Leadership-Animal, Mineral, or Vegetable?

Leadership-Animal, Mineral, or Vegetable?

by Dr. Yvonne Howze
Superintendent, Missouri School for the Blind

This is the second in a four-part series of articles on leadership based on the experiences of Dr. Howze as a Kellogg National Leadership Fellow, a 3-year program sponsored by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek, Michigan.

Leadership has been defined and redefined. Still, no one single description or phrase can capture its entire essence, and no one single person can totally describe it fully to everyone's satisfaction. Case in point, two of my favorite statements on leadership come from other folks.

Stephen Covey (1990) described leadership by describing the actions of a leader. His description goes something like this: A leader is the person who climbs the tallest tree in the jungle, surveys the land, and hollers, "Wrong jungle!"

Roger Sublette, Executive Director of the Kellogg National Leadership Program, defines leadership as: Getting good things done with the help of others!

Robert Kelley contends in his book, The Power of Followership (1992), that leaders contribute only about 20 percent to the success of most organizations, and that followers are critical to the remaining 80 percent. If this is so, then why do we focus so much time and energy on leadership? Shouldn't we place a higher value on followers within our midst? Do we truly understand the power of followership? If we did, perhaps we would know that shifting between leadership and follower-ship roles is easy and depends on the need for a person's particular talents and skills in a given situation. To learn more about Kelley's thoughts on followership, read his book. After all, he is practically the sole source on the topic. However, if you want to know more about leadership, listed below are Howze's Top 20 choices for recommended reading based on the research of Dr. Larraine Matusak, formerly of the WK Kellogg Foundation's National Leadership Program.

1) Blanchard, K. & Bowles, S. (1998) Gung ho!. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc.

2) Blanchard, K. & Waghorn, T. (1997). Mission possible. New York: McGraw-Hill.

3) Bolman, L. G. (1995). Leading with soul. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Inc.

4) Canada, G. Fist Stick Knife Gun. (1996). Boston: Beacon Press.

5) Clifton, D. & Nelson, P. (1992). Soar with your strengths. New York: Delacorte press.

6) Covey, S. R., Merrill, A.R., Merrill, R. R. (1994). First Things First. New York: Simon & Schuster.

7) Davis, S., & Botkin, J. (1994) The monster under the bed. New York: Simon & Schuster.

8) DePree, M. (1997). Leading without power. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

9) Drucker, P. (1990). Managing the not-for-profit. New York: Harper Collins.

10) Frieberg, K., & Frieberg, J. (1996). Nuts! New York: Bard Press.

11) Gardner, H. (1995). Leading minds: An anatomy of leadership. New York: Basic Books.

12) Marriott, J. W., Jr., & Brown, K. A. (1997). The spirit to serve. New York: Harper Collins.

13) McNally, D. (1990). Even eagles need a push. New York: Dell Publishing.

14) Nelson, B. (1994). 1001 ways to reward employees. New York: Workman Publishing Company, Inc.

15) Orsburn, J. D., Moran, L., Musselwhite, E., & Zenger, J. H. (1990). Self-directed work teams. New York: McGraw-Hill.

16) Schwartz, P. (1991). The art of the long view. New York: Dell Publishing.

17) Senge, P. (1990) The fifth discipline. The art and practice of the learning organization. New York: Doubleday Currency.

18) Sun Tzu. (Any translation). The art of war.

19) Toffler, A., & Toffler, H. (1993). War and anti-war. New York: Warner Books.

20) Wheatley, Margaret. (1992). Leadership and the new science. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Understanding leadership begins with self-awareness. In fact, your success as a leader is directly correlated to your degree of understanding of how your style is created from a lifetime of complex social and emotional interactions. Today's new challenges ask difficult new things of us that can easily overwhelm us. Yet, they also hold powerful new potentials. Knowing yourself is the first step to becoming an effective leader. Reading a few of the above-cited books may actually ward off millenium neurosis by helping you determine your own unique and special style. Enjoy!

Vol 5 No. 1 February 1999 contents

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