Customer Reviews

Be * Know * Do, Adapted from the Official Army Leadership Manual: Leadership the Army Way (J-B Leader to Leader Institute/PF Drucker Foundation)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The United States Army is the largest training organization in the world. And among the subjects it teaches is leadership. The Army teaches leadership at all levels from the squad leader with only a few subordinates to generals with hundreds of thousands. With many years of studying leadership, the Army program nets down to the three words in the title of the book:

Be - To be an effective leader you have to be the kind of person people want to follow. This comes down to almost the Golden rule, Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Other words would be loyalty, integrity, personal courage; a good set of personal qualities that make a good person.

Know - You have to know what you are asking subordinates to do. It's hard to lead people into doing things that you can't do yourself.

Do - The old adage, Follow Me, summarizes the leaders point of view. You have to do, you have to show the way.

This book is different from many that are available on bookstore shelves. Most books are written by consultants or trainers that have developed their own programs. This book takes as its foundatation what the Army has developed over meany, many years, practiced, and observed the result. The study of the results of leadership training in the Army is based on combat where the losers die, not just watching the sales charts.

This book is different, but directly applicable to the business, research, academic world.

Leadership often is assigned a mystical quality, as if people either possess the spark that makes others follow them, or they don't. Well, now you can lead without the innate spark. In fact, the U.S. Army sets out to prove that anyone can become a leader, as this engaging book from the Leader to Leader Institute explains. Using The Army Leadership Manual (abstract available from getAbstract) as its foundation, this volume demystifies leadership. Promisingly enough, this speedy read persuasively argues that being a leader requires little more than honesty and competence. Throw in an ability to communicate and a willingness to listen to your people, and you could become the next Patton, or at least a respected officer. This enlightening tome is a little thin on ways to turn its leadership development philosophy into action. Still, we recommend it to managers and to those who strive to become leaders.

The world's benchmark with respect to leadership is the market driven capitalist company, however it seems they have lost their way when compared to the US Army. After you read this book you will be shocked to find out how far ahead of private business the US Army is in the area of Leadership.

Ultimately the US Army has determined that in some fashion everyone that reports to you is also a leader and needs to be trained and respected as such. The US Army's leaders are actively developed at all levels so that they can lead and develop others - no lip service here.

This book is 171 pages long and only the first 100 pages are worthwhile. Despite its dimunitive size and exborbitant price, this book is worth a purchase.

The book gives leadership knowledge derived from the academia, the battlefield, and fine examples. Its values comes from its simplicity.

1)Be: Leadership is about character. It is not a pretense. Honesty, discipline, and duty are paramount for a leader.

2)Know: Every leader must be knowledgeable not only about their job, but everyday things. Since knowledge enables, a leader must be highly knowledgeable.

3)Do: Leader must put their skills to a good use.

Why only 4 stars? The book assumes the Army is the perfect organization. It is good to have strong sense of pride in your organization, but pretending your organization flawless is somewhat antithesis of good leadership.

I recently re-read this book, curious to know to what extent its content remains relevant. My conclusion? It is even more relevant today than it was when first published in 2004. In Richard E. Cavanagh's Foreword, he recalls a discussion during dinner with Peter Drucker and Jack Welch who shared the same opinion that the United States military services do the best job developing leaders. What we have in this volume is an adaptation by Frances Hesselbein and General Eric K. Shinseki (USA Ret.) of Field Manual 22-100, Army Leadership, with assistance from Alan Shrader. Hesselbein and Shinseki also wrote the Introduction. The material is carefully organized within seven chapters, followed by a Conclusion that reviews the most important points, correctly noting the unique and compelling role that the U.S. Army has played since June 14, 1775, when the Continental Congress authorized enlistment of riflemen to serve the United Colonies for one year.

With regard to the book's title, "Army leadership begins with what the leader must Be, the values and attributes that shape a leader's character...People want leaders who are honest, competent, forward-looking, and inspiring...People willingly follow only those who know what they are doing. One of the quickest ways for a leader to lose trust and commitment of followers is to demonstrate incompetence...Character and competence, the Be and the Know, underlie everything a leader does. But character and knowledge - while absolutely necessary - are not enough. Leaders act; they Do...They solve problems, overcome obstacles, strengthen teamwork, and achieve objectives. They use leadership to produce results."

I realize that these concepts seem simple. In one sense they are. However, in this context, I am reminded of what Oliver Wendell Holmes once said: "I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity." The challenge to any organization when developing leaders is to guide those involved to the other side of complexity." The composite of excerpts from Be-Know-Do identifies core concepts, to be sure, but it also describes the character, competence, knowledge, and results-driven initiative that the U.S. Army seeks to develop within every one of its soldiers, regardless of rank. "No one is only a leader; each person in an organization is also a follower and part of a team. In fact, the old distinction between leaders and followers has blurred; complex twenty-first-century organizations require individuals to move seamlessly from one role to another in an organization, from leadership to `followership,' and back again."

Hesselbein and Shinseki are to be commended for their skillful adaptation of Field Manual 22-100, Army Leadership, but also for the inclusion within the narrative of relevant material from sources outside the U.S. Army organization. For example, they quote prominent business thinkers throughout the narrative: James Kouzes and Barry Posner on leadership by example (page 24), John Gardner on the importance of a shared vision (page 30), Patrick Lencioni on teamwork (page 86), and John Kotter on a leader's "quest for learning" (page 132). Readers will also appreciate the provision of various "Exhibits" such as 5.1 that provides a brilliant illustration of Team-Building Stages.

Those who share my high regard for this volume are urged to check out Frances Hesselbein's other works that include The Leader of the Future 2: Visions, Strategies, and Practices for the New Era co-authored with Marshall Goldsmith, On Leading Change: A Leader to Leader Guide co-authored with Rob Johnston, and Leading for Innovation: and Organizing for Results co-edited with Goldsmith and Iain Somerville. Also, I highly recommend the wealth of resources available at the Leader to Leader Institute (http://www.leadertoleader.org/), a non-profit and tax exempt organization that includes a subscription to its magazine among several membership benefits.

This is definitely a cut above most management and leadership books. It is remarkably clear, useful and jargon-free. The authors, accomplished leaders in their own right, are not trying to sell a pet program. They take a framework from the world's foremost leadership development organization -- the US Army -- and bring it life with real insight and practical advice. A great tool for anyone who wants to "be, know or do" more in their work and lives.

I'm a real fan of leadership books, and this is one of the best I've read. I just got this book a few days ago, and blazed right through it. It's a quick read, concise, but packed with good stuff. The cover is a bit misleading. This is NOT an adaptation of the Army Leadership Manual. The authors interpret the manual and explain how the Army's leadership principles apply all the time, everywhere-in business as well as the military.

In the Army, leaders need to lead men into battle, and keep them cohesive in the face of danger and death. How do you do that? It's not about shouting orders, the book makes clear. It's about taking responsibility and leading from the front, sharing risks with your people, and forging your own character so that you deserve to lead. This book shows you how to do that, and how that kind of leadership works just as well in business. It doesn't make this kind of leadership sound easy, because its not. But it does show that if you're willing to do the work and adopt the discipline, you can be a leader.

There is nothing political about the book, but when I finished reading it, I couldn't help thinking that the current occupant of the White House should read it. Then he would know what REAL leadership is all about.

Since I became a civilian a few years ago, I've struggled somewhat with explaining to my team how to adapt what I "know" about Army leadership into terms they can understand.

This book does a great job of putting the fundamentals of Army leadership into terms civilians can understand, and better yet, implement or integrate into their leadership experience.

The fundamentals apply to every organization, and I highly recommend it to any student of leadership!

I didn't expect leadership ideas from the Army to make so much sense in the business world. But this book makes it clear that the method the Army has created--which focuses on leadership development and dispersed leadership--really works, and works in the business world, too. It's the least heirarchical, most effective form of leadership I've seen and this book shows you how you can make it work for you.

What organizations do the best job of training leaders? Most management consultants would say the Harvard Business School, General Electric, IBM, etc. However, what did Peter Drucker, the father of modern management and Jack Welch, the legendary CEO of GE say? The United States military. The military can't use headhunters and draw from the outside. They must train and promote their leaders from within. In this extremely valuable book Hesselbein and General Shinseki roll out complete instructions about what a leader must be, know and do. It starts with a leader's core values. What you ARE is more important than what you say. It moves on toward learning to become all that you can be, and then action, demonstrating to others how to lead so they too can become leaders. Great stuff. Also see: "Hesselbein on Leadership." In a world fraught with fear and too often leadership betrayal, the civilian world needs to adopt metavalue leadership techniques such as these. Highly recommended.