Customer Reviews

The Leadership Engine: How Winning Companies Build Leaders at Every Level

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The subtitle suggests the book's objective: To explain "How Winning Companies Build Leaders at Every Level." According to the authors, there are certain "fundamentals" common to winning organizations: "First, leaders with a proven track record of success take direct responsibility for the development of other leaders. Second, leaders who develop other leaders have teachable points of view in the specific areas of ideas, values, and something I call E-cubed -- emotional energy and edge....Third, leaders embody their teachable points of view in living stories....Finally, because winning leaders invest considerable time developing other leaders, they have well-defined methodologies and coaching and teaching techniques." Together, these "fundamentals" create the central metaphor in the book: a machine.

As a "machine", an organization consists of separate but interdependent parts; requires lubrication and fuel as well as constant maintenance; and functions best when utilized to serve the specific purposes for which it has been designed.Almost half of The Leadership Engine consists of a "Handbook for Leaders Developing Leaders." In it, the authors provide a cohesive and comprehensive answer to the question "How to create a Leadership Engine?" One useful approach to the "Handbook" is to think of it as a "super" hardware store and you have an empty toolbox. Examine everything available. Select only what is most appropriate for your own organization. Then work with others to assemble the "machine" your organization needs. In doing so, you and they are providing leadership. Your shared obligation is to involve as many others as possible, helping them to become leaders also. If help is needed along the way, it is reassuring to know that the authors have created the equivalent of an operator's manual to help ensure maximum performance of your organization's "leadership engine." Whenever it's time for a "tune-up", you will have the guidance you need.

This is a superb piece of work.

"A major part of my job has always been figuring out what works and what doesn't. Several years ago, however, the great disparity between the track records of the corporate winners and losers prompted me to step back and specifically tackle the broader question: Why do some companies succeed while others fail? The answer I have come up with is that winning companies win because they have good leaders who nurture the development of other leaders at all levels of the organization. The ultimate test of success for an organization is not whether it can win today but whether it can keep winning tomorrow and the day after. Therefore, the ultimate test for a leader is not whether he or she makes smart decisions and takes decisive action, but whether he or she teaches others to be leaders and builds an organization that can sustain its success even when he or she is not around. The key ability of winning organizations and winning leaders is creating leaders" (from the Introduction).

In this context, Noel Tichy divides his book into ten chapters. After defining what he means by 'winning' in Chapter 1, in the rest of the book, he talks specifically about what winning leaders do that makes them winners and how they develop other winning leaders at all levels of their organizations. In order to help reader, he emphasizes following 30 main themes that emerged in the book:

* Winning is about leadership,

* Leaders have ideas, values, energy and edge,

* Without leaders, organizations stagnate,

* Leaders manage through times of change,

* Leaders make things happen,

* Leaders are revolutionaries,

* Great leaders are great teachers,

* Winning leaders make teaching a personal priority,

* Winners have a 'teachable point of view,'

* Winning leaders draw from their past,

* Leaders' stories reveal their teachable points of view,

* Everyone has a usable past: Leaders just use theirs better,

* Winning organizations are built on clear ideas,

* Leaders make sure the ideas are current and appropriate,

* Ideas are the framework for actions at all levels,

* Winning organizations have strong values,

* Winning leaders live the values-privately and publicly,

* Values are a key competitive tool,

* Winning leaders are high-energy people,

* Winning leaders create energy in others,

* Times of transition: Teachable moments,

* Winning leaders never take the easy way out,

* Categories of edge,

* Edge isn't cruel, it's honest,

* Winning leaders portray the future as an unfolding drama,

* Winners' stories create scenarios for success,

* Leaders' stories are dynamic and motivating,

* Winning leadership is about building for the future,

* Success is achieved by developing other leaders,

* The best leaders know when it's time to leave.

Finally, he says that "Organizations that have a Leadership Engine win because they have leaders at every level who teach others to be leaders. Teaching and learning are at the heart of these organizations."

Highly recommended.

The Leadership Engine: Building Leaders at Every Level Handbook was given to our entire company to motivate us to move toward a cultural and business change. This handbook is based on the book The Leadership Engine by Noel Tichy and Eli Cohen. This handbook's premise is that leaders can be made and nurtured at every level of the company. Leaders need to spend much of their time teaching others. "Great leaders are great teachers." Each chapter contains simple exercises to get you thinking about your business, your competitors, your ideas, your values, and your energy. Companies without this strategy might disappear in this ever changing market.

Even for an audiobook, this book is long-winded and insubstantial. There are no good ideas to be found here. There's nothing inherently wrong with the concept of creating leaders at every level of an organization, but his thesis does not reveal anything profound about leadership. And Tichy's examples don't seem well-chosen: he's obsessed with Jack Welch and GE. His treatment of Howard Gardner's Leading Minds is particularly bad considering that Leading Minds is a leadership classic. For those dissapointed with this book (as I was), I suggest Leaders: The Strategies For Taking Charge by Bennis and Nanus. It provides very good strategies for building a compelling vision for your company.

Noel Tichy's "The Leadership Engine" is a practical and easy to read book on leadership. His research is exhaustive and well documented; there are sixty pages of notes and bibliographic citations. Tichy's central theme is that winning companies possess a "Leadership Engine" that produces dynamic leaders at every level within the organization. He argues forcefully that winning is about leadership and that leadership is the key trait that distinguishes winners from losers. He defines winning as success in adding value, coupled with sustained excellence. For a company or organization to be successful it must have outstanding leaders at every level. In order to have those dynamic leaders at every level, the organization itself must systematically produce them.

Tichy insists that learning, teaching, and leading are intertwined and admits he is a proponent of transformational leadership theory. Elements of this theory are clearly evident throughout his book. Tichy is also resolute in his belief that leading IS teaching-"they can, they do, they teach"-this point is driven home numerous times throughout his book(1). Winning organizations are teaching organizations. Successful organizations have proven leaders who are both teachers and avid learners themselves. The author emphasizes on numerous occasions that leaders must have a teachable point of view and must create teachable moments for the right kind of learning to occur-the kind that transforms an organization. A leader's "teachable point of view" is a trinitarian view composed of: a) ideas, b) values, and c) emotional energy and edge(2). Ideas are the substance of learning and good ideas are teachable.

Tichy uses numerous real life examples from the business world and even the military to highlight his points throughout the book. His liberal use of relevant and true stories to emphasize the point he is making, is in itself, a subtle illustration of a key leadership trait-being a good story teller. Tichy insists that successful leaders are successful teachers because they use stories and share examples from their own personal life. The author's frequent use of stories makes the book interesting, even captivating at times and minimizes the possibility of the reader getting bored.

The Leadership Engine is an outstanding, well organized, and very readable book; and not just a book, but a useful handbook as well. Tichy includes a 99-page workbook with practical exercises designed to both help the reader assess his or her own leadership and to help the reader develop a "Leadership Engine" in his or her own organization. The workbook is what sets this leadership book apart from the thousands of others in this crowded category. Noel Tichy has accomplished what he set out to do-convince us that winning organizations are teaching organizations. However, for the student of leadership, there is no new ground or profound insights in this book and consequently, I am not convinced that it deserved its Business Week "Book of the Year" honor.

NOTES
(1)Taken from the oft repeated jest by George Bernard Shaw that, "Those who can, do-those who can't, teach." This quote does not appear in Tichy's book.
(2)Tichy defines "edge" as the courage to see reality and act on it.

The GWU/Richmond book club gave this book a thumbs up. It was easy to read, but full of clear examples of the leadership qualities under discussion. Leadership was demonstrated not just as a quality of the top execs, but for all levels. The handbook at the end was occasionally simplistic, but overall very usable & useful. Worth your investment of time and money.

There are some good ideas in this book, particularly the E3. However, the author filled the book with long and boring anecdotes. This book could have easily been written as a pamphlet and saved the reader time and money.

I love the format and focus of this rapid read handbook and have used it with several business leaders I have coached. It's a great tool to help people think, act and have an impact beyond the narrow scope of their specific responsibilities. It helps my clients look at their companies through a big picture window, and helps them see how they can impact the entire company from their current position. I use it to challenge leaders to overcome their inertia, fear and company culture and to see themselves as teachers and catalysts for changing their entire organization.

The drawback is that many of the business leaders and business stories profiled are dated. The benefit is that each chapter has a page and a half of reading and another page of questions for the reader to answer about their own company, and their own leadership skills. It creates an effective, introspective approach to changing the company by changing oneself and by teaching others.

I find the book to be very powerful when used in a coaching relationship.
Tom Nugent
Grosse Pointe MI

The book "The Leadership Engine" by Noel Tichy, discusses how to build dynamic leaders at every level within an organization. The book focuses on fundamentals of winning organizations and the characteristics of these leaders giving insight into some of the greatest leaders stories. Noel Tichy has researched companies like General Electric, Ameritech, PepsiCo, Intel and Focus Hope.

The book is concise in its contents and is good for intellectual reading. Author has made his best attempt to present conceptually his thoughts about leadership engine by proving the facts that "winning organizations are teaching organizations". Senior leaders take direct responsibility for developing and teaching other leaders. Those leaders have great "teachable point of view" as composed by ideas, values and E3 (Emotion, Energy and Edge). Each of these leaders has their own style of teaching and the technique may vary based on the needs of the organization. Great leaders use stories to teach and communicate their ideas.

The term "Engine" as used by author, illustrates the dynamic potential of the winning organization to teach the leaders and develop future leaders. Noel says, "Many management theories don't buy the argument that leadership engine is the key factor in determining an organization's success. They assert that a winning culture, or efficient work processes, or any number of other ancillary attributes are the sine qua nons for success". But he believes that leadership takes precedence over everything else and one reason leadership take precedence is that leaders are the people who decide what needs to be done and are the one's who make things happen. To accept the fact as represented by author, the research should also include mid sized organizations and opinions of middle layered managers.

The ultimate test of success for an organization is not weather it can win today but whether it can keep winning tomorrow and the day after. The key ability of winning organization and winning leaders is creating leaders. One of the greatest quotes in the book was "Every person in a key position has to see himself or herself as a mini-CEO. They have to conceptualize what has to be done in the same way the CEO has. Then it cascades."

I find this book to be much more than a how-to book on developing strong leaders. I find the examples and templates to be an excellent framework for your team members and employees to develop their mission, objectives and people development.

There are formal leaders and informal leaders in every group. You can't succeed without both understanding the objectives, risks, strengths and weaknesses of the situation.

Noel Tichy has been a leading consultant to many of the big name corporate leaders and companies. From GE, Coca Cola, Mercedes Benz Tichy takes you through his experiences, to provide practical, sound advice that you can pick up and begin to use immediately in you business.

I have personally utilized many of the concepts with my employees together in meetings or individual coaching sessions to identify their development strengths and weaknesses or dealing with difficult coaching moments. The format and style have been easily accepted and used again by my team leades on their own.

I highly recommend the book for all leaders, of any level to develop yourself and your team. You will find this book to be a ready reference over and over for succession planning, business planning and performance evaluations of your leadership team each year.