<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: Drowning in the Deep Blue Sea!
Review: Drath's stated purpose of his book, namely, to: change with the changing ideology of leadership, away from a focus on the leader, to a focus on relationship, I believe, is essential to furthering the construct of leadership study today. He states that the terrible "persistent central idea" that "leadership is something leaders possess as an individual attribute and, therefore, leadership is given by, created by, leaders." Causes confusion (p. xiv)! And that this confusion of leadership as a process only being done (exclusively) by the leader is wrong, and not the future of leadership as relationship -- I AGREE!However, it seems the Author forgets (or gives-up on) his central thesis of "leadership as relationship" when he states, on page 13, in the first of his central three "principles," "Personal Dominance," that: - Leadership is something a person possesses,
- Leadership is an expression of this personally possessed quality or characteristic,
- Leaders lead because followers are convinced of the truth of their leadership Unbelievable! This is the very problem he states he will "lead" us away from... the Leader "doing" leadership! This "principle" of "leadership" only begs the question: If leadership is a relationship (like you propose), how is it that the Leader can be the one who "possess" leadership!? Can't a follower? And other questions like: If followers are convinced of some 'truth' about a Leader's "leadership" then you are stating the leader is the one doing "leadership" not the follower! How is this a relationship if you clearly state the Leaders do "leadership?" The author repeatedly uses examples like, "Mr. Karl's leadership of Zoffner Piano Company..." and other positional examples when trying to discuss leadership as a relationship, when it really extends the ill-conceived concept that persons in the executive position (in this case owner of a company) are the "leadership." If leadership is a relationship, then it can't be done exclusively by a person in a position! As early as 1957, Peter Selznick, in Leadership in administration: A sociological interpretation, writes, "Leadership is not equivalent to office-holding or high prestige or authority or decision-making . . . only some (and sometimes none) of the activities of decision-makers are leadership activities." Lastly, not withstanding the confusion this author causes, in his attempt to de-confuse the school of leadership understanding by not focusing on leadership as a relationship... he totally misses the scholarly contributions of Joseph Rost when he summarizes, on page 107, (in a paragraph entitled: "Writing about these new concepts") where he
states: "The emergence of these challenging new contexts in organizations is mirrored in the work of a number of writers on leadership who reflect the limitations of the interpersonal influence principle. In Leadership for the Twenty-First Century (1991), Joseph Rost discusses leadership as a process shared equally between leader and followers." Rost's book has almost 200, content ripe pages, and the Author distills it to: "a process shared equally between leaders and followers." This doesn't even start to explain Rost's thesis. Having been a student of Rost, I believe Rost's key thesis is actually that there needs to be a "post-industrial school of leadership" (Rost, p. 182). Where leadership is conceived of as an influence relationship, and de-focused away from the leader as possessing leadership -- where this book is unfortunately focused. Two stars for a great concept! Rost had it in 1991!
Rating: 
Summary: He's On To Something
Review: Get this book. ... I found this book was on to something different. Drath sees that the source of leadership is increasingly moving away from the single leader, even away from the single influencer who is not the official leader. It is moving toward relational leadership, meaning that the group or community or partnership or whatever IS the leadership. The prompt for this appears to be at least multi-cultural influences, as different cultures agreed they must work together -- what he calls shared work. When I read this book, I immediately thought of the International Space Station as an example, where one witnesses the law of politics dance with the law of science -- a complicated dance that demands new behaviors and ways of working. I also thought of the US Government's Census 2000 Partnership, in which the Bureau of the Census says it brought together more than 140,000 partnerships. This was not the typical Federal Agency "interagency" project, this was a change of control, a change of ownership, a change of how the work got done, as an impressive peacetime mobilization occurred to "make every American count." Both stories here strike me as illustrations of what Drath is working to get his arms around. Both stories are imperfect, but I sense Drath's thinking is seminal on this, still working out the nuances of this Relational Leadership. Drath is honest that he is at the early stage of identifying the dynamics at work here and giving a name to the behaviors, but he proceeds to describe what he sees. I've read lots of leadership books over the years and more recently because I am in a leadership development program. But when I heard Bill Drath recently present his thinking in person recently, at a Smithsonian Business Series in Washington DC, I found I was hearing thinking that I hadn't heard anywhere before. This was my first exposure to him and his book. I followed up later and learned more about his inquery into understanding shared work across complex boundaries. I think he's on to something that is at least in my future...and maybe yours.
Rating:
Summary: He's On To Something
Review: Get this book. ... I found this book was on to something different. Drath sees that the source of leadership is increasingly moving away from the single leader, even away from the single influencer who is not the official leader. It is moving toward relational leadership, meaning that the group or community or partnership or whatever IS the leadership. The prompt for this appears to be at least multi-cultural influences, as different cultures agreed they must work together -- what he calls shared work. When I read this book, I immediately thought of the International Space Station as an example, where one witnesses the law of politics dance with the law of science -- a complicated dance that demands new behaviors and ways of working. I also thought of the US Government's Census 2000 Partnership, in which the Bureau of the Census says it brought together more than 140,000 partnerships. This was not the typical Federal Agency "interagency" project, this was a change of control, a change of ownership, a change of how the work got done, as an impressive peacetime mobilization occurred to "make every American count." Both stories here strike me as illustrations of what Drath is working to get his arms around. Both stories are imperfect, but I sense Drath's thinking is seminal on this, still working out the nuances of this Relational Leadership. Drath is honest that he is at the early stage of identifying the dynamics at work here and giving a name to the behaviors, but he proceeds to describe what he sees. I've read lots of leadership books over the years and more recently because I am in a leadership development program. But when I heard Bill Drath recently present his thinking in person recently, at a Smithsonian Business Series in Washington DC, I found I was hearing thinking that I hadn't heard anywhere before. This was my first exposure to him and his book. I followed up later and learned more about his inquery into understanding shared work across complex boundaries. I think he's on to something that is at least in my future...and maybe yours.
Rating:
Summary: leadership and its evolving principles
Review: One of the difficulties of leadership is that people variously experience it through differing worldviews. Drath does us the enormous service of pointing out three main worldviews, or principles as he calls them, by which people construct and enact the idea of leadership. For example, if all the actors in a situation construct leadership though the dominance principle, then leadership in that situation is then for all practical purposes a function of the authority of dominant leaders. But worldviews can develop beyond dominance, toward what Drath calls relational dialogue or relational meaning-making. Thus, later evolving principles can transcend and include earlier ones, and dominance can be seen as very particular form of relational meaning-making. Problems inevitably arise when various actors hold different principles as their truth about leadership, and come to different conclusions about what it is and how to do it. The previous reviewer totally missed Drath's central and repeated points: that the principles are the ones variously in use in the world; that these principles can evolve; the latter ones include the earlier ones as special cases; and the relational principle is apparently being manifested with greater frequency in complexly interconnected organizations and societies.
Rating:
Summary: A must read for those struggling with leadership in this era
Review: The Deep Blue Sea is low on hype and full of rigorously explored insight. It is not "inspirational" in any traditional way, nor is it a "how to." Instead it aims to get down to--and under--the very roots of one's thinking about leadership. One goes on a thoughtful journey with this author, and slowly sees more and more, until finally the whole landscape seems to shift and a new vista appears. That is the value of this book--a solid place to stand and think that affords a very different view of what leadership is and could be. Drath has forever changed my view of leadership, a shift not without pain but with many rewards.
Rating: 
Summary: Serious Leadership
Review: The title and introduction present a tremendously useful analogy to think about leadership. Regardless of what you think leadership is, you'll find your thoughts supported and your mind stretched. A must read for everyone serious about leadership practice and about developing leaders.
<< 1 >>
| 
