Book Review: Leadership Is an Art

Leadership Is an Art on amazon.com

Reader Rating: 8/10

Salaams! Read and finally finished this book a month or so back, even though I'd first started a number of years ago. Good book on leadership, though definitely not your standard business book on the subject.

DePree, the CEO of the very successful furniture designer/retailer Herman Miller, Inc., likes to ramble, tell personal and company stories, shake the status quo, and wax philosophical, as opposed to presenting a logical, linear, scientifically described (with scads of survey results, graphs and charts), point-by-point treatise. Well, that's a key part of his whole point in the book, since he believes that “[l]eadership is an art, something to be learned over time, not simply by reading books. Leadership is more tribal than scientific, more a weaving of relationship than an amassing of information, and, in that sense, I don’t know how to pin it down in every detail.” Salaam-I-like it, since it fits with the way I personally view and "flesh out" leadership! And it means there's room for me to continue growing in my leadership potential.

Depree makes the point again and again that effective leadership must be based on relationship, development, and empowerment. “To be a leader means, especially, having the opportunity to make a meaningful difference in the lives of those who permit leaders to lead.” It should never be just about efficiency, or about squeezing out every ounce of work from those one leads. Depree quotes Peter Drucker to remind readers that “efficiency is doing the thing right, but effectiveness is doing the right thing.”

Leaders should seek to find ways to develop people's full potential, as fully as possible involving them in the process of reaching for the best, which will benefit the organization ultimately: “I believe that the most effective contemporary management process is participative management…It begins with a belief in the potential of people.” Another gem from DePree in this same vein: "Effective influencing and understanding spring largely from healthy relationships among the members of the group. Leaders need to foster environment and work processes within which people can develop high-quality relationships…”

I love the succinct description Depree gives of what leaders should be doing as they lead others in an organization: “Leaders are obligated to provide and maintain momentum…Momentum in a vital company is palpable. It is not abstract or mysterious. It is the feeling among a group of people that their lives and work are intertwined and moving toward a recognizable and legitimate goal…Momentum comes from a clear vision of what the corporation ought to be, from a well-thought-out strategy to achieve that vision, and from carefully conceived and communicated directions and plans that enable everyone to participate and be publicly accountable in achieving those plans.” Short and succinct, but it says a WHOLE LOT about our responsibilities as leaders.

How are you doing at providing and maintaining momentum? How intertwined are you & your team's lives and work in reaching our ultimate goal of seeing "God receive the glory due His Name from ALL the peoples of Central Asia?" How clear is your vision for what everyone should be doing--of how their role fits into the bigger picture of reaching that ultimate goal? How well communicated are those plans and directions so that everyone can be enabled to meaningfully participate in the process and to hold each other accountable along the way?

I know and admit I'm still working on it, and this book has been a good help in my further development in these areas.

Leadership Is an Art (Paperback)
by Max Depree "My father is ninety-six years old..." (more)
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Other Editions:
Hardcover
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Paperback (Reissue)
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Rather than offering a how-to manual on running a business, DePree, CEO of Herman Miller Inc., a manufacturer of office furniture, details, in deceptively simple but imaginative language, a humanitarian approach to leadership. The artful leader, he argues, should recognize human diversity and make full use of his or her employees' gifts. Further, he believes, a leader is responsible not just for the health of a company's financial assets, but for its ethics. Advocating management through persuasion, and the exercise of democratic participation rather than concentrated power, he favors covenantal relationships with employees that rest on shared purpose, dignity and choice. The author stresses the need for communication, but his only direct guidance concerns the need for job performance reviews and self-evaluation.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review
“This is a wonderful book. It captures Max’s spirit—and he’s a truly exceptional person. But it also says more about leadership in clearer, more elegant, and more convincing language than many of the much longer books that have been published on the subject.”—Peter F. Drucker

“His opus is as worthy as scripture.”—New York Times Book Review

“Like the elegant furniture his company makes, De Pree’s book provides a valuable lesson in grace, style, and the elements of success.”—Time

“Leadership Is an Art is one of the best books I have ever read in my life on the subject of leadership and business management philosophy.”—Sam Walton

“Perhaps we should banish all of our management books except Max De Pree’s recent gem, Leadership Is an Art. The successful Herman Miller, Inc., chairman . . . . writes only about trust, grace, spirit, and love . . . . such concerns are the essence of organizations, small or large.”—Inc. magazine

Product Details
* Paperback: 176 pages
* Publisher: Currency (May 18, 2004)
* ISBN: 0385512465
* Average Customer Review: based on 24 reviews. (Write a review.)