HBR's 10 Must Reads on Leadership is a collection of ten HBR essays on leadership. Every article essentially tries to answer the same question: "What are the qualities of a great leader, and how does one gain those qualities?".
More specifically, the essays cover the following questions:
* What does a leader need to do? ("What Makes an Effective Executive?", "What Leaders Really Do", "The Work of Leadership")
* What is the ideal personality of a leader? ("What Makes a Good Leader?", "Why Should Anyone Be Led By You?", "Level 5 Leadership")
* What are the various competencies of leadership and how can they be distributed across different people? ("In Praise of the Incomplete Leader", "Seven Transformations of Leadership")
While reading, it's impossible not to notice the fact that while many of the articles attempt to answer same questions, they arrive at a very different conclusions. Several of the articles openly admit that while thousands of scholars have attempted to produce a cookie-cutter leadership profile, none has emerged. Successful leadership is highly circumstantial, and its effectiveness in of itself is difficult to measure or compare.
Overall, I walked away with greatly improved perspective and understanding of what it takes to be an effective leader, as well as tools to help me grow and handle various situational challenges.
Below are reviews of each article:
"What Makes a Good Leader?"
Daniel Goleman's article describes emotional intelligence as one of the keys to being an effective leader. For someone already familiar with Goleman's work or emotional intelligence, the concepts in his article won't be new. Nonetheless it is helpful to see them described within the context of leadership.
"What Makes an Effective Executive?"
Peter Drucker's "What Makes an Effective Executive?" was one of my favorite. It lays out a simple set of actionable leadership tasks for people in both new and existing leadership roles. As someone who's recently taken on a new leadership role at my company, this article was immensely helpful to me in clarifying what I should be doing. I believe notes from this article should be reviewed regularly.
"What Leaders Really Do"
This article is a great complement to Drucker's "What Makes an Effective Executive?". Kotter describes how to set business "vision" and direction and what a leader must do to successfully move an organization toward achieving it. Kotter also breaks down differences between management and leadership to frame differences as well as the importance of both.
"The Work of Leadership"
This article centers around the concept of "adaptive challenges", which are described as "murky, systemic problems with no easy answers" such as increasing competition in an industry.
The authors argue that such challenges require an entire organization to adapt and change, and that the role of leadership is not to set the direction or develop solutions, but rather to frame questions and issues and create an environment for people across the organization to achieve solutions.
While I found the overall points helpful, I found the article verbose and confusing at times. Even the word "adaptive challenge" is abstract to the point where I constantly had to review what it was referring to.
"Why Should Anyone Be Led By You?"
This article suggests four personality traits needed to inspire others and retain committed followers. I found it to be a simple and actionable set of qualities that a leader should try to embody in their presentation and interactions with others.
"Crucibles of Leadership"
This article describes how many successful leaders have gone through "crucibles", or life experiences where they faced adversity and emerged transformed. The article identifies the specific skills and traits needed to overcome and emerge positively from these experiences, and argues that they are the same skills and trains needed for successful leadership.
"Level 5 Leadership"
Jim Collins describes "level 5 leaders" (the highest level of leadership) as embodying the dualistic personality traits of personal humility and fearless professional will. While emphasizing the critical importance of "level 5 leadership", the article also describes other leadership strategies that turn good companies into great ones.
"Seven Transformations of Leadership"
This article describes a hierarchy of leadership styles, ranging from ineffective to highly effective. The purpose of this hierarchy is to be able to identify someone's (or your own) leadership style, and figure out how to grow to the next level. While I was able to identify with some of the styles listed and found the breakdown helpful as a whole, I'm not sure if I walked away with much benefit from this article.
"Discovering Your Authentic Leadership"
This article argues that no cookie-cutter leadership formula exists, and that you cannot become a trusted leader by trying to imitate someone else. You can and should learn from others' experiences, but the only way to become an authentic leader is to be you and commit yourself to lifelong learning and self-development
"In Praise of the Incomplete Leader"
This article highlights the danger of assuming that leaders should do and be everything. The article breaks down leadership into four distinct competencies that can be developed or distributed, depending on the strengths and weaknesses of a leader and the needs of the organization.
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