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Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive Through the Dangers of Leading
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| Authors:
Martin Linsky, Ronald A. Hei |
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Consumer Ratings and
Reviews for Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive Through the Dangers of Leading |
Rating:
| | Review: Great insights from a couple Harvard profs.
| | Great insights from a couple Harvard profs. They admit it sounds a bit too soft, but I think it's the best line in the book: "Exercising leadership is a way of giving meaning to your life by contributing to the lives of other. At its best, leadership is a labor of love." S. Drury |
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| Rating:
| | Review: Extremely Valuable
| Heifitz and Linsky write that leading people through difficult change, challenging what they hold dear, can be a dangerous enterprise. They say, "This book is about putting yourself and your ideas on the line, responding effectively to the risks, and living to celebrate the meaning of your efforts" (3). The book is arranged according to three fundamental questions the authors attempt to answer: Why or how is leadership dangerous? How can a leader respond to the dangers? And how can a leader keep his or her spirit alive when leading becomes difficult?
First, why or how is leadership dangerous? One persistent perception in leadership is that most people are resistant to change. Heifetz and Linsky posit that it is not change per se that people resist, but loss (11). Leadership becomes dangerous when leaders question people's habits, values, and beliefs and people cannot see the bright future leaders ask them to sacrifice for, but see only suggested possibilities requiring great loss (12). It is adaptive change rather than technical challenges which cause so much of the danger in leading (13). Technical problems are the ones for which the organization already has the answer. Adaptive challenges require painful transition in attitudes, values, and/or behaviors. Adaptive change must be internalized by the people with the problem. Hearts and minds must change not just preferences or routine behaviors (60). People can push back against leaders during adaptive change in a variety of ways. Leaders are in danger of being marginalized and attacked personally under the assumption that if you take down the leader the issues will go away. Leaders can be seduced by their own human appetites or their need for approval and lose their sense of purpose (32-45).
Secondly, how can leaders respond to the dangers of leading through adaptive change? It is necessary for leaders to practice the discipline of gaining perspective in the midst of battle, including the ability to see the leader's own role in the conflict (51-54). Leaders will also need to learn how to operate in the midst of the various relationships within the organization - including partners, opponents, and the uncommitted mass of people the leader is attempting to move through adaptive change (89-100). Another way leaders can respond to the dangers is to orchestrate the conflict by creating holding environments in which to work through the process of change, knowing how to manage the stress within the organization, pacing the work, and continually casting a vision of the future (102-120). Leaders can also work to take the burden for change off of their own shoulders and appropriately place the work with the people within the organization (123). Leaders must also learn to maintain a steady course throughout the change process by knowing how to take the heat from angry followers, allow for the appropriate time to act on issues, and keep everyone's attention focused on the issues (141-154).
Third question: how can a leader keep his or her spirit alive when leading becomes difficult? Heifetz and Linsky offer four suggestions. Leaders need to learn to manage their natural human appetites, especially the desire for intimacy, and to care for themselves so that they do not contribute to their own demise (163). Another strategy for leaders is to differentiate between the role of leader and who they are personally (187). A third coping strategy is for leaders to be clear on why they are leading and to keep the bigger picture in focus (209). Finally, the authors recommend that leaders continually develop and protect within themselves the qualities of innocence, curiosity, and compassion (225).
The authors succeed in their stated purpose of answering their three fundamental questions. By using honest language and real world examples, some personal and painful, the authors equip readers with a good understanding of the nature of leading through adaptive change. At the same, the authors are honest about how leading is an improvisational skill. They have not written a technical "how-to" book, but an honest assessment of the change process and the things leaders can do in the midst of that process to stay healthy and connected. Because the nature of leadership sometimes involves being out front and guiding others into an unknown future, leaders from all walks of life would benefit from reading this book. Leadership on the Line is about the dynamics of relationships within an organization as people face adaptive change. Leaders who reflect on the issues raised and the suggestions made by the authors will have a better understanding of how to stay connected to themselves and to their followers as they walk together and confront painful transitions.
Ministerial leaders may be hesitant to read Leadership on the Line because it is a secular source not written to specifically address the dynamics of congregational leadership. This would be a mistake, however, because the book is surprisingly relevant to ministerial leadership issues. It is usually accepted as a given that today's churches find themselves in a rough sea of change, and there are countless volumes available making the case for why change is necessary and what the church should look like on the other side of change. But pastors may have a difficult time finding books like Leadership on the Line that describe why their congregation prefers solving technical problems and not embracing the process of adaptive change, and how the pastor can operate through the process.
It may be that church culture does not allow for such an honest discussion on the dangers of church leadership because of the high ideals and expectations involved with beings God's people. But who has not been wounded and scarred by relationships in the body of Christ? Peter L. Steinke writes how people and entire congregations are susceptible to the effects of anxiety, which is heightened during adaptive change, and he echoes Heifetz and Linsky by stating that how the pastor responds to the anxiety and conflict, rather than the conflict itself, will determine the outcome (Peter L. Steinke, Congregational Leadership in Anxious Times: Being Calm and Courageous No Matter What. Herndon, VA: The Alban Institute, 2006). Studies have shown that one of the two main reasons pastors leave local church ministry is because of church conflict (Dean R. Hoge and Jacqueline E. Wenger. Pastors in Transition: Why Clergy Leave Local Church Ministry. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2005, 76). Seminary courses in pastoral leadership often speak of the reality of dangers in congregational leadership, but often do not give the needed depth of study to equip pastors for the process of adaptive change. This makes Leadership on the Line an important companion because it helps the ministerial leader to think about why leading is so dangerous, what is at stake for congregants, how to operate in the heat of battle, and how to take care of their personal lives and stay connected to others at the same time. It is also a good reminder of the purpose of leading and the joys involved. This is especially true of congregational leadership.
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| Rating:
| | Review: Leadership on the Line
| | This book is written so a lay person can understand its concepts and use them in their everyday life. I would highly recommend it to anyone whether a student, a business person or someone like myself: retired, but always interested in continuing to learn. |
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Rating:
| | Review: Interesting follow up
| | For continuing professional development, research material and just information, this was an easy informative read. |
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| Rating:
| | Review: Creating and leading change is risky business
| It's not unusual for well-intended efforts to create and lead change to end up as a failure - institutions and colleagues have been known to chew up those efforts (and the person leading them) and spit them out.
So, what's a leader to do? Heifetz and Linsky give a number of compelling examples of good intentions gone wrong and what can be learned from those examples. This book can help leaders to increase their awareness of where their efforts may fall apart or be challenged and what they can do about it.
Leadership on the Line is easy to read and filled with practical ideas for improving leadership and change management effectiveness. I frequently recommend this book to my leadership coaching clients. |
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