Customer Reviews

The Contrarian's Guide to Leadership (J-B Warren Bennis Series)

5 star:		(22)
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2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book intrigued me for a couple of reasons. First, here was a book written by a university president - and an extraordinary one at that - on a subject traditionally dominated by corporate executives, professors of business, and, no kidding, professional basketball coaches. And second, ever since my graduate school days I've been especially absorbed by unconventional strains of thought, and here's a book that drives a wedge into the most predictable of genres.

Steven Sample, who assumed the presidency of an already upwardly mobile university and made it that much better, does not disappoint. His chapter entitled "Work for Those Who Work for You" really hit home. I've always believed that managers and leaders should empower their people and set them up for success. This approach frequently requires that I perform some rather mundane tasks like making phone calls and sending out meeting requests. But according to Sample, that's what real leaders should be doing. "Virtually all leadership experts, whether they subscribe to traditional or au courant theories, depict leadership as a glamorous and majestic calling. But the contrarian isn't fooled. He knows that effective day-to-day leadership isn't so much about himself, as it is about the men and women he chooses to be his chief lieutenants. He knows that a lot of the things on his own plate will be minutiae and silliness, while his lieutenants will get to do the fun and important things."

This book is exceptionally Western; that is, there are numerous references to Machiavelli (including an entire chapter), Clausewitz, and Plato, for instance, but none to Confucius, Lao Tzu, or Sun Tzu. I was somewhat surprised by this if only because Sample, throughout his tenure as president of USC, has consistently reached out to the Pacific Rim. This is more of an observation and not necessarily a criticism; the breadth of Sample's knowledge of Western thought is pretty impressive - especially for an engineer by trade - and that know-how coupled with his extraordinary experience in academia and some interesting folksy anecdotes makes for a very readable and useful text. Read this book and carve out a permanent place for it in your office.

First, let me say this book captures some wonderful aspects of leadership. The book is written well and captures the authors thoughts and ideas succinctly. Ultimately though the content goes in circles and he ends up presenting something not that different from any of the other books on leadership. If one steps back and looks at the forest presented here, it is that in order to be an effective leader one need make good decisions, evaluate data carefully, think freely, posses both Machiavellian tendencies and play the role of servant leadership to one's followers, and one needs to communicate and listen well. OK, so we have heard all of that before, so what is different?

Well, one of the highlights is a section on what the author calls "supertexts". Great leaders ought to read the classics. Really. Forget newspapers and especially trade publications and read the story of Jesus in Matthew, the story of Paul in Acts, the story of Moses in Exodus, read Plato, Hamlet, Dante's Divine Comedy, etc., as understanding the human condition is far more valuable than the latest news articles or trade flash. This is a radical concept and a rare one coming from a leadership and business approach. It is summarized as "you are what you read". A novel and unique approach on what enables good leadership.

I also loved the sections on "knowing which hill you are willing to die on" and the "art of listening. Both provide an enlightened view of well-covered topics.

Overall, the book presents some great points but ultimately ends in the leadership paradox. Few can really articulate this well and fewer still can solve this paradox in practice. Books like this one often can derail effective leadership, which rely on a creative blend of all approaches depending upon the situation, by giving "sound bites" of information and directives which when taken out of context usually fail.

In the end it is a person's ability to successfully navigate the paradox of giving direction and empowering others, making quick decisions and waiting for more information, and driving others and serving others, which will determine their success as a leader. The book implies this paradox, but throughout focuses on the trees and not the forest.

As the foreword to the book makes clear, Steven Sample has been immensely successful as a university president with a leadership style based on common sense, optimism and a personal philosophy of leadership. Readers looking for a dramatic, non-traditional idea of leadership will not find it here, despite the title promising a "contrarian" idea of leadership.

The first few chapters of Sample's book make clear that leadership comes from common-sensical values such as nurturing the growth of lieutenants and maintaining open communication lines with those lieutenants. For instance, Sample makes clear that undermining lietenants' authority or cutting off their communication to the leader spells sure death to the leader. This seems commensensical enough, and I doubt Sample is the first one to make this point.

What is "contrarian" is Sample's choice of inspiration: Machiavelli. Instead of responding to other "leadership" materials, Sample spins out a personal philosophy of leadership based on a selective reading of Machiavelli. Sample would like his readers to prioritize Machiavelli and other "supertexts" to the exclusion of pat, journalistic answers to leadership and management style. Fair enough. The exiled Florentine, Shakespeare and Plato make great teachers, and it's probably time that managers revisit them after being 20 years in the work force. These (Western) supertexts provide timeless lessons that are more digestable and practical than Sun Tzu et al.

While Sample's reading of Machiavelli puts a good spin on an unpalatable text, Sample makes the point that leadership is not for idealists. You've got to get your hands dirty, make unpopular decisions, and "give the devil his due." Sample's exhoratation to develop Machiavellian instincts is tempered by his equally strong argument for God (or conscience) in a leader's life.

Sample's philosophy of leadership is personal and "contrarian," but it is also exemplary. Highly recommend!

Steven Sample could be called a modern Renaissance man. He is an author, professor, inventor, electrical engineer, musician and the 10th president of the University of Southern California. His book entitled The Contrarian's Guide to Leadership is different and challenges many commonly accepted perceptions about leadership. A contrarian leader is simply one who thinks and acts differently than most. For example, the contrarian leader is one who thinks "gray" and "free". Thinking gray means to withhold judgments and decisions until you have heard all the relevant facts or until you are forced to do so. Sample spends a fair amount of discussion on the three major pitfalls of binary traditional thinking. He defines thinking "free" as the ability to first allow your mind to contemplate truly outrageous ideas, and only later on, apply the restraints of practicality, legality, cost, ethics and time upon your creative ideas. This philosophy of thinking gray also affects the decision-making elements of the contrarian leader. Sample makes two suggestions regarding decisions. First, that a leader never makes a decision that can be reasonably delegated to a lieutenant. Second, never make a decision today that can be reasonably delayed until tomorrow.

However, the contrarian leader must have other needs and qualities aside from thinking processes and decision-making. These are also discussed in The Contrarian's Guide to Leadership. The author discusses diverse subjects such as artful listening skills, open communication, and the proper role between consultants, experts and the leader. Sample suggests prodigious amount of selective reading, including "supertexts" for the contrarian leader. This includes an extensive discussion on Machiavelli. He provides guidance on how to determine which range of the daily news and printed media are really useful for the contrarian leader. The Contrarian's Guide to Leadership

addresses the difference between good leadership and effective leadership, including the need to make tough moral decisions at the right time. Other discussions include hiring the right people, diversity, connecting with followers and having a title of leadership verses doing leadership.

This is a thought provoking and alternative book on leadership from the perspective of someone who leads a massive educational institution on a daily basis. You may not agree with every concept or idea regarding a contrarian leader, but you will find this book to offer some fresh perspectives.

Steve Sample is a very unusual University President.

The most surprising aspect of his career is that he wasn't run off.

Sadly, I do not think a Steve Sample could happen again in the current environment where unorthodox men of subtle mind, unusual patience, and serious commitment to achievement are run out by lesser men and women of banal sensibilities.

The Contrarian's Guide to Leadership has its appeal to Contrarians. A conformist will never become such a person.

The Conformist will hit .225 and the Contrarian will always be slamming off-speed pitches into the power alleys.

Sample is an example of the best of what has happened in leadership the last 30 years: the migration of engineering discipline into the mainstream of executive management.

But Sample is what most engineers are not: an obviously selfless kind of leader who can bring to bear his immense abilities on executive management because he obviously doesn't need the applause of his public.

Perhaps the best advice Sample gives in his book is the confidence he places in quality of input rather than the hectic and insipid filling of one's mind with contemporary trends.

Sample tells us to read and re-read the "supertexts." I have the happy experience of daily indulging as deeply and often as I can into the Scriptures, so it's especially invigorating to me for someone of Sample's caliber and achievement to boldly tell others that such a practice is essential for leading others.

In the final analysis, it doesn't matter a lot what I say about this book, because Sample's achievements in his field of endeavor are most remarkable, and speaks beyond my plaudits.

After all, USC is not your average college.

I can tell you this book is an interesting read, and if it was taken seriously by leaders in higher education, we'd be in a lot less trouble as a nation.

What is remarkable about this book is that it stretches and challenges the reader on every page. I found myself saying, "I didn't know that! I don't agree with that! or That's my experience too!" Sample weaves practical advice in with real-life leadership situations and grounds it all in history, literature and philosophy. He writes well. This never feels like homework. But when you finish the book you feel like you have learned and grown. I am getting copies of this book for all my friends.

The literature on leadership is a little like outer space: vast and mostly empty. This little book is one of the brighter stars. Begin reading Chapter 11, the Case Study. Sample's record of achievement in this chapter will open your mind and heart to principles that are eloquently argued in the rest of the book. While the principles apply to all types of organizations, academic insitutions will get the most from them. Every research university in America can benefit from Sample's experience, wisdom, and exemplary leadership.

Having heard about the now-legendary USC leadership class that Steve Sample and Warren Bennis co-teach, I rushed to get my hands on a copy of this book. I saw that Bennis wrote in the foreword that this book "has the look of a classic," and I'm inclined to agree.

This is written by an unusually gifted practitioner who's able to distill his experience into some very colorful and startling lessons. I'll admit that some of those lessons were a bit jarring at first -- but they've forced me to reconsider my simpler assumptions and to find new ways of thinking about problems. This is exactly the kind of book you'd want to be reading in these topsy-turvy times.

What do you think it would take to be a great leader is the challenge that Steven Sample's tasks our most inventive critical thinking skills. He says leadership can be taught and learned and that it is a study that is open to investigation and change. He challenges us to be an intellectual and independent thinker.

"Think grey, see double, never completely trust an expert, read what your competition doesn't read, never make a decision that you can reasonably delegate to a subordinate, ignore sunk costs, work for those who work for you, know which hill you are willing to die on, shoot your own horse, sometimes allow the led to lead the leader and know the difference between being leader and doing leader"

First chapter starts with "Thinking Grey, and Free". Sample's basic tenet? Don't form an opinion about an important matter (i.e. suspending judgement) until you've heard all the relevant facts. Refuse to indulge in black and white or binary thinking and always keep one's mind open to the possibilities. Maintain your intellectual independence and not feel pressured into the "herd" mentality. Then he even pushes the envelope further by asking us to stay with the outrageous idea even to the point of being mentally painful to do so.

Artfull Listening is his second chapter and is important in the acquiring of new ideas and gathering and accessing information which he dubbs as the process of "seeing double" from both the other's point of view while maintaining your own.

I thought this was one of the best leadership books I have read. Steven Sample acknowledges that leadership is highly situational and complex. But he also offers a number of principles to keep in mind as you walk the path. As I read the book, situations from my own work lept to mind and I found myself seeing things from a different perspective. I was so engaged, I finished the book in a day.