Leadership is an Art Review
Max De Pree, the author of the book Leadership is an Art, is the retired chairman of a company founded in 1923 called Herman Miller, Inc., which is an extremely successful family business, being named one of the hundred best companies to work for in the United States. The main purpose of this book was to provide his beliefs of successful factors to have present when running a company and how to lead the people who work for you in that company. When explaining this, he uses anecdotes of Herman Miller, Inc. in the book for support.
From his experience and observation, he knows that in order to have power you need to give power. His main purpose in his book is to show ways this can be achieved, which differs from most leadership books I have read, that only focus on achieving corporate excellence. He gives a strong emphasis to the importance of building relationships, initiating ideas, communication, and creating a lasting value system within an organization. He also thinks one of the most important aspect of leadership is to recognize the potential of the followers (in this case he is referring to the people who work in the company). In order to do this, he states that it is everyone's right to be part of the decision-making process and all information should be shared; this is why trust plays an important part of being a leader. De Pree tries to stimulate the readers thinking to be "out of the box" and create a very positive corporate culture, making employees enthusiastic and happy to work there, thus creating extremely positive outcomes from the company.
However, throughout the book there is not a lot of "how" to do the things he says. Another area in the book I felt that lacked information was the facts and examples. De Pree uses examples and anecdotes from Herman Miller Inc, which helps get the point across. Nevertheless, it would be a book of much higher quality if case studies of organizations other than Herman Miller, Inc were used. A little bit of research and factual evidence would have gone a long way for this book.
Leadership is an Art Overview
Max De Pree claims that leadership isn't a science or a discipline, but an art. He advises that leaders don't inflict pain, they bear pain; the first responsability of a leader is to define reality, the last is to say thank you - and that in between the leader is a servant; in baseball and business, the needs of the team are best met when we meet the needs of an individual.
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Customer Reviews
Great Book - Amy Kweskin - San Francisco, CA
This is a book that I have my students read in the Executive Leadership course I teach at the Art Institute of California - San Francisco. Inspirational.
A nice holistic, touchy feely way of leadership - Robert Kirk - Reno, Nv
I liked this book for helping you look at leadership from a different point of view. A lot of leadership books read the same but this one does take the study of leadership to a different level. I think one of the last sentences in the book summarize the author's view, "Leadership is much more an art, a belief, a condition of the heart, than a set of things to do". In summary, the book is solid but not earthmoving.
street dreams - Street Reader - NY USA
This book was delivered in excellent condition. The book was a very easy read and very inspirational.
*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Sep 04, 2010 23:35:05
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