Revised Book Review

Reanne Gloria Jen

ADPR 5910

Lariscy

2-29-12

Barsh, Joanna, and Susie Cranston. How Remarkable Women Lead: the Breakthrough

Model for Work and Life. 1st ed. New York: Random House, Inc., 2009. 1-355.

Print.


Summary

In How Remarkable Women Lead, author Joanna Barsh writes about the development of the Centered Leadership Project. For the project, she interviewed women leaders from different countries, backgrounds, ages and careers. From information she collected, Barsh developed a leadership model based on traits and aspects all the women leaders had in common. The leadership model describes women leaders in the context of their roles in society, and the model seeks to keep individuals on their paths toward leadership by helping them grow. The components of Centered Leadership include Meaning, Framing, Connecting, Engaging, and Energizing.

The book thoroughly discusses these components. Meaning, the first component, is the central trait for leaders that guides them to a high level of commitment. Meaning in leadership allows an individual to have purpose in one’s goals. This produces happiness, which motivates individuals and leads to higher productivity of work, creativity, effectiveness, and passion. Barsh describes Meaning to be the third level of happiness, where satisfaction endures and goes beyond an individual’s need to be recognized for their goals. Framing reinforces meaning. The book teaches that framing optimism around the conditions of one’s life helps one move forward in a goal by breaking barriers of low mentality. Framing also helps individuals adapt to difficult situations with greater resilience. Connecting, the third component of Centered Leadership, emphasizes the importance of having diverse networks of connections. Engaging puts all the previous parts together. It is a leader’s characteristic of facing fears, making things happen, and choosing to act on opportunities that may have risks. Finally, Energizing describes the work-life balance in a leader. Energizing allows a leader to find different sources of energy throughout life and to minimize strains by creating habits and tactics for resilience and recovery in daily work.


Analysis

Overall, I think that Barsh’s approach to leadership is a good one because it recognizes every individual’s differences and is able to take one’s experience and put it in context of the Centered Leadership model. The model cannot be compared to management theories, as it focuses on individual success, rather than organizational success. However, it can be applied to management theories, as a good leader can fit into management roles of these types. For example, Centered Leadership digs deep into the surface of Management by Objectives by pushing leaders to have a personal Meaning behind their objectives, to align them with the organization, and to get workers to do the same. Maslow’s Self-actualization Theory of Management supports Meaning, as it explains that leaders who work to achieve their purpose in life lead happier lives and are more influential leaders. Barsh’s model can be found in Follett’s Management Theory, as the component of Connecting explains that leaders who work side by side with their team are more effective. Also, much of Deming's 14 Points, such as driving out fear and self-improvement, coincide with Engaging and Energizing, respectively. In all, Centered Leadership is well structured and can work in any type of management, depending on who the individual is, as long as the person’s personal purpose relates to the management job of the organization. On that point, every other component of the model is built.


Recommendation

I highly recommend this book because it spotlights women’s leadership and places it in context of gender differences and biology. It’s very detailed in explaining each component of its model, featuring real life stories of women leaders. I especially like this book because it focuses on the diversity of women and takes on a global approach. The book also is proficient in providing hard evidence, statistics, and methodology to back up the components of Centered Leadership. I recommend How Remarkable Women Lead to all women because it definitely challenges an individual to think about leadership in a different way.