Best leadership book I’ve ever read.

Read by ACRL Member of the Week Patricia A. Kreitz. Learn more about Patricia on the ACRL Insider Blog.

An absolute must read for anyone interested in developing leadership. Heifetz does a masterful job at building a leadership type that can navigate the complexity of leadership. The concepts of the holding environment and putting one’s self on the balcony are imperative to any leader.

Thoughtful discussion of leadership that creates sustainable change. As the title implies, it does not present a simple 1-2-3 formula. Instead it offers a way to assess the leadership situation and take the right kinds of actions.

You get a full synthesis & summary here: http://bit.ly/14eV9j1

Ronald A. Heifetz provides a discussion of just how complicated leadership is and how challenging it can be to lead in a responsible, ethical fashion. The book analyzes a number of leaders who faced not just crises, but transformational situations. As the book’s title promises.

True Adaptive, Social Leadership doesn’t take shortcuts; he carefully looks at the complexities that leadership, power and authority involve. His examples range from Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. to former U.S. president Lyndon B. Johnson to Adolf Hitler. To make his point, he uses metaphors from biology, music and the military and draws lessons from history. Heifetz has developed a great angle to look at leadership that will force you to reject the easy, superficial answers that make up so much of leadership literature. In their place, Heifetz offers approaches for observing contexts, balancing various factors and monitoring growth.

Very interesting analysis of some well known folks in leadership positions up to the early 1990s so many of the examples may seem dated. My main takeaway is that there are different types of leaders and leadership. There is adaptive work where learning is required to address conflicts in order to change values, beliefs, and behavior. Leadership is defined as mobilizing people to tackle tough problems, providing a vision, and influencing others. This is an activity, not traits.

The author goes through his theory from the roots of authority, mobilizing adaptive work, applying power with formal authority versus informal authority, and cites examples including LBJ during the 1960s, civil rights and Vietnam; MLK-civil rights and Selma, Ghandi and India-non violence; Sanger with birth control.

It was interesting to understand the theory behind leadership, particularly if you've ever been or will be in a leadership role. I just wish there were other examples of leaders who were not of the left wing liberal persuasion. I know most of these authors are in academia, and it detracts from getting the point across. Not sure these authors understand that or that they care. I would love a non partisan look at issues, but I am not holding my breath.

One of the better leadership books I've read, probably because of the clear message and memorable examples. As relevant now as when it was written 30 years ago.

Took me a long time to read, but absolutely worth it. All the examples of leadership used in the book gave me different such perspectives than I’ve ever had before. A well crafted book that uses narrative to make a point that I normally wouldn’t remember, but makes it so memorable that it’s hard to forget. Especially great for a young, inexperienced leader like me.

Best book on leadership I’ve ever read.

Heifetz adopts a contingency approach to leadership driven by two key variables: (a) whether or not a person has authority; and (b) whether the leader is dealing with routine problems or those demanding innovation and learning.
This approach, as intimated in the book’s title, contrasts with that adopted by authors like Zenger and Folkman (The Extraordinary Leader) and Fuda (Leadership Transformed) who adopt a universalist approach - we will be better leaders if we follow certain steps or adopt certain behaviours.
At its core Heifetz explores the following principles of leadership (1) identifying the adaptive challenge, (2) keeping distress within a productive range; (3) directing attention to ripening issues and not diversion; (4) giving the work back to the people; and (5) protecting voices of leadership in the community.
Heifetz’s strength in analytics is also this books key weakness. It takes a dedicated reader to persevere through some, understandably, academic sidepaths - for example the historical discussion on leadership including the trait approach, the situationalist approach, the contingency approach and the transactional approach. The best section is its last which explores the personal challenge of leadership.
If your looking for an academic approach to leadership, this book will reward a considered read, but it will not be for everyone.

Bit of a slog, but amazing concepts, realistic goals, and very motivating. It is an academic book, not a self-help or self-aggrandizement business book, but I feel like the concepts are so relevant that it really invigorates the way I look at life, especially public life.

Hard to summarize.

The best book on leadership I’ve read - I appreciated that it talked about being a leader with formal or informal authority and how that’s different.

I’ll continue to reflect on adaptive challenges, holding environments, and how to get to the balcony / create sanctuaries as a leader — especially with everything going on right now.