John Kotter on what leaders really do

supply/demand relationship, but instead, work toward demand/supply by figuring out what people want and then how you can get it to them quickly, efficiently, and profitably. Overall the book does not say much that is new. But it does present a series of useful ideas that warrant reading by managers who want to improve their own operations. Moreover, the way in which many of the ideas are explained is both clear and easy to apply. Individuals who are rethinking the focus and direction of their company or who are stymied regarding how to implement new ideas will find this book to be very useful. In fact, it should not just be on their book s h e l f ~ should be on the bookshelves of their people. Directfrom Dell is a timely offering that provides some important strategic architecture and phiiosophy for those managers who need to answer the question, "What do we need to do to succeed in this era of hypercompetition?" Dell knows the answer, and he explains it in a well-focused, easy-to-understand way. Practicing managers will find this book worth the read.

John Ko~w on What Leade~ Really Do ,, :ix.... ~i

By John P. Kotter Harvard Business School Press, 1999 178 Pages Hardcover

$22.95 I~ t;,~ i! I\ ,il

Reviewed by Jane Whitney Gibson Nova Southeastern University

Since Henry Mintzberg's famous study of CEOs in the 1970s, I have been interested in the subject of What Leaders Real~/Do. John Kotter, likewise, has demonstrated an interest in the topic since the late '70s. Author of many articles and books on the topics of leadership and change, Kotter has put together this book featuring six of his best articles from the Harvard Business Review (HBR) along with a new introduction that serves as a framework for the book. Thus the book presents very few new ideas although Chapter 1, the introduction, does contain ten observations about leadership behavior that Kotter has arrived at over his 30 years of work in the field. These points include the following two which seem to get at the heart of Kotter's beliefs about leadership: 1. Leadership is different from management and 90 O R G A N I Z A T I O N A L DYNAMICS

the primary force behind successful change of any significance is the former, not the latter. 2. Because the rate of change is increasing, leadership is a growing point of managerial work. Far too many people in positions of power still fail to recognize or acknowledge this most important observation. Like Mintzberg, Kotter concludes that the jobs of a manager and a leader are not filled with neatly segmented tasks such as planning or organizing. Instead, says Kotter. 'What a manager/leader does on a minute-byminute, hour-by-hour basis rarely jibes with any stereotype of a manager, a heroic leader, or an executive, a fact that can create considerable confusion for those new to managerial jobs." Of the six articles, two were published in the late '70s, one was published in the early '80s, and four were published in the '90s. As they are all past HBR articles, it goes without saying that they are readable and of high quality. But Kotter has organized his articles, not chronologically, but in two parts. The first three articles form Part 1 and focus entirely on the importance of effective leadership to managing effective change, a topic which he thinks has only become more important over the years. Chapter 2, 'Choosing Strategies for Change," was originally written in 1979. It focuses on the now well-known reasons for resistance to change and the ways to overcome that change. Chapter 3, 'What Leaders Really Do," is a more recent article (1990) that clearly establishes the differences between management and leadership. Management, says Kotter, is about coping with complexity whereas leadership is about coping with change. Chapter 4, "Leading Change," takes a look at why organizational transformation efforts often fail. The errors themselves, such as "not establishing a great enough sense of urgency," relate back to Kottees observation in the introduction that %vhen managers today produce successful change of any significance in organizations, regardless of the specific approach, the process is time consuming and highly complex, never a one-two-three, hit-and-run affair." Kotter's eight stages of change outlined under this point could easily be used as a corollary to Kurt Lewin's famous three stages of change: unfreeze, introduce the new behavior, refreeze. The remaining three articles in Part 2 focus on

how leadership today is concemed with interdependent relationships within the organization. Chapter 5, "Power, Dependence, and Effective Management," is based on extensive studies of 26 organizations. Kotter's model of four power bases in organizations can be favorably compared to the better known French and Raven model of personal and organizational power bases. Good advice is provided here about how to generate and use power successfully. Chapter 6, "Managing Your Boss," takes a refreshing look at the manager-employee relationship and suggests that the responsibility of getting along is a two-way street. The good advice given is only slightly diminshed by the all-too-frequent use of the term "boss" in the article, a seeming inconsistency with the new, more egalitarian relationship between supewisors and subordinates. The final article, "What Effective General Managers Really Do," is one of the earlier articles (1982). According to Kotter, the two most consequential activities of general managers are: Figuring out what to do despite uncertainties, great diversity, and an enormous amount of potentially relevant information. Getting things done through a large and diverse set of people despite having little direct control over most of them. In sum, this book is a collection of some of Kotter's best work--a highly readable set of six articles with a framing introduction. It would be a very good choice for a reader in a leadership course. Likewise, it is a good resource for the practicing manager who wants a quick and reliable, even practical, source of information on what constitutes effective leadership today. Kotter has credibility. He is the Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership at Harvard and a well-respected speaker around the world on the topic of leadership. And this book by him is a "keeper."

The Passionate Organization: Igniting the Fire of Employee Commitment By James R. Lucas AMACOM, 1999, 240 pages, $24.95 hardcover Reviewedby Chad T. Lewis University of Phoenix Tom Peters and Nancy Austin gave us A Passion for Excellence. James Lucas considers "for Excellence"

redundant and simply asserts that passion serves individual and organizational purposes. According to Lucas, passion is a necessary precursor to optimal performance: of individuals, teams and, consequently, the organization itself. Lucas' work is a litany in the sense that the author articulates his vision with the expectation that readers, as a "congregation," will respond to these ideas with the same passion with which they are eloquently expressed. Consequently, leaps of faith are required. For example, Lucas writes that reason delivers the content, but passion delivers the context. Further, he says that the deeper reality is the logic of the illogical; that it's the fight thing because it is the smart thing, and it's the smart thing because it is the right thing; that soft skills are really hard and hard skills are really soft. Further still, he argues for throwing out job descriptions, policies, procedures, rules, and related artifacts from an earlier management era because these things are the enemies of passion. In each instance, he is writing to readers who share his convictions. Without this common ground, the litany can break down, as it did initially with me. On rereading and further reflection; however, I can now say I've become a neophyte. The Passionate Organization is divided into three sections or 19 chapters, as well as an introduction and epilogue. Throughout the book, Lucas disavows linearity. His book reflects this bias. After all, it would be an oxymoron to impose a tight organizational scheme within and between book sections while, at the same time, arguing for making rela~ely unfettered passion and emotion the central themes of a 21 st Century organization. The Passionate Organization is definitely not a management textbook! Part I on "Passion Over Knowledge" defines individual passion, critiques strategic planning and the learning organization, and looks at directions that passionate organizations can travel. Part II, on "A Passionate People," defines what to look for when seeking passionate organizational players; analyzes individual spirituality and the role it plays, and asserts that people passionately want to make a difference, and should be given the opportunity to do so. Advice is given in this section for nurturing and maintaining passion in employees. Part III entitled 'qhe Passionate Organization" reiterates material from previous sections as it relates to the total organization. Part III also skewers traditional, clasAUTUMN 1999 91