Power Up: Transforming Organizations Through Shared Leadership (Hardcover)

by David L. Bradford (Author), Allan R. Cohen (Author) "Ask any manager about leadership today, and you are likely to hear much the same answer..." (more)
Key Phrases: new leadership system, full shared responsibility, tangible vision, Bob Mitchell, John Sloan, Bill Boyer (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Stemming from research in their previous book, Managing for Excellence, David Bradford of Stanford University and Allan Cohen of Babson College have developed a new "leadership system" based on reciprocal behavior between managers and subordinates. In Power Up: Transforming Organizations Through Shared Leadership, they diagram this model and show corporations how to adopt it. Blasting the fundamental assumption that leaders are responsible for everything within a company (and any unit therein), they suggest that management actually is the responsibility of everyone and offer ways to encourage such behavior even when resistance exists.

From Booklist
Bradford is a consultant and a senior lecturer at Stanford University; Cohen is a consultant and a chaired professor at Babson College. Together, they wrote Influence without Authority (1990), a guide to getting things done in today's less-hierarchical organizations; and more than a decade ago, in Managing for Excellence (1984), they were among the first to proclaim the end of the "manager as hero." Since then, under several guises, the idea of "post-heroic leadership" has gained ground. The concept that managing is the collaborative responsibility of everybody in the unit was at first a difficult sell to those already in power. As more leaders accepted the notion, the authors realized that they also needed to address the "reciprocal behavior of followers." Here they incorporate what they have learned in the last 15 years and present their updated model. After laying out their core ideas, Bradford and Cohen present two extensive case studies--one from the point of view of a leader, the other from that of an executive team--to demonstrate the application of those ideas. David Rouse

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (February 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471121223
• ISBN-13: 978-0471121220
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #170,896 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Can't be this simple?, September 25, 2001

By	JOHN "leaderinfront" (SAN LORENZO, CA United States) - See all my reviews

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.

5.0 out of 5 stars God is in the details and this book captures the key ones, March 16, 2004

By	Thundering Eagle (Albany, NY United States) - See all my reviews

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

7 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars ugh!, February 6, 2002

By A Customer

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!