Leadership that Matters

Category: Book Reviews

Book review Leadership that Matters is defined in their book of that name by Marshall and Molly Sashkin as leadership that makes a real difference both by affecting organisational productivity and performance and by making a positive difference in the lives of organisation members. This form of leadership transforms organisations from “good” to “excellent” and transforms individuals from subordinate followers to self-directed leaders. Leadership That Matters explores how transformational leadership can be developed and practised and provides practical advice for leaders who want to transform people and organisations.

Traditional, “transactional” approaches to leadership involve a kind of contractual arrangement: the leader issues orders and subordinates are expected to carry them out to the best of their abilities. This is fine as far as it goes. Transformational leadership goes a step further. Transformational leaders achieve superior results because of their ability to transform people from dutiful followers into self-directed leaders who go beyond simply doing what is expected of them.

According to the Sashkins, most theories on leadership concentrate only on the personality traits of a leader or the context in which she or he leads or the specific set of behavioural skills that a successful leader may display. A few theories may examine one or two of these aspects, but in the authors’ opinion no work thus far has integrated all three into a discussion of leadership. The Sashkins, a husband-and-wife team of management and leadership experts, have used their decades of experience in teaching, research, and publishing to recommend a new model of transformative leadership that combines all three elements: traits, behaviours, and context.

Their book provides a comprehensive overview of the main theories of leadership, where they critique each one, and then synthesise a new approach which they call 'Leadership That Matters'. They contend that the transformational leader models of the past have focused too much on the leader-follower relationship and not enough on working with followers to create a new organisational culture. The guiding theme is the authors’ definition of the role of leaders: to make meaning for followers. Leadership is different from motivating followers to accomplish goals (which they label managing), or more than developing vision (the ideal image of some future state). They believe leaders create the conditions that enable others – followers – to make their own meaning and agree with Lao Tzu, that “leadership is mainly about knowing how to follow.”

The Sashkins build considerably on the organisational leadership models of other researchers, and on personality and sociological theory. The common elements they emphasise and define are seen below in their eight-element model of leadership:

Communication – active listening; appropriate use of feedback.

Trust – consistency and credibility.

Caring – respect toward and concern for followers

Creating Opportunities – willingness to take risks and employ others in ways that observers might see as dangerous to the leader.

Self-confidence – a sense that one can be effective (self-efficacy); what drives behavioural action.

Empowerment Orientation - instilling self-motivation to act; enabling others to be effective

Vision – cognitive capability; ability to create the future in the mind and will.

Organisational Context (culture) – “the way we do things around here;” what transformational leaders are trying to reform.

Their model of 'Leadership that Matters' incorporates three categories: behavioural elements (Nos. 1-4); personality characteristics/traits (nos. 5-7); and context/organizational culture (No. 8 ).

Thus, the composite Sashkin model goes further than other comprehensive models. Because the Sashkins’ add personality characteristics to the mix, they bring leadership studies nearly full circle, by re-focusing on traits or personality characteristics.