1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Notes for Reviewers from the Authors, April 18, 2006
This review is from: Environmental Leadership Equals Essential Leadership: Redefining Who Leads and How (Hardcover)
Notes for reviewers, "Environmental Leadership Equals Essential Leadership: Redefining Who Leads and How"
J. Gordon and J. Berry, 2006
Yale University Press
Gordon and Berry wrote the book. Dr. Christensen kindly wrote the Foreword. The rating is included because it is mandatory in this Amazon format and because we think it is a good book. But clearly we shouldn't be rating our own book so please ignore it. We provide these notes because we have been asked by reviewers to provide more than is included in the press release that accompanies the book and this is an efficient way to do it.
Approximately a decade after the publication of their first leadership book, "Environmental Leadership: Developing Effective Skills and Styles", Gordon and Berry reassess environmental leadership and outline their current view of its nature and principles. Their major conclusion is that all leadership is becoming like environmental leadership because the problems leaders face increasingly are or resemble environmental problems. Environmental problems typically take a long time to solve, are complex, have an emotion charged atmosphere, have a weak or scattered science base, and require integration across fields of knowledge and political and geographic boundaries.
To answer the question, "How has environmental leadership changed as its context has changed?" they did a survey of people they identified as practicing environmental leaders (listed in the book with their affiliations at the time of the survey). They expected that given the many contextual changes since the first book (e.g. globalization, increased terrorism, greater concern about global warming and a host of other environmental issues) a much changed picture of environmental leadership might emerge from the survey answers. Several interesting near consensus views did in fact emerge:
* Leadership is getting harder because the world is more complicated
* Gender differences in leadership skills and styles continue to exist
* "Command and control" leadership is sometimes necessary
* Leadership can and does occur in the absence of formal authority or "leadership position"
* Leadership is becoming more process oriented as complexity increases
The major characteristics and methods of environmental leadership, however, had not changed materially and the authors use their own experience as well as the survey results and the leadership literature to provide the leader with a leadership learning model. This model is based on the "leadership tree" concept, in which each individual constructs a leadership learning plan based on an inventory of their "tree" components: roots=ethics and values; trunk=skills, style and knowledge; branches and leaves=problem choice and application of skills, styles and knowledge; fruit=solutions, relationships and accomplishments. In their view, leadership is a learned set of skills. Further, they think in today's world, every person should study leadership as a basic component of their professional and organizational persona. Each member of any group will face the necessity, sooner or later, to be an effective leader and follower because, given the complexity of environmental problems, their skills or style will demand that they lead. Almost all environmental problems are "multidisciplinary" and each group member will need the capacity to lead when their area is to the fore.
The major themes of the book, encapsulated in 9 chapters, each with a summary of its essential elements at the end, include:
* There is no single model or theory of leadership now available that adequately describes environmental leadership. Each leader needs to develop a diverse tool kit of skills based on their own fundamental values that will serve a variety of circumstances.
* The creation of useful visions of the future (those that identify achievable goals and solvable problems and what to do about them) is the first step in essential leadership. These guiding visions should be bold but practical.
* Environmental leaders primarily are people who solve environmental problems; thus problem definition and solution are the key leadership activities once a useable vision is created.
* Solvable problems can be defined by specifying five components: a decision maker or class of decision makers, the objective or objectives of the decision maker, alternative ways of achieving the objectives, doubt about which objective to choose, and the context in which the decision takes place.
* The complex nature of environmental problems focuses on collaborative effort, so diversity and inclusiveness are always elements in their solution.
The book examines the path from "old leadership" to "essential leadership" (from hierarchical to inclusive and collaborative, from closely held information to widely distributed information, from geographic isolation to global participation) and examines how essential leadership can be installed in organizations and how to tell if it is working. Gordon and Berry examine selected books on business and political leadership and find common themes with environmental leadership in terms of the nature of vision, the need for inclusion and the need to fight "leadership inflation" (the emotive, soft approach to leadership that casts us all as potential Lincolns or Churchills).
They end the book with their view of the future of leadership and some things they think they have personally learned as leaders.
The book is intended to be used in leadership courses in universities, particularly in but not limited to environmental and natural resource programs,and for professional career development. The authors have used the principles in the book in courses taught over fifteen years to graduate, undergraduate and outreach students at Yale's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and Colorado State University's Warner College of Natural Resources. The book will be supported by a web site, www.leaderesources.com.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
