How Great Leaders Think: The Art of Reframing

by Lee G. Bolman, Terrence E. Deal

The proven model that offers powerful and elegant strategies for leaders How Great Leaders the Art of Reframing uses compelling, contemporary examples to show how more complex thinking is the key to better leadership. Leaders who understand what's going on around them see what they need to do to achieve the results they want. Bolman and Deal's influential four-frame model of leadership and organizations--developed in their bestselling book, Reframing Artistry Choice and Leadership--offers leaders an accessible guide for understanding four major aspects of organizational structure, people, politics, and culture. Tapping into the complexity enables leaders to decode the messy world in which they live, see more options, tell better stories, and find strategies that are more effective. Case examples of leaders like Jeff Bezos at Amazon, Howard Schultz at Starbucks, Tony Hsieh at Zappos, Ursula Burns at Xerox, and the late Steve Jobs at Apple provide concrete lessons that readers can put to use in their own leadership. The book's lessons to use structural tools to organize teams and organizations for better results How to build motivation and morale by aligning organizations and people How to map the terrain and build a power base to navigate the political dynamics in organizations How to develop a leadership story that shapes culture, provides direction, and inspires commitment to excellence

Genres: Leadership, Business, Nonfiction, Psychology, Professional Development, Management, Education

240 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 2013

Reviews

[Ismail Elshareef · Rating 2 out of 5]

Leaders have to harness frames, or leadership lenses, to think clearly and make better decisions. These frames are:

– Structural (i.e. right design for the task at hand. Excellence in execution.)
– Human Resource (i.e. empathy, listening and respect of the humans on the team)
– Political (i.e. power balance and clout and justice)
– Symbolic (i.e. purpose, meaning and why)

Great reminder that we, as leaders, have to balance our philosophy between these four frames.

[Said AlMaskery · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in a difficult time. The oil prices has plummeted down and all measures to increase efficiency and reduce the unit cost of our product is not sufficient to get the organization out from its critical condition. A massive layoff plan is unavoidable.

Looking into this from an HR perspective (which I am good at) makes it a difficult and daunting experience. However viewing the same situation from a structural frame gives me all the ammunition I need to action with a relatively peaceful conscious. The symbol frame enabled me to think of better ways to pass on the message and keep the remaining staff engaged and hopeful of a better future. Needless to say that the political frame opened potential strategic opportunities that will be vital for the way forward.

This book is a continuation of the Reframing Organizations, it takes us along the same path but in a more concise approach. The ideas are the same, the way they present it is similar, but the readability is better. The book of course has its cons, one would be the simplification of ideas presented. To make use of the book you need to be in a prospective that allows you to understand what it tries to present. Being in good times might not give you that edge.

I highly recommend the book to executives and employees alike. It can shed light to a lot of aspects in organizational life that might not fall into prospective until you see it through a certain frame. This is what the book allows you to do.

[Will Burns · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve often complained about books that spend too much time on the theory of management and less on how it works in practice. This is the first book that gives helpful tips on actually navigating an organisation. It separates leadership strengths into 4 “frames” and looks at how these frames could apply to different scenarios. You can then take a test to ascertain your own strengths and weaknesses. It really helped me reflect on how I could change my style in different situations.

[James Atkinson · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the worst book I have ever read.

Filled with cherrypicked data, fallacious assertions, and weak writing, this is a leadership fetish book that actually is a full-blown adulation of corporate fascism. Every CEO is a little Mussolini.

I hate this book. Don't buy it. Don't read it. Don't give it any traction whatsoever. For the love of god, please let it die.

[Jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I discovered the idea of reframing while reading Bolman and Deal during my master's degree research. This book presents that information in an easier to grasp format. Definitely recommended for anyone in leadership, and especially for the people who live and work at the intersection of the different types.

[Orhun · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Büyük liderler nasıl düşünür?" İsmiyle Türkçe'ye çevrilen bu kitap, yazarlarının 4 başlıkta kategorize ettiği makro liderlik stillerini gerçek hayattan örnekleriyle birlikte açıklamakla kalmayıp, hepsinin güçlü ve zayıf yönlerini de inceliyor. Bununla da yetinmeyip, bir film karakteri gibi siyah/beyaz olmayacağınızın farkındalığıyla, kendi karmanızı bulmanıza ve nasıl geliştirebileceğinize de odaklanıyor.

Beklentilerinizden çok çok fazlasını sunan "Büyük Liderler Nasıl Düşünür" kitabının tek major noksanı ise, dilimize tercüme edilmiş diğer iş/yönetim/iletişim kitaplarının çoğunda görülen, terimlerin tercüme edilmesindeki yetersizlik. Yazarlar terimlerin hatta alıntı yapılan kitap isimlerinin Türkçe'ye ne şekilde çevrildiğine bakmadan, zaman baskısıyla tercüme edince, maalesef böyle bir başyapıt dahi harika bir ürünün ucuz bir çin malı taklidi misali raflardaki yerini alıyor.

[Ashish Piplani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Listened to its Audio book as part of a coursework. It has a few episodes from corporate america which tells us hy some leadere hit a wall while others suceed. In a nutshell, this book urges every manager to think of tough situations in Boleman's proposed four frames of HR, Structure, Political and Symbolic. A leader will naturally be good in one and two, but reframing situations will help her take a holistic approach to the problem.

Topic could be covered in one HBR article itself.

[Jared Townley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bolman and Deal write about the four different frames of leadership (structural, human resource, political, and symbolic). Through examples of popular CEOs, they expound on how using these four frames to frame and reframing impact leadership. I wish the book would have went more in depth into each of the frames instead of spending so much time explaining with examples. Nevertheless, it is a very helpful and practical way to think about how leadership involves different core areas or arenas.

[Anthony Tee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy read.
Broadly categorizing into 4 leadership frameworks, backing up with some examples and scenarios.
A good overview into the big picture of leadership styles, strengths and weakness.

The emphasis is to reframe often and to choose, mix and match, according to each individual's strengths and the organization at hand.

[Suleyma · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would have liked shorter and more examples. Seems a bit aged. There’s one chapter that gives the whole synopsis of the book- I could have just read that chapter and saved myself from reading the whole thing

[Jake Chesser · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is a bit of fat I think could be cut from this book, but there was still good food for thought throughout.

[Meg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I only read two chapters of this, but I do really love Bolman and Deal. They write from the same framework in every book, but it's great stuff, so it doesn't get old.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great way to learn how to think about a problem from different perspectives

[Laoue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this for my contemporary management class, was pretty good and interesting.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am big fans of these research-writers. Here they apply their framing of organization structure to leadership practices. So well done.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick and light, lots of stories, light on practicals.

[Dominic Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written and structured, truly insightful, featuring highly entertaining cases.

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read, putting this all into practice will be a challenge. Quite a few great examples that were very illuminating.

[Bryan Doughty · Rating 1 out of 5]

An audio book review:

I have read a lot of business books and this one is simply not very good. It rehashes info from lots of others books, but breaks no new ground never brings it all together. I was very disappointed in this book as I had read it all before. Just read the originals

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

The ideas in the book were good ideas it just took a while to get to the point. The best part of the book was the interesting stories about several top businesses.