Clear Leadership: How Outstanding Leaders Make Themselves Understood, Cut Through the Mush, and Help Everyone Get Real at Work [Hardcover]

Gervase Bushe (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0891061525 | ISBN-13: 978-0891061526 | Publication Date: March 13, 2001 | Edition: First Edition

With anecdotal stories and sample dialogue, Bushe details the four key skills needed for honest, effective teamwork and uncovers the barriers to clarity that hamper performance and impede learning, endless cycles of lunchtime gossip.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Bushe, a consultant, believes that the "interpersonal mush" that results when colleagues hide true feelings cripples leaders and teams. He identifies confusing signals and offers solutions (e.g., during meetings, all employees should state their views; managers should recapitulate and show they respect employees' opinions). Some catchphrases aren't helpful, but sample dialogues effectively show how misunderstandings occur.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

Addresses how to eliminate the disorder and build an organization environment where people are free to say what they mean. -- OD Network Notes, July 2001

Good use of graphics to bring home the author's point that interpersonal mush is the main barrier to organizational learning. -- Continental Magazine, August 2001

Shows how the key skill of managing people in empowered organizations is overcoming interpersonal mush. -- Clinical Leadership & Management Review, Nov/Dec 2001

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Nicholas Brealey Publishing; First Edition edition (March 13, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0891061525
• ISBN-13: 978-0891061526
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #504,090 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tired of office toxicity? Buy this book for the cure!, January 29, 2003

By 

maria rosas (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Clear Leadership: How Outstanding Leaders Make Themselves Understood, Cut Through the Mush, and Help Everyone Get Real at Work (Hardcover)

Anyone interested in unraveling the mysteries of office toxicity, this is the book! Bushe masterfully ties together the psycho-social dynamics that make us all tick and offers sound strategies for creating clarity in our working relationships. Now here is the bonus! The book not only offers the keys to interpersonal clarity, it presents the ideas in language that anyone (toxified or not) can understand.

For those involved in leadership training that is principles or values focused, here you will find the all important missing link. Bushe explains the psychology behind our thinking and behavior which often times is the driving force behind office dysfunction despite our most noble principles and values.

I have read this book at least 4 times. I have sent this book to all the people who are important in my life. I have recommended this book to anyone who is genuinely interested in growing as a leader. Treat yourself and make this investment. In my case, it is the very best investment I have ever made. The book changed my thinking and then my behavior followed. This is from someone who has read all the leadership thoeries, seen many of the videos, listened to books on tape across country. Nothing has been as effective as this book. We will be hearing a lot more from Gervase Bushe in the future.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fills a Strong Need, June 29, 2002

By 

Roger E. Herman (Greensboro, NC USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Clear Leadership: How Outstanding Leaders Make Themselves Understood, Cut Through the Mush, and Help Everyone Get Real at Work (Hardcover)

In today's corporate world, efficiency, effectiveness, and profit are diminished by communications problems. As a Certified Management Consultant, I hear clients complain about "communications" so much, I've dubbed it the "C Word."

What's the problem? People aren't real, open, honest, direct, and thorough in their conversations with each other. Hidden agendas, inability to say what you mean, fear of consequences and more problems contribute to the debilitating "mush" that inhibits organizational achievement. We've certainly seen enough evidence of the problem in the serious problems reported in the newspapers in recent months. And more corporate crises are in the works because the people at the top are not providing clear leadership-clear, "real" communication. And if the role models aren't working, the rest of the bureaucratic system is in trouble.

Bushe, a PhD consultant and professor of business administration, has given us a fine tool in "Clear Leadership." This is the kind of book that can be read and enjoyed, almost like a corporate novel. He communicates his message with a well-organized presentation supplemented by a wonderful collection of vignettes. The illustrative stories really bring this book to life, stimulate the thinking, and teach the lessons. As emotional beings, we all relate well to story-telling; this book has a good mix to help the reader get the message. I gained insight from the first two stories! Good stuff!

The author's objective is to teach the skills that build clarity and agreement. To quote from the book, "Clarity comes from clearing out the interpersonal mush and sometimes requires an organizational learning conversation. This is a conversation where people level with each other about their experience so that they can learn about anad change the troublesome patterns they find themselves in. Agreement comes from the ability of a group to think together and make decisions."

"Clear Leadership" is organized into three sections, plus a valuable introduction and an inspiring conclusion. Part One is Clarity and Mush in Organizational Life. Part Two, The Four Selves of Clear Leaders, has chapters on the Aware, Descriptive, Curious, and Appreciative aspects of the concept. Part Three, Clear Leadership at Work is filled with practical advice to putting this valuable concept into practice.

A lot of knowledge, insight, and advice packed into 250 pages. It's the kind of book you'll want to share with others-maybe simultaneously-to build clear leadership in your organization.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid Content Well-Presented, April 4, 2002

By 

Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Clear Leadership: How Outstanding Leaders Make Themselves Understood, Cut Through the Mush, and Help Everyone Get Real at Work (Hardcover)

Unlike those of so many others, the subtitle of this book really does suggest precisely what it is all about: "How outstanding leaders make themselves understood, cut through the mush, and help everyone get real at work." I would have rated this book another star had it offered truly innovative, cutting-edge thinking on what is obviously a much-discussed subject. Bushe does offer a somewhat different nomenclature but affirms essentially the same core concepts which countless others (e.g. Warren Bennis, James O'Toole, John Kotter, Peter Senge, and William Isaacson) have already introduced or refined. However, in fairness to Bushe, he has done an excellent job of organizing and presenting his material. His book will probably be of greatest value to those who have done relatively little reading on the subject.

According to Bushe, Clear Leadership is based on four deep skills: "those of the Aware self, the Descriptive self, the Curious self, and the Appreciative self." In the Introduction, he goes on to observe that "these skills are easy to explain and demonstrate but tough to actually live day to day and master....Most of us don't act this way. Not because we lack the courage, caring, or basic personal integrity, but because we don't know how! No one ever taught us." His objective is to "teach" the reader a "system of interaction " which is based on specific "interpersonal dynamics." Bushe organizes his material within ten chapters divided into three Parts: Clarity and Mush in Organizational Life, The Four Selves of Clear Leaders, and Clear Leadership at Work. His sources are acknowledged within the chapter Endnotes.

There is much to be said in favor of clarity in terms of shared goals and objectives, performance expectations, division of labor, channels of authority and communication, etc. Obviously, the effectiveness of any "system" of human interaction depends on it. Moreover, leadership is essential to ensuring that clarity is maintained throughout any collaborative effort. Bushe offers some useful insights into what he characterizes as "new skills and attributes" that are required of everyone involved in an "empowered" organization, whatever its size or nature. He invites his reader to consider very carefully a "basic, underlying platform, the absolutely essential and different ingredients that make a person able to use the usual assortment of management techniques and get outstanding results." Those in need of other perspectives are urged to check out the works of authors cited previously (Bennis, O'Toole, Kotter, and Isaacson) as well as David Maister's Practice What You Preach and Bossidy and Charan's Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done.