders effectively and morally overcome that resistance? 3. Why is the dominant philosophy of leadership, based on contingency theory, neither an effective nor a moral guide for people who wish to lead change? For O'Toole, values-based leadership is provided by those he calls "Rushmoreans": They possess courage, authenticity, integrity, vision, passion, conviction, and persistence. To vary degrees, "Rushmoreans" listen to others, encourage dissenting opinion among their closest advisers, grant ample authority to their subordinates, and lead by example rather than by power, manipulation, or coercion. Granted, history produces very few Washingtons, Jeffersons, Lincolns, and Roosevelts. Nonetheless, according to O'Toole, there is much of value to learned from them by those who struggle with an unprecedented leadership challenge to create internal strategic unity within a chaotic external environment..." In Part One, O'Toole explains why values-based leadership is more effective than any other, notably "tough" or "amoral" leadership which is frequently (and inaccurately) characterized as being "realistic." For O'Toole, democratic leadership "is not about voting; it is about the democratic value of inclusion. There is nothing oxymoronic, chaotic, or ineffective about leadership based on that moral principle." In Part Two, O'Toole shifts his attention to followers inorder to discover why we all resist change that would be in our self-interest to embrace, and, why followers so often resist the leadership they claim to crave. For O'Toole, Shakespeare had it right when explaining resistance to change: "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars/But in ourselves." In Chapter 7, O'Toole briefly examines 33 of the most popular hypotheses concerning the root causes of change. They include the usual suspects: homeostasis (ie change is unnatural), stare decisis (ie status quo is preferable), inertia (ie difficulty of altering course), self-interest (ie What's in it for me?), and fear (ie of unknown). Of course, there are exceptions to each of the 33; also, all 33 are never present in the same situation; moreover, no single one can totally account for all forms of resistance to change. Peter Drucker asks a very important question: "What is the environment ready for? One has to do it [ie seek change] at the right time." Hence the importance of timing as well as having all of the Rushmorean values. But together, they are still insufficient if (for whatever reasons) there are no followers. In Chapter 9, O'Toole discusses J. Edwards Deming inorder to illustrate this "curious and troubling aspect of human behavior": reasonable men and women often resist acting on social knowledge which will advance their collective self-interest." How ironic that Deming's managerial methods which were so effective in helping to defeat the Japanese during World War II were then rejected by American industry but refined and and employed by the Japanese to win world markets and then, and only then, were Deming and his managerial methods embraced by American industry in desperation to learn the "secrets of Japanese management." In Chapter 10, O'Toole shifts his attention to Robert Owen (1771-1858) whose "paternalistic" treatment of his own employees earned an immense personal fortune for him but, meanwhile, he was widely reviled for mollycoddling the workforce (and thus not creating even greater profits) or for being a manipulative capitalist "in the government's pay." Alas, as O'Toole notes, "Owen never learned how to overcome the deeply rooted resistance to change, a skill that is a prime characteristic of great moral leadership." As a result, "humanity suffered for nearly a century from that singularly consequential flaw of one of history's gentlest souls." In the final two chapters of Leading Change, O'Toole examines what he calls "the despotism of custom" and "the ideology of comfort." Anyone in any organization (regardless of size or nature) who has attempted to be a change leader is already familiar with both. The question remains, how to overcome them? Everything which precedes these two final chapters creates a frame-of-reference within which O'Toole correlates and galvanizes his key points. Obviously, he fully understands why there is such great resistance to change. Also, he fully understands why visionaries such as Robert Owen fail to attract the support they need. He concludes this brilliant book with a rejection of leadership by command, manipulation, or paternalism...insisting once again that only value-based leadership can be both moral and effective. "Once a leader makes that commitment, all the other pieces will eventually fall into place, bit by bit."
Rating: 
Summary: Leading Change by Moral Example
Review: Leading Change is divided into two roughly equal parts. Part one: Leaders Leading Change introduces the idea of "values-based" leadership. Values-based leadership is inclusive, enabling others to lead by sharing information and fostering a sense of community. Institutionalizing continuous change and renewal are hallmarks of values-based leadership. At the bottom line is the moral principle of respect for people. This philosophy of leadership is contrasted with a Realist-relativist-contingency school of leadership that is more authoritarian, tough, and less "democratic." These two schools of leadership are exemplified in an interesting way by means of several profiles of historical and corporate leaders. O'Toole concludes that amoral leadership ultimately doesn't work because it is based on a relativistic and situational ethic. It does not foster the inalienable right of the pursuit of happiness.
Part Two: Followers (and Leaders) Resisting Change, tries to answer the question: Why is change resisted? O'Toole presents a list of hypotheses to answer this question, all having some validity. Of interest is his examination of the reasons for the initial rejection of some very profound managerial philosophies and practices that ultimately attained great success and broad acceptance. Those reasons are summarized as fear, loss of power, and resistance to the imposition of the will of others. I recommend the book. It is accessible and interesting, offering a well reasoned argument for value-based leadership.
Author James O'Toole taught for over twenty years on the faculty of the Graduate School of Business at the University of Southern California. He is the author of twelve books and over seventy articles and is currently vice president of The Aspen Institute. SWS
Rating:
Summary: Starts strong, grows increasingly esoteric and verbose
Review: The first half of this book is enlightening. The chapters on the "Rushmoreans" - Jefferson, Washington, Roosevelt and Lincoln - are provocative. Their leadership style is explored in detail, and connections are made to the effective management styles of many of today's best corporate leaders. After that, things go downhill. The second half is far too esoteric for its own good, including dense, highly detailed chapters on Robert Owen, John Stuart Mill and others. I skipped through these sections out of sheer tedium (although the sections on Drucker and Deming are somewhat engaging). In short, a difficult and challenging book (which is a compliment) but weighted down by too much dry writing and page after page of minutiae you'll be tempted to skip.
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