Customer Reviews

Power Up: Transforming Organizations Through Shared Leadership

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

 

 

The authors make the impossible seem very possible in this excellent book. The differences between heroic and post-heroic leadership is well defined through stories involving real people. Can an organization switch from heroic to post-heroic leadership, sure, but it is not easy. Somehow this book and its ideas make that ideal a bit more reasonable. Only for managers and leaders who are ready to go out on a limb and turn everything they thought they knew upside down. Good luck.

I bought this book hoping to learn some new strategies for empowering my employees and improving our team's effectiveness. What I found instead were a lot of anecdotes and case studies that were totally irrelevant to my workplace. It's hard to believe that anyone would benefit from this book - I would have thought most companies that had strong centralized leadership and poor information flow would have gone out of business. Perhaps my work experience is not typical.

I had to read this book for my continuing ed requirements for my CPA license so I wasn't expecting to get much out of it but I was pleasantly surprised. It totally changed my perception on how to manage people. I was from the old school way of thinking that a manager should know everything. Sure takes a lot of pressure off knowing you don't need to know everything as long as you have talented staff around and what's key is that several heads attacking a problem is so much better than just one. I got a lot out of this book and even gave a copy to my boss to read so I hope he does too!

I had to read this book for one of my MBA classes, and I really enjoyed it. The book introduces the idea of a post-Heroic leader and the shared responsibility model. I do have a few issues with the theory, but the insights are definitely useful and novel; something to think about.

I am biased in my report in that I know the book intimately. I can only say that I am aware of no other leadership book that has captured the correct essence of where human leadership is and where it could go.

Yes, read the stories, and the author's words, but I challenge you to look beyond all that they have thankfully given us as simple stories and realize the potential of the type of leadership that they call post-heroic leadership. Forget the label of this leadership they communicate and instead listen to underlying message of Power Up.

John P. Kotter once wrote a poem that goes something like this..."beyond the yellow brick road of naiveté, past the muggers land of cynicism, there lies a narrow path whose entrance is hard to find and poorly lit. Once found staying on such a path is even harder. Undertaking such a path is a moral undertaking. We need many more to take such a path...many, many more." Power Up describes a way that might help you see your way down your own path better and a way that is good for all mankind.

I have always said that this book will never be a best seller, because that just means that a lot of people read it, but I believe that hundreds of thousands of years from now it will still be revered as a great work in promoting the understanding of improving human leadership. It will get there I think, because of those few souls who read it and understand.

I will fight by your side if your purpose is good, and I follow you if your path is pure.

Focus,
Thundering Eagle

This book is one of the worst business books I have ever read. The authors are clearly on the gravy train trying to sweep up some more consultancy dollars.

This book basically breaks leadership up into two schools, the heroic school and the post-heroic school. The way it works is really simple. Anything bad, belongs in the heroic school, and anything good is post-heroic! WOW! This book is very one-sided and does not even try to entertain the notion that the most effective style of leadership can vary depending upon the situation. It continuously hammers home a certain style of leadership never exploring the situations where different approaches are effective.

I strongly recommend that if one wants to learn and think about leadership, read about leaders!....and by the way, the kind of leaders that we all admire do not even fit into this post-heroic category! This idealistic kind of approach recommended by academics lacks practical real-world substance, and only has value in a classroom.

I am considering using this book to prop up my dining table!