Discover your voice

Would real business leaders, say a Rahul Bajaj or Lakshmi Mittal or Bill Gates, ever sit down and take tips on effective leadership drawn from a series of interviews with "everyday leaders"? I suspect not. They already know what it takes to lead. For the millions of others out there aspiring to lead teams successfully, the authors attempt to organise exemplary leadership qualities into five basic domains.

Now what is leadership? A relationship. It is a relationship with those who are led, with those who follow. In quintessence then, leadership is all about managing effective followership. Does the book help you do that?

If you were to pick up this book with your mind in a receptive mood, you could be inspired by the pages on creating a shared vision ("great leaders, like great companies and countries, create meaning and not just money") or on the advantages of using stories and analogies to teach virtues ("statistical summaries, facts and policy statements... lack impact") or the touchy-feely management gyaan bundled under the "encouraging the heart" chapter, though many would be tempted to label much of what is in the book as too simplistic.

The authors acknowledge that most people have become cynical about leadership, but cite leaders who have listened to their heart and built organisations on the strength of their convictions. Take John Robbins, who was being groomed to head ice-cream company Baskin-Robbins, promoted by his father and uncle. His concerns were far wider than ice-cream, though""the gap between the rich and poor, environmental deterioration, nuclear threats. He remembers telling his dad, "Do you understand, that for me, sensing these things as deeply as I do, inventing a thirty-second flavour is just not an adequate response." He went on to become the chairman of Youth for Environmental Sanity (YES), the founder of EarthSave International and author of Diet for a New America and The Food Revolution.

In similar vein, Egon Zehnder, founder of the eponymous executive search firm, started his career setting up offices in Europe for US executive search company Spencer Stuart. When he felt that the practices of the American firm were not suited to the European temperament, he set up his own company"""He moved on not for matters of money, or power, or prestige, but for matters of principle. He had the courage of his convictions".

To be an effective leader, you have to be a good human being, stand firm on your principles and be true to your true self. Do not try to copy another or speak someone else's words, unless you are convinced of it yourself.

Effective leadership is also about creating meaningful challenges for yourself as well as your team. "People do better work when they feel challenged."

The authors also attempt to answer that age-old question: are leaders born or made? "Yes, of course, all leaders are born. We've never met a leader who wasn't. So are all accountants, artists, athletes, parents, zoologists, you name it. We're all born. What we do with what we have before we die is up to us."

Instructions. Real-life examples. To-do exercises. All these are liberally strewn in the book, which aims to help you discover your voice (as a leader), if you haven't already.

THE LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE

Jim Kouzes & Barry Posner
Wiley India
Price: Rs 349; Pages: 462