PENGUIN Leaders: Myth and Reality

This was a very biased book and I'm not sure that it gave a better understanding of the actions taken by the leaders that were discussed in the book.

Leaders written by a veritable General and two co-authors is a compilation of biographies of historic characters of different nationalities and times. Divided into seven chapters with headlines „The Founders“, “The Geniuses”, “The Zeolots” or “The Heros” General Stanley McChrystal has selected 2 representatives each, who according to McChrystal do qualify as good examples for this category of leaders. The Founders for example are Walt Disney and Coco Chanel, the chapter “The Geniuses” not surprisingly comes up with Albert Einstein and Leonard Bernstein. Examples for heroic leaders are the Chinese Admiral Zheng He and Harriet Tubman. McChrystal models his book after the antic historian Plutarch’s classic Lives, in which this author then profiled over forty famous personalities and which book could be found in all American homes a century ago, according to McChrystal. The book closes with a short conclusion of what leadership is about and what not and that’s it. Among the biographies I found the life of Margaret Thatcher most interesting but nothing more

Thought provoking and challenging many leadership myths

What is leadership? John Maxwell’s definition is the most common answer: “Leadership is influence.” That’s true to an extent, but it’s also too simple because it’s leader-centric, as if influence flowed only one way. In their new book, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, Jeff Eggers, and Jason Mangone identify three myths people believe about leaders and offer a more complex definition of leadership. Somewhat ironically for a book that criticizes leader-centricity, Leaders reaches its conclusions by examining the lives of thirteen leaders.First up is Robert E. Lee, the “Marble Man” of the Confederacy, who profoundly illustrates the distance between the myths and realities of leadership. Lee was admired by many white Americans for his martial valor and personal virtue. That admiration was given even though Lee lost the Civil War and miserably failed the greatest moral test of the nineteenth century by defending a way of life built on white supremacy and black slavery. His leadership consisted in what he symbolized, then, not in what achieved — or rather, thankfully failed to achieve..Then come several chapters in which McChrystal and his coauthors pair leaders under six headings: Founders (Walt Disney and Coco Chanel), Geniuses (Albert Einstein and Leonard Bernstein), Zealots (Maximilien Robespierre and Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi), Heroes (Zheng He and Harriet Tubman), Power Brokers (Boss Tweed and Margaret Thatcher), and Reformers (Martin Luther and Martin Luther King Jr.). These leaders often exercised influence despite their personal flaws (e.g., Boss Tweed) or the immorality of their causes (e.g., Zarqawi). Their profiles remind readers that leaders are flesh-and-blood people, not statues on pedestals.Taken both singly and in pairs, these profiles make Leaders a fascinating book, biographically informative but also analytically shrewd. As you read each short “life,” you come to realize that leaders exercise an important role, but not in the way that a simplistic definition portrays. Too simple an understanding of leadership results in myths about leadership, which McChrystal, Eggers, and Mangone describe this way:• The Formulaic Myth: In our attempt to understand process, we strive to tame leadership into a static checklist, ignoring the reality that leadership is intensely contextual, and always dependent upon particular circumstances.• The Attribution Myth: We attribute too much to leaders, having a biased form of tunnel vision focused on leaders themselves, and neglecting the agency of the group that surrounds them. We’re led to believe that leadership is what the leader does, but in reality, outcomes are attributable to far more than the individual leader.• The Results Myth: We say that leadership is the process of driving groups of people toward outcomes. That’s true, to a point, but it’s much broader than that. In reality, leadership describes what leaders symbolize more than what they achieve. Productive leadership requires that followers find a sense of purpose and meaning in what their leaders represent, such as social identity or some future opportunity.The key concepts to take away from the authors’ description of these myths are the importance of context, relationship, and symbolism in leadership. According to the authors, when those concepts are taken into account, leadership can be defined as “a complex system of relationships between leaders and followers, in a particular context, that provides meaning to its members.” This implies that leaders exercise a twofold role as “a bottom-up servant to enable action and a top-down symbol to motivate and provide for meaning.”I write this review as a Pentecostal minister and editor of a Christian leadership magazine — intentionally named Influence, by the way. Though Leaders is a secular leadership book, it teaches several valuable lessons that can benefit pastors and other church leaders. I’ll close with four that came repeatedly to mind as I read the book:First, as pastors and leaders in your church, there is no fool-proof, multi-step formula for becoming or producing other leaders. You should have a leadership pipeline and provide leadership training for your staff and volunteers, but you should also keep your eyes open for influencers who arise through other means. Paul’s leadership pipeline was the Damascus Road, after all, not the Jerusalem church.Second, share the work of ministry with others. Too often, we speak of what Pastor So-and-so accomplished at Such-and-such Church, as if he or she accomplished everything alone. But as Paul put it, the congregation is a body in which every member must do its part. So, share the work and spread the credit around.Third, tend to your soul. Jesus said, “Follow me.” Paul wrote, “Imitate me as I imitate Christ.” People will follow your leadership if you personally embody the joy and life-changing power of the gospel. Who you are as a leader is as important as what you do, in other words, because who you are as a spiritual leader symbolizes the life of meaning and eternal significance that people aspire to in Christ.Fourth, and finally, use your leadership for good. Both Robert E. Lee and Martin Luther King Jr. were Christians. And yet, at the height of their leadership, separated by a century, they exerted influence to achieve morally contradictory goals — Lee in defense of white supremacy and King in defense of racial equality. At the end of the day, however one defines leadership, shouldn’t doing the right thing be the most basic test of our leadership?

Excellent read! Authors attack three myths of leadership and do a great job of illustrating and attempting to refute them but I don't think they made the irrefutable argument. Their proposed new model of leadership is interesting and has much to offer but it's still incomplete. They make a clear and compelling case that the way we think of leadership currently is incomplete and given to hero-worship but their alternative doesn't completely fill the void. I've studied leadership for over thirty years and find much to agree with here but their reach exceeded their grasp.

This book is an excellent perspective on what we should seek from our leaders--and what we should demand from ourselves. There is no perfect leader, and thusly, followers must reckon what qualities are necessary for a leader to be successful and to represent the values that we hold dear. Then, it is the follower's responsibility to help elevate those leaders.In short, leaders are incredibly important, but without followers to mobilize those leaders which will make us all better, we as a country will fall short. If we stand a chance at separating leadership from fame, this is the book to help us do it.Perhaps most importantly, too, we can't always count on a genius, a power broker, a reformer, or some combination thereof to save the day. Leaders are not perfect, but they are perfectly human, as are we all. This book should not only instruct followers on how (and why) to elevate leaders which advance kindness and equality, it should teach us all about the leaders we can become. Whether as a parent, a teacher, a coach, or a politician, looking back at Plutarch should teach us all how to be the best leaders we can--and why our role matters so much.This is a book for everyone--if we can all agree (or at least discuss) what we need from our leaders, perhaps we can change the world for the better. Five stars.