Learning to Lead. - Review - book review

School Administrator, Sept, 1995 by William G. Keane

Two critical beliefs drive much current thinking about leadership.

One asserts that leadership ability is not an intrinsic characteristic but a way of thinking and a set of behaviors that virtually anyone can learn. Th other, a dichotomy now being challenged, is that leaders and managers represent separate breeds. The former is to be cultivated, the latter scorned.

Both beliefs support many of the activities in a new workbook, Learning to Lead, by Warren Bennis, a prolific writer on leadership and founder of the Leadership Institute at the University of Southern California, and Joan Goldsmith, a management and education consultant. Designed as a companion to Bennis's bestseller On Becoming a Leader, the workbook can be used by those who want to develop leadership characteristics and behaviors.

The discussion focuses on leadership potential that is applicable to all enterprises, including public agencies. All seven chapters include exercises designed to help individuals or work groups clarify their personal vision, values, concepts, and beliefs and assess the current state of their personal leadership skills.

(Learning to Lead: A Workbook on Becoming a Leader, by Warren Bennis and Joan Goldsmith, Addison Wesley Publishing Co., One Jacob Way, Reading, Mass. )1867, 1994, 182 pp. with index, $19.50 softcover)