Dilemmas of Leadership is refreshingly different. This book is an easy‐to‐read but definitive and authoritative guide to modern Western business leadership. The authors have provided readers with the materials of their courses on leadership development taught to various audiences internationally, including executive and MBA courses at Manchester Business School.
The book is designed to appeal to everyone interested in promoting leadership development, and it has particular relevance for management developers. It can be read as a reference text, with its up‐to‐date summaries of knowledge of leadership theories and practice. Or it can stand as a self‐instruction personal development manual, or as a text on personal (leadership) development programmes. In this respect, the publishers' accompanying web site has an excellent set of Powerpoint overheads, and tutor's guide for a ten‐lecture training course with one lecture per chapter.
The contents illustrate the broad aspects of leadership to be found in the book's overviews (called “Platforms of understanding”). These cover a wide range of issues and topics such as transactional leadership, transformational leadership, fifth level leadership, “tipping point” theory, servant leadership, symbolic leadership, creative leadership, innovation leadership, trust‐based leadership, rationality, freedom, gender and most importantly the management of ethical dilemmas.
1 Why should you read this book?
As a teacher and researcher into leadership I have studied numerous books on the subject. This book has several special features that make it a must‐read for serious management developers and managers. First, it has an unusual approach that combines academic rigour with practical applications. It concentrates on “helping the reader to help themselves”. The approach involves explaining how leadership has a series of maps. The good leader tries to read existing maps, and develop personal ones. How is this achieved? By developing the personal skills of self‐awareness by practicing critical evaluation of personal and supplied case examples. In particular, the authors show how the toughest leadership challenges arise from internal conflicts or dilemmas. Wrestling with the dilemmas brings great personal benefits, and reinforce the message that leadership is not a matter of simple problem‐solving. For instance, all leaders face the emotional against the rational dimensions of their decisions. Each leader must take one path, which will differ from circumstance to the next. In doing so there is learning about accepting realities, necessary hardships as well as benefits, from decisions. Another dilemma is the leader who wants to give responsibilities to followers, but remains aware that such freedom may risk to departure from the economic interests of the organization.
The book extends the typical American treatment of leadership with examples from some cultures. The examples indicate how leadership is fundamentally influenced and shaped by cultural maps. This is supported through my own experiences. In one of my own studies I found many examples in my own country of the symbolic nature of leadership, which re‐defines the meaning of the transformational leader. This confirms that the culture is always there.
At another level it is interesting to learn from the cases of such leaders as Carly Fiorina at Hewlett Packhard, Jean‐Pierre Garnier at GlaxoSmithKline, Bill Bratton of the New York Police Authority, and Shiwong Wu of Microsoft China. In addition there are cases of other leaders in a variety of political and other domains, such as Margaret Thatcher, Sir Alex Ferguson, and Monty Roberts (the “horse whisperer”).
2 A critical evaluation
The book argues that leadership skills can be developed – at least in part – through dedicated study. The authors accept that it is less clear whether there is evidence for this belief in self‐development. They point out that this is itself a kind of leadership dilemma.
We have all met successful leaders who belittle “book learning”. In some ways the text will also be on the deep side for those still in search of leadership tips that can be instantly re‐applied. However, for anyone who accepts this basic premise, the subtle approach in the book seems to me to be both sound and applicable in practice. Discussion of some paradigms, cases and exemplary models from non‐western cultures would be of great value in getting a better and deeper understanding of the cultural dimension of leadership. Such a discussion might be considered in the next editions.
