Archive for October 14th, 2014
Book Review – Leadership Meta-Competencies
It’s rare that a book comes along that covers the topic of leadership in a way which makes me sit up and take notice but that is exactly what has done.
I am very naughty with books and journals, and anything that sparks my interest gets highlighted or I write notes to myself in the margin. This book is covered in my scrawling meme’s. I was hooked from the first page and by the time I had read Chapter 1 I had discovered the most succinct yet thorough overview of leadership theories I have ever read – and I have to many books to count on leadership theories.
Most delightfully, for an academic practitioner was the presentation of theories from a critical perspective. It didn’t just describe the theories but evaluated their usefulness in the ongoing debate.
But the delights of the book don’t stop there. You might be put off by some of the academic language – phronsis, existential thinking and meta-competence might not be the language of business, but what is contained within is useful, practice… intelligible.
If you are looking for a book that bridges the gap (the gulf) between academic thinking and research and what to do with it in the real world, then this book does that in buckets. It takes the theory and does something with it that is rare but so important. Makes sense of it so that you can apply the thinking in your day to day.
The blurb says “it contains no check lists or recipes for success and it presents no theoretically-based models” and that is true. But what it does do, is gets you thinking and surely that is the point of any literature.
Whether you are an academic or a practitioner. Studying or working in the real world. If you want to understand Leadership competencies in the work place – start here.
