one of the most fascinating reads EVER. Read for grad school, must read again!

I read chapters of this book for an Adaptive Leadership course and enjoyed them so much I ordered a second hand copy.
Despite being published in the 90s, the principles and case studies are very insightful and relevant.

I like the history and the academic approach, but the end result is that those examples of leadership (presidencies, wars, civil rights injustices that shape a century) are so extraordinary that it doesn't feel like the daily forms of leadership most experience in the workplace or in local communities are fully addressed.

I would have given it zero stars but then how would you have known I read it?

Read this for class this semester. Definitely provided an interesting lens to understand leadership. I do not think it is as universally applicable as he asserts, but definitely gave me some new things to think about and explore.

I am a little too young to remember most of the political incidents this book cited, and I wish I recalled more American history, because I found the examples frequently trying. But the distinctions and recommendations that the book set up for leadership were solid and, in a way, still revolutionary today.

Good resource

made me seriously consider leadership from multiple new perspectives.

This book paints with broad strokes and illustrates principles of leadership with surprising detail. This is an impressive accomplishment.

I found the author’s analysis of three different types of leadership situations very useful:

SituationtProblem definitiontSolution and implementationtPrimary locus of responsibility for the worktKind of work
Type ItCleartCleartExperttTechnical
Type IItCleartRequires learningtExpert and individualtTechnical and adaptive
Type IIItRequires learningtRequires learningtIndividual > experttAdaptive
Dr. Heifetz’s distinction between technical and adaptive leadership behaviors is also extremely insightful:

Social functiontTechnical problemtAdaptive problem
DirectiontExpert provides problem definition and solutiontExpert identifies the adaptive challenge, provides diagnosis of condition, and produces questions about problem definitions and solutions
ProtectiontExpert protects from external threattExpert discloses external threat
Role orientationtExpert orientstExpert disorients current roles, or resists pressure to orient people in new roles too quickly
Controlling conflicttExpert restores ordertExpert exposes conflict, or lets it emerge
Norm maintenancetExpert maintains normstExpert challenges norms, or allows them to be challenged

The author then suggests the following elements of effective leadership:

identifying the adaptive challenge
keeping distress within a productive range
directing attention to ripening issues and not diversions
giving the work back to the people
protecting voices of leadership in the community

Finally, Dr. Heifetz provides the leader seven steps to handling the burden of leadership:

get on the balcony
distinguish self from role
externalize the conflict
use partners
listen, using oneself as data
find a sanctuary
preserve a sense of purpose
It is this final point, leading from a strong sense of the importance of the work, that begins and ends the author’s thesis and analysis.

Without purpose, it is impossible to judge the value and effectiveness of a leader’s work.

At times, I shook my head wondering how our leaders in Albany plan to implement these concepts. I see New York repeatedly implementing technical solutions to adaptive problems.

Although this book was dense and difficult to get through, I highly recommend it. It is deep and wide.

Useful, but repetitive.

I gave this book full marks not because I think it was necessarily amazingly written, but because the ideas contained within it have changed my view of social interaction and change significantly.

Two key points that I have got from this book:

Leadership is an activity, and thus can be performed by anyone. It is an important distinction, as it makes everyone in the group accountable.
Look at the question of bringing up an issue strategically. Think who stakeholders are, how to move them in the direction you need them to go, without overstretching the system.

If I may, I would compare this theory to Jeet Kun Do's philosophy. As Bruce Lee famously said: “You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water my friend.”

The book doesn't provide an easy answer, but it does provide a framework within each one can think effectively.