Introduction:<\/p>\n
Editors Nohria and Khurana have put together a voluminous and informative book with the purpose of advancing academic research in the field of leadership. In Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice<\/em>, the authors confirm that there is a lack of solid research on leadership\u2014because, among other things, \u201cleadership is an elusive construct, riddled with so many ambiguities that is is hard to ever define let alone study systematically.\u201d (L. 101) They also acknowledge that the vacuum of academic research on leadership as a discipline is being filled by the popular writers.<\/p>\n The authors see a risk involved in filling the vacuum with popular writers, namely the risk of clouding the mission of academic institutions who are training leaders. Additionally, they fear that students will transpose a desire to be change agents for \u201ccredentials and connections, and some knowledge, but not lessons about leadership.\u201d (L 107) The are concerned about the future of leadership, the development of leaders and the ability for institutions to train leaders adequately based on research and not on popular culture. Therefore the purpose of this book is to advance and encourage academic research associated specifically with leadership and do it in a way and form that is assessable and not only to present scholars but to the future students and scholars. (L. 114)<\/p>\n Analysis and Application:<\/p>\n Do we actually have a vacuum in leadership? I would say yes! Is there a need for academic research-based literature on the subject? Yes! Do we need another book on leadership? Well\u2026in this case I would say yes! Since the beginning of this program I am amazed at the shear numbers of books there are on leadership. Because I haven\u2019t read anywhere near most of them I can\u2019t say that most of them are posing as self-help 10 step leadership books. But I have seen enough to know that there is a difference between leadership material that develops leaders and leadership material that is there to make money. Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice<\/em> is one that aims to both inform the academic discipline of leadership and practice and give solid information to those who want and need to lead.<\/p>\n Because I am often involved in teams of leaders, I was immediately drawn to the chapter written by Wagerman and Hackman titled \u201cWhat Makes a Team of Leaders Leadable?\u201d I was pleasantly surprised to see that the authors have highlighted what I have experienced when serving on leadership teams. The irony factor keeps these types of teams from performing at a high level. According to the authors, it is ironic that teams who are made up of high-level leaders often do not function at a high level. (L. 5844) They label this irony the \u201cFour Ironic Features of Leadership Teams.\u201d<\/p>\n The authors inventory the apparent irony. Leadership teams are often composed of powerful people, however, their teams are not designed well, not lead well and not resourced well. Though they are all leaders, the members of the team often have no relationship with each other and don\u2019t want to attend meetings. Members are often overworked and overloaded in their responsibilities; however, the meetings they hold are long and often time wasting. Leadership team members often have power struggles that sabotage the team’s performance; however, they are not willing to talk about them. (L. 5844-6027)<\/p>\n Building on this foundation, Wagerman and Hackman give recommendations to address the irony. Their recommendations begin with the advice that leadership teams should have a clear and defined purpose and function with clear outcomes. Second, meeting agendas should be crafted so that, “the work of the team is always focused on meaningful, interdependent activities.” \u00a0To that, I add a hardy Amen! Third, each members’ role should be shaped and clearly defined. Finally, political dynamics can be held to a minimum when it\u2019s members have the freedom to talk openly about their individual concerns without fear of retaliation either from the boss or from the other team members. (L. 6093 – 6124) These are so basic how could leaders miss these. That, of course, is the irony of it all.<\/p>\n And now the reason for the early post. I\u2019m heading out the door to travel to the mountains of eastern Slovakia. \u00a0I am leading a team who will be ministering in some remote Roma villages. It’s in these villages where academics meet the realities of life of a people who live on the margins of society. Even in conditions of abject poverty and persecution the Roma people are giving their hearts to Christ and it is changing their lives and by extension their communities and the world. In the center of the great revival and social change among the Roma people is a small group of Roma leaders\u2014started by one\u2014who are practicing leadership in very difficult circumstances. With little resources and even less political power, they are leading their people out of darkness into a marvelous light. I can\u2019t wait to see these men again\u00a0and work alongside them, even for a moment. They are humble leaders who inspire the best in me and all who know them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Introduction: Editors Nohria and Khurana have put together a voluminous and informative book with the purpose of advancing academic research in the field of leadership. In Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice, the authors confirm that there is a lack of solid research on leadership\u2014because, among other things, \u201cleadership is an elusive construct, riddled with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[410],"class_list":["post-10266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-nohria-and-khurana","cohort-lgp7"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10266\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}