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Transforming Leadership
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Customer Reviews
Rating:  - A Walk Down Memory Lane
Burns has a unique way of weaving the events of History and Leadership Theory by presenting a logical praxis. It is in this unique capability that the reader will find him or herself finding not only a fair and balanced articulation of the events as they occurred but the leadership ramifications incurred as a result. Not shy being a professed liberal he makes the strong argument that the Democratic Party has drastically missed the leadership boat due to the party representative's purpsoseful diluting the message of the liberal stance by having Presidential Leadership for the Democratic Party run alone, basically severing ties with party affiliation while maintaining a clear centrist positon not only through the campaign cycle but throughout the President's Administration.
This should come as no surprise as many Americans sense a leadership void in our country which is the result of nothing less than centrist politicians attempting to appease all parties simply in an effort to clinch their respective nominations.
Still Burns makes the compelling argument in this volume that transactional leadership (Leading by Dealing: the phrase being mine) is simply not enough to carry through the transformation so needed in our current political landscape.
The book is dead on and exposes the dangers involved in this practice while Burns argues the essentiality of leading at a higher level and how these changes take place only through transformational leadership.
A caveat pre-emptor is in order here: For those of you seekig a formula for leading at this higher level you simply will not find it. Perhaps this is because Burns believes in the empowerment of people by providing hard core examples throughout the entire landscape of history and perhaps it is for other reasons. However, the end result is the reader comes away with the clear distinctions between transactional and transformation leadership, those in power who utilized such a leaderhip style and the net effect of such leadership.
Finally, I found Burns'insistence on conflict being an essential component to real lasting change coupled with this transformational leadership to be quite persuasive and helpful. In addition, Burns consistent focus on the essential interplay berween leaders and followers demonstrates how one as a leader can supercede simplistic and standardized methodologies all pointing to the clear difference between transactional and transformational leadership. One final thought: Be prepared to make a change if your main operating belief is to be a simple broker, horesetrader, or anything of the sort and be prepared to become acquainted with the path least travelled which is longer lasting and influenttial in leader-follower dyadic interactions.
Mark Bear
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