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Book Review

The Spirit of Leadership

Optimizing Creativity and Change in Organizations

Executive Excellence Publishing —2000 (342 pages in hardback)

Author Robert J. Spitzer

ISBN 1-890009-89-X

Robert Spitzer has been the President and CEO of Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. He also has extensive experience as an organizational consultant. It is from this experience he has written The Spirit of Leadership. The main point of the book is valid and clearly expressed. Far too many individuals in leadership positions spend a large amount of energy and resources to improve the products or processes of their organizations with mediocre results. As Spitzer comments in the introduction of this book, “Joe had blinded himself consistently to one of the three Ps of leadership. By concentrating on product and process, he had altogether ignored people”.

The Spirit of Leadership correctly emphasizes that when people are ignored; their essential spirit is stifled resulting in a lack of trust, common cause, participation, teamwork and creativity. The purpose of the book is to show the reader how to create a espirit de corps within the heart of an organization. Spitzer defines this as the ability to transcend the material world to “gain energy when doing something creative”. He continues to define espirit de corps in terms of the capacity to go beyond the self, or beyond known paradigms, or to become more alive. He believes this is fostered by three elements: vision, rational communication and four sets of commitments discussed in the book. This allows for an environment of inspired and motivated workers as well as high performing teams.

The Spirit of Leadership is composed of eighteen chapters within five well organized sections. The sections are entitled, The Mind and Vision of the Inspired Leader, The Heart of the Inspired Leader, People Commitments, Ethical Commitments and Leadership Commitments. As you can tell by these titles, Spitzer believes a great leader must have a consistent and heartfelt commitment toward growing people, sound moral behavior, and the responsibility that comes with being a leader! He begins the book by making a compelling case for the need of Inspired Leadership, in contrast to the traditional Driven Leadership we see so often in organizations today. He concludes the book with how to create a espirit de corps in your organization. Many chapters are featured with numerous steps, stages or points to clarify the author’s main ideas.

The Spirit of Leadership does not break new ground, but it is a good read. Some of the strengths of the book are its readability, ethical foundation and it’s many charts that condense larger ideas into visual snapshots. If you believe and understand the importance of building people in your organization, this may be a good book for your library.

weLEAD rating - recommended

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