Live Green, Wear Black.: REVIEW: A Leader's Legacy (J-B Leadership Challenge: Kouzes/Posner) by James M. Kouzes (3-stars)

If you have never read a management book before, this is a perfectly serviceable and book with solid concepts and lines of inquiry. If you've read a bunch of management books, read on. I had to pick up this book for a leadership/management course and wasted a perfectly nice June Sunday reading the entire thing. It's not a terrible book - but it's not "provocative" nor earth-shattering.

In fact, I did find it to be a bit fluffy -- and could write out the "long" version of this in 8 pages, single spaced without missing any key concepts. At best, it's a series of PowerPoint slides that have been fluffed up to make a short book with a lot of repetition. There's a lot of redundancy -- there are 3 chapters about "Courage" -- which is critical considering that most people manage based on fears/insecurities (per the authors of "Mastering Leadership).

At worst - it's derivative. There are no ground-breaking concepts, even though the authors were floored by the idea that the best way to learn is by teaching. It's not as good as Maxwell's "Mind of the Leader 2.0" (which has a ton of repetition and fluff) and no where near the caliber of "Mastering Leadership" which dives deeper into the concepts of strengths and values.

Chapter 1 - Leaders Serve & Sacrifice

P 15 “Loyalty is earned when constituents decide that their needs are getting met. “
Leadership requires commitment, suffering/passion (the same word in Latin), hard work
P 18 “The most significant contributions leaders make are not to today’s bottom line but to the long-term development of individuals and institutions that adapt, prosper, and grow. People should never take on the job of leadership if they’re unwilling to see beyond their own needs. If they do, they will ultimately fail.”

Chapter 2 – The Best Leaders are Teachers

Lesson One: The Best way to learn is to Teach: discover new methods, invent new tools, design new experiences that will help others grow and develop. Always provide opportunity for participants in workshops to become teachers. Use performance appraisals as a mutual learning experience and transform it from from monologue to dialogue – boss/subordinate to mentor/protégé
Lesson Two: Legacies are passed on in the stories we tell; Each of us will become a character in someone’s story at some point: What lessons am I teaching in each interaction that I have? Am I even aware of it?

Chapter 3 – We All Need Loving Critics

“Pity the leader caught between unloving critics and uncritical lovers.” – John Gardner
Leaders at higher levels don't always lead with “How am I doing?” - afraid of exposure, vulnerability.
P 29 – Credibility – foundation of leadership – is about doing what you say – how do you know if you don’t ask “how am I doing?”

Chapter 4 – You Are the Most Important Leader in Your Organization

Manager is the most important to direct reports; Longitudinal studies of execs show best predictor of career success is the relationship with their first supervisor
Leaders with the most influence are those closest to us
You Matter – “Just because your manager doesn’t do leadership well doesn’t excuse you from doing your very best. Your direct reports don’t really care about what your manager does, but they care a lot about what you do.”

Chapter 5 – No One Likes to Be an Assumption

No one likes being taken for granted / overlooked / ignored / dismissed
Work is about more than productivity – people want to know their hard work and efforts matter

PART 2: RELATIONSHIPS

Leadership is a relationship between those who aspire to lead and those who choose to follow
P48 “Lasting success depends on whether we like our leaders. It’s only logical that all leaders should want to be liked. Not caring about whether or not you’re liked will never bring about the best results.”
“Being motivated to be liked will result in more enabling actions – actions such as listening, coaching, developing skills, providing choice, making connections—will create higher levels of performance.” P48

This doesn’t mean “going along” or coddling weaknesses, leaders have to build a team that can express differences and still be productive which requires building & maintaining trust.

Chapter 6 – Leadership is Personal

“People want to know about you. They want to know about your values and beliefs, your aims and aspirations, and your hopes and dreams. They want to know who most influenced you, what prepares you for the job you’re doing, and what you’re like.” P 52

Chapter 7 – Leaders Should Want to Be Liked

“You don’t love someone because of who they are, you love them because of the way they make you feel.” P56

We work harder/more effectively for people we like which is in direct proportion to how they make us feel

Chapter 8 – When You Don’t See Eye to Eye, Seek to Understand

Conflict avoidance is a natural human instinct/response that tests dedication & commitment but it's also an opportunity to show leadership skills by working with people who you don’t always agree with or who are difficult.
There’s a lesson in every conflict about ourselves
The only person you can change is you: Learn to adapt and change others’ perceptions by speaking their language and serving their needs/goals/values
Focus on the Purpose and Not the Person: make sure outcomes are the primary subject
Promote Constructive Insubordination: homogeneity of opinions and background doesn’t yield the best performance or results

Chapter 9 – You Can’t Take Trust for Granted

“You have to keep working on trust and never take it for granted” p74
If you don’t trust – many things just won’t get done – you’ll have more and more work, results in stress & burnout
When trust breaks down – tempting to hold on tighter, more control – that sends signals that you don’t trust someone – creates a vicious cycle

Chapter 10 – Let Your People Go

Create a climate of trust – give independence – increases sense of responsibility and accountability
No One Wants a Micromanager: hire good people and let them do what they do best

“we won’t know what people are capable of if we don’t give them the opportunity to grow and develop.” P 82

Give People Freedom of Choice: motivation has to come from within; leaders can increase team confidence by giving them more input into the process or developing the framework/projects

“Choice is the glue that binds individuals to actions, motivating them to accept responsibility.” P84

“To make a meaningful difference we each have to make our own meaningful choices. If leaders steal from others the opportunities to make such choices, they steal a bit of the legacy those others might have created.”

PART 3 – ASPIRATIONS

“People commit to causes, not to plans.” P 90
“…leadership development is first and foremost self-development.” P90
“Leaders must decide on what matters in life, before they can live a life that matters.”

CHAPTER 11 – Lead from the Inside Out

“Become the author of your own story and maker of your own history.” P 92
“The quest for leadership, therefore, is first an inner quest to discover who you are … find the awareness needed to lead.” P 93
“Clarity of personal values matters greatly to our feeling motivated, creative, and committed tour workplaces.” because it makes you feel empowered and prepared to act, and provides the foundation from which you can elicit support from others.

Chapter 12 – Forward-Looking is a Leadership Prerequisite

“You can leave a lasting legacy only if you can imagine a brighter future, and the capacity to imagine exciting future possibilities is the defining competence of leaders.” P99
Need to be more mindful, pay attention to what's happening now, don't be on "auto-pilot" and look toward the horizon - get the team involved in "what's next" and "what's better"

Chapter 13 – It’s Not Just the Leader’s Vision

Leaders have impression they have to be visionaries – but this is not what people expect – they want leaders to be forward-looking – people want to hear aspirations and vision, not clairvoyance (don’t expect all the answers)
People don’t like being told where/what/when – they like to be part of the process – constituents want to be involved which means leaders need to leaders communicate a vision of the future that draws others in. This requires knowing what others want/need (dreams/hopes/motives/interests).

Chapter 14 – Liberate the Leader in Everyone

Leadership is Learned: “…leadership is an observable set of skills and abilities that are useful whether one is in the executive suite or on the front line” p11

Chapter 15 – Leaders Are Followers, Too!

“Leadership is a dynamic relationship between leaders and followers in which the roles of leader and follower are often exchanged. It’s the kind of relationship in which leaders transform followers into leaders.” P123
We Follow a Process and Not a Person: “The key to high performance is not only god leaders but good leadership. It’s not the person we should be focusing on; it’s the process.” P124
People want to follow:

Clear values and beliefs consistent with their own;
A vision of the future they share
Creative ideas that enable the organization to make changes so the values and vision can be realized
Other people whose strengths and talents contribute to achieving the values/vision & teams whose collective capacity exceeds their leader
Leaders are responsible for doing what they can to maximize a team’s effectiveness
Leaders should be thinking about what’s best for the mission not themselves – developing talent on their teams
Everyone can be a follower and a leader at the same time; Leaders don’t have to come up with ideas by themselves

PART 4 – COURAGE

“Ever one of us is capable of taking stands on things that matter”
“Personal courage usually means taking the initiative in moments that matter – moments when our core values are challenged.” P132

Chapter 16 – There’s Courage in All of Us

Courage is a State of Mind: Gives one the capacity to face danger without being overcome by fear; persist in adversity
Courage not purely emotional – has a rational component – requires making a choice in the face of adversity
Courage is required to break out of your comfort zone, stay aligned with your values

Chapter 17 – You Can’t Plan to be Courageous but You Can Choose It

Practice "courage" by opening up conversations about it around adversities, fears and suffering

Chapter 18 – It Takes Courage to Make a Life

Takes courage to make a life vs just making a living; meaning & significance

Chapter 19 – The Courage to Be Human

Leadership – humbling, hard work, tension between expectations of others and personal limitations
It Takes courage to admit you aren’t always right; human/humble; it may take more courage to admit to oneself
Let your guard down – invite others to join in co-creation in something you couldn’t create on your own
“We need the challenges, surprises, and adversities to strengthen our courage and unleash our resolve.” P 158

Chapter 20 – Failure Is Always An Option

If we’re doing something we’ve never done before – getting it right the first time is usually luck
Professionals Believe in Possibilities:“despite the probabilities, professionals believe in the possibilities” p165
Most innovations fail the first few times – leaders persist – more attempts improve the innovations and the possibility of success
We only learn and move forward when we experiment and experience doing things differently
Right out of Maxwell: “…failures and disappointments are inevitable. It is how you handle them that will ultimately determine your effecrtiveness and success.” P167
“You gain credibility when you admit you make mistakes and aren’t perfect.” P 168

Chapter 21 – No Money-Back Guarantee

“None of us will ever get everything right.” P172
Strengths Can Become Weaknesses -- dangers of not maintaining balance, for example: Finding your voice and setting an example are important but becoming overly focused closes you off from the views/feedback of others --> listen, remain open, learn from others around you
Forward-focus is important but don’t become over-focused --> develops blind spots, makes it hard to see other possibilities around you
Collaboration & teamwork are essential --> over reliance can can result in avoiding critical decisions or errors in judgment; too much polling/socialization --> indecisiveness/inconsistency

So, What Should We Do?

Make everything more personal – use your gifts to help others, shape their lives
“If we stay focused on the difference and the people, the legacy will take care of itself.” P175

Afterword: The Legacy You Leave Is the Life You Lead

“each day provides an opportunity to make a difference.”
Listen better, coach someone better, more positive, say “thank you”
Choose long-term significance over short-term measures of success
Leaders have to be willing to turn followers into leaders, and to follow as well
“Legacies aren’t the result of wishful thinking – they are the result of determined doing.”

REVIEW: A Leader's Legacy (J-B Leadership Challenge: Kouzes/Posner) by James M. Kouzes

RATING: 3-stars