Leadership Simple: Leading Others to Lead Themselves by Jill and Steve Morris (2003) Imporex International, Inc., $19.95 Hardcover



ReaderStrength Rating:
Focus 3
Build 4
Adapt 4
Overall Rating as a leadership resource 3.6
(Please see "How Do We Evaluate Resources?" in right column)

Can a complex process like leading others be simple?
Perhaps leading is as simple as teaching people to first lead themselves. Leadership Simple by Steve Morris and Jill Morris invites us to ask ourselves these five questions:

1. What do I want? (Wants)
2. What am I doing to get what I want? (Behaviors)
3. Is it working to get me what I want? (Perception)
4. What else can I do? (Behaviors)
5. What will I do? (Actions - Behaviors)

Once we have tackled and applied these questions for ourselves, we can ask these same questions of the people we are leading. The key is to assist others to answer these questions for their situation.

This book is based on “Choice Theory,” a theory that has evolved from 40 years of work by psychiatrist Dr William Glasser. He coined the term “Lead Management” to describe the application of his work to the environment of organizations. The authors are both graduates of the William Glasser Institute.

The book is written in story form through conversations with Max, a consultant, coach, and trainer at headquarters, conversing with a sales manager, Jerry, who is stressed over his lack of time and energy to perform his sales manager functions. Jerry, the sales manager is bogged down and stressed by meetings and other corporate bureaucracy which make him feel he does not have enough time to perform his primary functions.

Max leads Jerry to answer question #1. This allows Jerry to come up with answers that satisfy questions #2 – 5. Two specific examples of what Jerry discovers include:

> The realization that meetings can belong to the participants, as well as to the leader and that all participants are cooperatively responsible for the results of the meeting.

>As a leader, Jerry doesn’t have to Do For the people that report to him, instead he can learn to Do With them.

Recommendation

I recommend the book to managers and leaders who are frustrated with other managers or staff that appear to be creating circumstances that take them off track from their primary goals. The book also works for any leader who hasn’t been accomplishing the things they want to achieve in their life. They can answer those questions for themselves and learn to lead others by learning to lead themselves.

Jim Tharp, our guest reviewer is a regular reader of ReaderStrength . His is a business owner based in Folsom, CA. He can be reached at jtharp26@comcast.net
 

ReaderStrength is an e-publication that saves you time when looking for books to fuel your inspiration as you lead yourself and others.

Each issue is archived at our website click here

How Do We Evaluate Resources?

All of the books we review are evaluated on how they support a leader’s progress in applying our working definition of leadership.

We teach leaders to: Focus, Build, and Adapt:

Focus: A leader is able to see a new future

Build: A leader can build from his or her strengths as a foundation, adding on new skills, knowledge, and attitudes to create the new future.

Adapt: A leader is skilled at using feedback from their own thinking, other people’s reactions, and results/information from their environments to self-correct and keep moving toward the new future they envisioned.

Here is our rating system:

Outstanding 4

Good 3

Satisfactory 2

Unsatisfactory 1

Focus- How well does this book inspire a vision of a new future?

Build- How well does this book teach new knowledge and skills?

Adapt-How well does this book assist readers in examining and optimizing their own behaviors?

Overall Rating as a Leadership Resource: We average the ratings in the above three categories.