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Leading
Up, How To Lead Your Boss So You BOTH WIN
Crown
Business,
Author Michael Useem
ISBN 1400047005
You can read an exclusive weLEAD interview with Michael Useem
and learn more about this book here!
Leaders are not just bosses. In fact,
some of the most effective leaders in an organization may be those leading the
boss! Leading up is about helping your superiors lead and do their job better.
Everyone can lead up. Even if you are a CEO you will need to lead your board
and stockholders.
Michael Useem,
the author of Leading Up, is professor of management and the director of
the Center for Leadership and Change Management at the Wharton School of the
University of Pennsylvania. His writing style uses detailed cases from military
history, politics, business and even stories of Biblical figures to emphasize the
need to lead up. I found some of the stories a bit long and detailed, going
beyond what some readers might desire in order to grasp the point being made.
However, if you enjoy this presentation style, the cases are well written and
provide fascinating insights into actual historical events.
Professor Useem
says that business has often looked to the military model for lessons in
leadership “because of the seemingly impervious top-down authority system.”
Using actual military stories, the author demonstrates that the military model
can also offer invaluable lessons that are just the opposite. Encouraging your
subordinates to say what is positive or negative about a plan before you impose
an order can often avoid costly errors, or even save lives. Creating a culture
that stimulates and rewards upward leadership is critical in today’s complex
environment where no single individual can possibly have all the answers. Useem says, “The military might appear to be the last place
on earth where upward leadership is tolerated, but in fact such leadership is
obligatory.” Encouraging upward challenges can keep a leader on course
regarding adherence to principles.
The book also forcefully demonstrates
that redefining an institution’s reality is one of the greatest tests of
leading up. Changing well-established worldviews is certainly a difficult task,
but the very fact that it is so difficult underscores the “overriding
importance of achieving it.” Often the redefining of a superior’s misplaced
perceptions, or clarifying a superiors’ understanding of a situation requires
extraordinary steps. This is one of the greatest challenges to leading up.
Sometimes a subordinate must exercise
the courage to ask the boss to elaborate and clarify inadequate instructions or
an unclear strategy. Often a superior does not specifically seek this type of
leading up. Nevertheless, such challenges can often make the difference between
failure and success.
If you enjoy reading detailed, but
interesting leadership stories, accompanied by succinct lessons in leading up,
then this is a book for you. If you are looking for a quick read of principles
and leadership philosophy, you will not find that in this work.
Review by
Dr. J. Howard Baker
weLEAD rating: recommended
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