Customer Reviews

Walk the Walk: The #1 Rule for Real Leaders

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I am glad that I read this book and believe that you will not only enjoy it but get a great deal from it for several reasons.

1) Alan Deutschman is very clear what constitutes leadership and what a leader must do and contrasts that with we see most of the time. He differentiates between merely occupying a position of leadership and actual leadership, which can be done from any position. These other faux-leader-creatures he calls rulership (think bullies), stewardship (think administrator), and lemminship (think imitative coward).

2) He names names. The chapters cover the different qualities of leadership. He illustrates his points with real world people, mostly famous people, who exhibited those qualities in a given situation and contrasts that with those who pretend to be leaders, but to don't really lead by walking the walk they ask others to tread. For example, he shows how Jeff Bezos of Amazon actually matched his actions with his stated goals while Howard Schulz of Starbucks masked his true goals behind pretty words. He praises Bill Hewlett's responding to a severe downturn in the economy, not by rightsizing through layoffs, but in asking EVERYONE (including himself) to cut back to nine days work and pay every two weeks. Contrast that with Al Gore's panic mongering about global warming and carbon footprints and asking everyone else to shrink theirs while he maintains one the size of several King Kongs. You get the idea.

3) Deutschman can write clearly, concisely, and compellingly.

So, what are the qualities he expects you, as a true leader, to do and exhibit? Your actions at work (and in your personal life) show what is REALLY most important to you. If it doesn't match your words, the words are meaningless and your credibility is shot.

As a leader you need to state what your top one or two priorities are. Again, if your actions don't match them, what you do trumps what you say and people will infer what your true top one or two priorities are. You show WHO comes first.

You also show WHAT comes first by what you do. For example, Ray Kroc was a fanatic about cleanliness as he built McDonalds. He was famous for picking up litter on his way into a store.

Deutschman also shows how people are inspired when a leader actually shares in the risk and pain of what they face each day. When generals or CEOs live in palaces and get rich while others slave with their jobs at risk each day people become demoralized.

He shows how your actually matching your actions to your words gives you a front row seat on your organization's effectiveness. You gain the opportunity to teach, train, and lead in each moment. You provide a clearly marked path others can follow. And, as I noted before, you can lead from any position. You don't need title, position, or formally assigned power. By acting as a true leader you inspire others because they believe in you and will learn to believe in themselves. Powerful stuff.

Would that we had more of it in the world today. I hope this book can help.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

I typically dont read stuff like this. Im not so interested in big business; I only own a business because it is a means to do my work in the world. So I was surprised at how fascinating and relevant the book was for me!

A sophistocated level of experience went into this book, evidenced by clarity of thought and presentation. It is also a quick read.... and entertaining, even delightful! I think anyone could glean something meaningful from this concise, revealing look into leadership.

In Alan Deutschman's book Walk the Walk, The #1 rule for leaders he debunks the common phrase we all have heard "Do as I say, not as I do". All leaders and non leaders alike recognize the fundamental truth that individuals, families, teams, organizations and entire companies are best lead by example. As soon as your example and actions don't match your words your credibility as a leader is diminished regardless of your title.

Here are six important take-aways from Walk the Walk.

I. For a leader every moment is a teachable moment for the rest of the organization.

II. "the most crucial role of a leader is establishing and instilling the one or two values that will be most important to the organization..." Please note Deutschman states one or two, not six or seven values.

III. A lot of leaders practice lemmingship rather than leadership because their actions don't match the values the speak.

IV. "The general must make himself the eyes of his own army. John Keegan" It is not enough to depend on reports or information provided by those directly working for you. You must periodically go, see and be an example at the working level.

V. "Leaders must share the struggle...sharing the struggle, the risk, and the hardship..."

VI. "Leadership is about creating change, so its greatest challenge comes when change seems nearly impossible - when people feel helpless and their situation appears hopeless.

Even though a lot of us know the fundamental truths of leadership it is easy to slowly drift away from those truths. This book is a good refresher to remind you of sticking to the fundamental truth of leading by example. This book is worth your time because of the stories and illustrations used to drive the points home and I found it worthy enough to send copies to my clients.

Dr. James T. Brown PMP PE CSP

Author, The Handbook of Program Management

Alan's newest book truly reveals the value for readers in his decades of careful attention to the challenges and patterns to leadership in the business world.

There is much to learn through the well analyzed and specific case studies, and I enjoyed the book immensely.

Walk the Walk will become essential reading for all the leaders I serve as a consultant. Alan Deutschman writes a practical, comprehensively brief and readable book about the most critical element of leadership -- demonstrating through your actions that you mean what you say. By naming leaders throughout history and into the present, Alan courageously exposes the leaders who have provided us with the real life examples of how they did, or did not, walk the walk in accordance to their words. This book explains why mission statements in organizations become revered or reviled by the employess because leadership displays congruent or incongruent behaviors with the words that are set forth to inspire the employees who work for them. Alan's mission to provide an elegantly simple and pointed account of true leadership is accomplished.

Dr. Megan Neyer, Total Performance Systems, Inc.

There are a lot of "inspirational" business books out there that offer very little except for mindless drivel. This is not one of them. Alan examines many key leadership characteristics, and gives plenty of examples and counterexamples.

There are many things that I liked about Alan's book:

1) It is fast to read. It gets to the point, so it is a pleasure for a busy exec.

2) Each chapter gave me ideas and made me think. As a CEO of a company, I often asked myself, "Am I exhibiting the example or the counterexample"

3) Alan is not afraid to pull punches. He calls some powerful rich people to the carpet for lousy things that they have done. It is a pleasure to read a book that is not afraid to criticize celebrities.

But, at the end of the day, the key thing about the book is I learned from it and it gave me ideas to think about how I can improve my behavior to be a better leader. And I didn't have to wade through hundreds of pages to get there.

Good job Alan!

It does not take a rocket scientist to understand Deutschman's central message: that in order to lead and effect positive change, a leader must 1) share the struggle with his or her people and 2) choose only one or two core values to propagate. Yet Deutschman's wide-ranging use of real life examples of leadership (some failed, some vaunted) elucidate his seemingly "simple" points brilliantly. I always wondered why Al Gore's obviously well-intentioned pleas for a widespread change in energy and environmental policy seemed to scare the hell out of people but had little concrete effect in how we live our day to day lives. But looking at Gore's own personal decisions about how he lives his life (his 10,000 square foot home, for example) makes it clear that he is not willing to share the struggle that ordinary Americans are being asked to share. (It's great that Gore did a very expensive green renovation on said 10,000 square foot home--but such an action is not one most Americans can afford to follow. Most Americans *can* choose to build or buy smaller homes, however, something Gore did not do for himself.)

I also appreciate how Deutschman profiles lesser known leaders: the owner of a small restaurant in San Francisco, a high school football coach in Atlanta. By not just focusing on the big names (though giving us plenty of those) Deutschman shows that authentic leadership is a value everyone can aspire to, whether it's parenting your own kids or leading the nation.

Although by now a cliché phrase, this book's title correctly suggests Alan Deutschman's objective in writing what turns out to be an especially entertaining and engaging as well as informative analysis of "real" leadership, what Bill George would characterize as "authentic" leadership. He explains that aspiring rulers struggle to preserve their positions, stewards focus on strengthening the status quo while preserving its values and priorities, and "lemmings" repeat the same practices and strategies that previously ruined other organizations whereas "real" leaders establish and instill the one or two values "that will be most important for an organization or a movement or a community." They "talk the talk" (i.e. affirm the right values) and "walk the walk" (i.e. consistently demonstrate those values in their behavior). The exemplars include Masaru Ibuka, Steve Jobs, Herb Kelleher Martin Luther King, Jr., Wendy Kopp, Ray Kroc, Nelson Mandela, Danny Meyer, Urban Meyer, Fred Smith, Dave Thomas, and both Thomas Watson Sr. and Jr. Deutschman differentiates real leaders from those whose behavior (invoking another cliché phrase) "talk a good game" but don't play it. For example, Mark Fields, Al Gore, Frank Lorenzo, Laura Turner Seydel, and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

I have two issues with this book. First, it seems premature to discuss Barak Obama's performance as a leader less than a year after he became president in January, probably about the same time Deutschman submitted his completed manuscript to the publisher. It is far too early to suggest that Obama's leadership in the Oval Office is or is not "real"; it is at best, in certain respects, only promising. My second issue has to do with what I perceive to be another flaw in Deutschman's judgment. At one point in the book, he criticizes Gore for not moving out of his 11,400 square-foot "energy-guzzling" home (albeit acknowledging that Gore has arranged to make eco-friendly modifications of it) and moving into" a cozy little bungalow." He also thinks that Schwarzenegger should put on "a grand display of dismantling his five Hummers and recycling the metals and other materials." The importance of the energy and environmental policies that Gore and Schwarzenegger affirm is not invalidated or even compromised by any discrepancy between their "talk" and their "walk." Deutschman's expectations strike me as naïve, at best.

Nonetheless, there is much of substantial value in this book when Deutschman stays out of the pulpit and concentrates on real-world situations that demonstrate the core values of real leadership. For example, there is some fascinating material in Chapter Two when he first discusses Ray Kroc obsession with cleanliness in every McDonald's location, Fred Smith's obsession with FedEx's punctuality, and Charles Schwab's obsession with impeccable integrity throughout his entire organization. All of them led by example, working side-by-side with their associates, asking no one to do what they had not already done themselves. Deutschman also discusses several military leaders, all of whom also led by example. In modern warfare, it makes no sense for generals to place themselves directly in harm's way but Norman Schwarzkopf, Richard Cavazos, and William Latham had already demonstrated their courage in brutal combat on numerous occasions in the past. By the time they became general officers, their reputations for both valor and integrity had preceded them. They had earned - and deserved -- the respect and trust of those who served under them.

Please excuse a personal digression. Years ago, I arrived at the Wendy's corporate campus in Dublin, Ohio, and drove the rental car into the visitors' parking lot. In the distance, I could see an older man picking up a few pieces of litter from the lawn. Because I was 30 minutes early for my appointment, I decided to join him to lend a hand. I introduced myself. He smiled and extended his hand. "Hi, I'm Dave Thomas. Thanks for the help." Later, during my meeting, I was reassured by the Wendy's marketing executive, "That's Dave. He's the real deal."

At the conclusion of the final chapter, Deutschman observes: "The final proof of leadership isn't having new ideas; it's pursuing an idea obsessively - with every action, in every moment, with everyone watching - for many years or even for several decades. That's when you're a real leader." Obviously, Deutschman agrees with Thomas Edison, "Vision without execution is hallucination." Their obsession with seamless performance is what Masaru Ibuka, Steve Jobs, Herb Kelleher Martin Luther King, Jr., Wendy Kopp, Ray Kroc, Nelson Mandela, Danny Meyer, Urban Meyer, Fred Smith, Dave Thomas, and both Thomas Watson Sr. and Jr. share in common with their military counterparts. All of these leaders exemplify in everything they do and how they do it the same values they so passionately affirm.

Loved "Walk the Walk." Lots of a great anecdotes to illustrate and underline your very valid and insightful points about leadership. And my rating would have been five stars if I'd stopped reading at page 166. It was after that, in the Afterword, that Deutschman completely lost me. It was as though I were at a Diana Krall concert and, when she came back on stage for an encore, did a Karen Carpenter number. Completely jarring and out of place. After an otherwise beautiful concert, I'd have left disappointed.

What was he thinking? More to the point, where was the editor? His broadsides against George W. Bush were completely uncalled for, off message, irrelevant, and inaccurate. And that's leaving aside completely his abject idolatry of Barack Obama, also inappropriate in this book.

Invoking political leaders in the context of a book on business leadership like this is appropriate, certainly, but they should be pulled from history, as the preceding pages did: Churchill, FDR, Eisenhower, et al. Leave the contemporary politics out of it.

What leaders say might be interesting, but how they act is always crucial, according to Alan Deutschman in this book. The author draws a difference between leadership, which is about creating change; rulership, which is about protecting a position of power; stewardship, which is about responsible management of established institutions; and lemmingship, which is about repeating practices and strategies that have brought ruinous consequences for others.

The actions of leaders are what define their priorities: what is really most important, who comes first and what comes first. True leaders share the struggle and the risk, treating every moment as an opportunity to teach, train and lead, and taking steps that every potential follower can follow. While leaders have differing personality traits, all true leaders share a number of similarities: exceptional focus, empathy, constancy, belief in their ability to overcome obstacles, and endurance.

The author's writing style is elegant and highly engaging, making the book a pleasure to read. Many books have been written about leadership expressing many different opinions on what true leadership consists of and the characteristics of true leaders. In my view this book is one of the most convincing, distinguishing true leadership from merely occupying the highest position in an organisational hierarchy.