Reinventing Leadership

Citation

Mann, S. (1998), "Reinventing Leadership", Journal of Management Development, Vol. 17 No. 4, pp. 305-306. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmd.1998.17.4.305.4

Among the plethora of management and leadership development books that come on to the market each year, Reinventing Leadership stands out, not necessarily because of its mould‐breaking ideas, but because of the simplicity with which it presents them. Unlike other volumes, this book does not require too heavy an investment of valuable time and effort by the reader in order to absorb and learn its main concepts. Yet, its points, ideas and approaches are inspiring, instantly useful, practicable and applicable. The presentation style is in the form of lively dialogue between the two authors, Bennis and Townsend who, as the pages unfold, battle out between themselves issues such as what today’s leader is and is not, empowerment, overcoming crisis and leader selection. While the presentation style may not appeal to all, it has the advantage of allowing the authors a conversational approach with an informality not normally associated with a leadership book. For example, in the opening chapter, Townsend challenges Bennis to explain why “command‐and‐control” leadership no longer works. Not satisfied with the proffered answer, Townsend urges Bennis to “come on, be more specific!” Readers are encouraged to take this conversational style further with the “Dialogue Starters” at the end of each main point that encourage the reader to develop the concepts further through role‐play, partner‐analysis, group dialogue, debate questions and what‐if discussions.

Through their own lively debate, Bennis and Townsend discuss and identify the characteristics of a leader (including personal ambition, intelligence, sense of humour and communication skill), they come to a working definition of leadership (“the capacity to create a compelling and plausible vision and to translate that vision into organizational realities”), they establish those qualities leaders need to manage crisis and handle mistakes (including courage and integrity) and even present their ideas on how leaders can grow and nurture new leaders. Reinventing Leadership does not stop at providing inspiration and information ‐ the book ends with a 21‐day plan aimed at helping the reader put the new knowledge into practice. This three‐week period allows the reader to really focus on the concepts within the book and to start to think like a new leader.