What do you think?
Rate this book
Leadership Simple: Leading People To Lead Themselves
The book demonstrates a simple model of leadership that can be used to coach and guide any group or person, staff or management, towards the ultimate goal of the leader, leading people to lead themselves. This is a practical, interpersonal leadership system that can be used to translate any other business process, behavioral approach or method into bottom line results.
136 pages, Hardcover
First published November 15, 2003
4 people are currently reading
34 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 2, 2013
Something about this book just did not click with me. The conversational method can work in leadership books; like in Reinventing Leadership by Warren G. Bennis & Robert Townsen, but this one read like some sort of infomercial instead of presenting ideas for me to click one. The constant overuse of Capitalized Jargon kept the good ideas from really reaching out and grabbing me.
January 20, 2021
Quick read, better than the 3-star average reviews so far, but by no means a 5. I didn't like the conversation style initially, but when I got to the appendix that lists page after page of bullets (essentially an executive summary), I immediately had a change of heart when I considered trying to remember those bullet points rather than the "movie" I just watched (ie, the interactions written about in conversational style). I will certainly better recall what so and so did, said, etc., than if it were a PowerPoint style business book like the appendix. Overall it's a very basic premise that combines, ohh, say logotherapy and the OZ Principle of Accountability. Just because it's basic, or simple, does not mean it won't be extremely effective (people have a hard time remembering more than three things to think/say/do anyways). Worth having and re-reading every few years, probably.
January 14, 2018
Books like this aren't my usual area of interest, but it's short and someone suggested that I read it. I wasn't a big fan of the writing style (nearly the whole book is written in dialogue) and I think maybe it could work better if it alternated the theoretical concepts with several real-life examples, instead of focusing on just one imaginary businessman. I was surprised that this seemed to be mostly a self-help book that can be applied in the business world, rather than a business- or management-focused book. Basically, it's about learning to manage your feelings and expectations in order to be a positive influence on your coworkers. I took a few notes while reading and will try to apply them to my own life.
June 6, 2016
This book posits that you can approach any challenge by changing the following: your perception of the problem, what you want, or your behavior. You can change 1 or more of these things and you do that by working through the following questions with others:
1.) What do you want?
2.) What are you doing to get what you want?
3.) Is it working?
4.) What else can you do?
5.) What will you do?
When we lead others, we can ask the questions above to get to the plan. Most of us try to fix a problem by stopping with the first solution we find, essentially, we try to close the gap too soon. Instead, it is better to generate as many alternatives as possible and try to see which might be the most effective. This results in being strategic instead of reactive. Lead management drives accountability and is based on making, keeping, and renegotiating clear agreements. It breaks the cycle of "Do for --> Do to" and replaces it with "Do with." All are invested in finding solutions to try and committing to action that will achieve the desired result.
The concepts in this book are solid and ones I can see myself putting into practice. I also like that the book was short, as I have little interest in pouring over hundreds of pages of management advice. The writing style of this book, however, was both a blessing and a curse, as it is entirely a conversation between a consultant and an employee. The back and forth between them and the practical application of the process in the work environment of the employee were both good, but because it was a dialogue, the consultant and employee had to constantly use each other's names so that the reader would know who was saying what. That got strange and annoying to the point of making it seem forced and artificial. A screenplay style would have been strange too but would have alleviated the need for constant use of names.
I might look for other books about lead management just to see if there's further inspiration. This was a decent enough intro to get me interested.
1.) What do you want?
2.) What are you doing to get what you want?
3.) Is it working?
4.) What else can you do?
5.) What will you do?
When we lead others, we can ask the questions above to get to the plan. Most of us try to fix a problem by stopping with the first solution we find, essentially, we try to close the gap too soon. Instead, it is better to generate as many alternatives as possible and try to see which might be the most effective. This results in being strategic instead of reactive. Lead management drives accountability and is based on making, keeping, and renegotiating clear agreements. It breaks the cycle of "Do for --> Do to" and replaces it with "Do with." All are invested in finding solutions to try and committing to action that will achieve the desired result.
The concepts in this book are solid and ones I can see myself putting into practice. I also like that the book was short, as I have little interest in pouring over hundreds of pages of management advice. The writing style of this book, however, was both a blessing and a curse, as it is entirely a conversation between a consultant and an employee. The back and forth between them and the practical application of the process in the work environment of the employee were both good, but because it was a dialogue, the consultant and employee had to constantly use each other's names so that the reader would know who was saying what. That got strange and annoying to the point of making it seem forced and artificial. A screenplay style would have been strange too but would have alleviated the need for constant use of names.
I might look for other books about lead management just to see if there's further inspiration. This was a decent enough intro to get me interested.
April 19, 2010
Read for Synergy: The Illinois Library Leadership Initiative.
This is an approach to leadership based on the idea that you can control your wants, your perceptions, and your behavior. Leaders guide themselves and the people working for (or with) them through a simple self-evaluative process to arrive at a plan for creating the desired results, and making agreements that lead to accountability. This was a quick read with a lot of good ideas, and the approach outlined here is one that can be applied far outside a manager-employee relationship--it's more of a general practice. The entire book is written as a dialogue between consultant and harried manager, so it's a little contrived, but very concrete and easy to follow.
This is an approach to leadership based on the idea that you can control your wants, your perceptions, and your behavior. Leaders guide themselves and the people working for (or with) them through a simple self-evaluative process to arrive at a plan for creating the desired results, and making agreements that lead to accountability. This was a quick read with a lot of good ideas, and the approach outlined here is one that can be applied far outside a manager-employee relationship--it's more of a general practice. The entire book is written as a dialogue between consultant and harried manager, so it's a little contrived, but very concrete and easy to follow.
August 24, 2014
There isn't anything too earth-shattering in this book, but it does give a nice illustration of how to practice some of the skills of lead management. The writing style will grate on your nerves, be warned.
July 26, 2009
The writing - especially the dialogue - in this type of book is always a bit stiff and contrived, but it had some good ideas. It's very short and quick to read. I took notes!
Read
July 1, 2011Reading for the Nebraska Library Leadership Intitute.
September 11, 2015
It just has one point, but it's a good one! And easy to read.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews