Decisive Leadership -- a Story

I've been asked to be involved in the leadership development task force for a major business school, so I'm diving back into leadership development materials. An interesting book I just ran into is Decisive Leadership: The Vision to See Beyond by Anthony Jackson.

Like a number of other leadership books, it communicates its message through a story based, partially, we presume, on the author's experience. A small firm is struggling after years of success. Revenues are down and profits are down even more. The CEO is frustrated and doesn't know what to do. The COO seems to be undermining the CEO, even though they've worked together for over 10 years, since the founding of the company. What to do?

The CEO happens to have read a book by a leadership coach and reaches out to him. The coach comes in, faces the typical rejection by the troops, etc. You get the picture.

While somewhat predictive, this is an excellent book to communicate the value of clear decision making. How to make those decisions? It's a question of balance in one's life. This is a quick read (an afternoon) but highly entertaining and informative.

"Radical" Reding

In support of one of my clients I'm digging back into my leadership readings and recently re-read a couple of excellent books that, using an allegory, provide an interesting perspective on leadership.

Steve Farber's The Radical Leap and The Radical Edge tell stories of how, Steve, in a fictional situation based on his prior consulting experiences, helped a couple of organizations improve their leadership while at the same time learning a lot in the process. The focus of these two books is on the power of personal commitment and support of followers.

These books provide a different approach than the traditional command-and-control leadership styles that, unfortunately, continues to be prevalent in many organizations. A key part of this approach is the ability to eliminate fear while at the same time committing yourself and your organization to some audacious moves.

If you want to learn how to develop outstanding organizations, these are good books to read. While quick reads, they provide a lot of value.