New Book Review: "Leadership Beyond Reason"
Recently posted book review for Leadership Beyond Reason: How Great Leaders Succeed by Harnessing the Power of Their Values, Feelings, and Intuition, by Dr. John Townsend, Thomas Nelson, 2009, reposted here:
Townsend explains quite plainly in his introduction that "great leaders succeed by harnessing the power of both the external world and the internal world. You, as a leader, are probably more trained, prepared, and experienced in the external world than you are in the inner one. Most likely, you are able to amass large amounts of valuable information from reports, research, journals, and interviews. And you need that information: it is critical to your success as a leader. At the same time, you also need access to data within you that is just as valuable and helpful to how you lead, come to conclusions, and make decisions. This book is designed to help you understand what is inside you – what is 'beyond reason' – and how to use that to help you succeed".
What flows from this premise are discussions on values (the bedrock of leadership), thoughts (leaders think about thinking), emotions (the unlikely allies in leadership), relationships (connecting with those you lead), and transformation (growing as a leader). In general, the content of the discussions grows stronger as the book progresses since much of the earlier portions of the text are not particularly groundbreaking.
One of the best quotes of the book is the following: "The best way any leader can use her mind to think in ways that work for her organization is to remember that reality is in charge. It is not divided. There are no inner and outer realities that are ultimately opposed. Both sources of truth must be subject to what is truly true. So in an ideal setting, your intuition should agree with your conscious thinking". Townsend's discussion on cognitive distortions – helplessness, passivity, negativity, defensive thinking, all-or-nothing thinking, and false self-thinking – is also well done.
In his chapter on emotions, Townsend notes that "of all the emotions you have, happiness is the one that is most dependent on your circumstances and least dependent on you as a person", and although "people will follow happiness in you as their leader more than they will follow your unhappiness" and that "lack of happiness can be a signal that you need to make changes", he also offers the following warning: "happiness is a valuable experience, but it is a miserable goal. Take it off your goal list and replace it with something else. In its proper place, as a celebration of gratitude and an appreciation of the good, the emotion of happiness has real benefit. It is a fruit, a result of the good. But it never works out when we focus on happiness as something to accomplish. I hear this a lot from leaders: 'I just want to be happy in my life'. I certainly understand the desire, but happiness as your ultimate goal will lead nowhere, and even to worse than nowhere. It can lead to problems in life and leadership".
The author's discussion on transformation is especially well-written, where he notes that "transformation is truly leadership beyond reason, for it requires much more than your thought processes and your intelligence. It literally requires your entire being, energies, and life" and "you can't lose in leadership by growing as a person". Also, while previous individuals have noted that it makes more sense to concentrate on developing personal strengths and your personnel's strengths, rather than weaknesses, Townsend elaborates on these thoughts by emphasizing that "strengths training works only when dealing with leadership, skills, competencies, talents, and gifts. When approaching the arena of the personal – our character, growth issues, and our ability to relate – we do not have the option to manage weaknesses; we need to resolve them".
Within his closing pages, Townsend provides some additional valuable advice: "Use your time wisely and well. Don't waste it, and don't expect the process of time to solve things. Set a structure for growth and keep to it. The old saying 'Time heals all things' is neither helpful not true. Time, in and of itself, never transformed anyone, any more than looking at a business plan and expecting a successful business to suddenly emerge in a year with no effort. So make sure the people, the expertise, the commitment to growth, and the resources are in place, and stay current with it. Make it a high priority. If you find that urgent matters continually get in the way, retool and start over, but don't get derailed". Well said.
In general, while many may have already been exposed to some of the ideas presented in this book, and might not see this text as very groundbreaking (especially when compared to his earlier "Boundaries"), those who view rationality as the Shakespearean be-all and end-all should read this book, especially the chapters on emotions and relationships.