The Deep Blue Sea: Rethinking the Source of Leadership

by Wilfred Drath

Book Overview

Bill Drath stellt ein neues, revolution?res F?hrungsmodell vor, das auf dem Prinzip des sog. "Relational Leadership" basiert. Im Gegensatz zu herk?mmlichen Vorstellungen pers?nlicher F?hrung versteht... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0787949329
• Release Date: March 2001
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 0.8" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

leadership and its evolving principles

One of the difficulties of leadership is that people variously experience it through differing worldviews. Drath does us the enormous service of pointing out three main worldviews, or principles as he calls them, by which people construct and enact the idea of leadership. For example, if all the actors in a situation construct leadership though the dominance principle, then leadership in that situation is then for all practical purposes a function of the authority of dominant leaders. But worldviews can develop beyond dominance, toward what Drath calls relational dialogue or relational meaning-making. Thus, later evolving principles can transcend and include earlier ones, and dominance can be seen as very particular form of relational meaning-making. Problems inevitably arise when various actors hold different principles as their truth about leadership, and come to different conclusions about what it is and how to do it. The previous reviewer totally missed Drath's central and repeated points: that the principles are the ones variously in use in the world; that these principles can evolve; the latter ones include the earlier ones as special cases; and the relational principle is apparently being manifested with greater frequency in complexly interconnected organizations and societies.

He's On To Something

Get this book.... I found this book was on to something different. Drath sees that the source of leadership is increasingly moving away from the single leader, even away from the single influencer who is not the official leader. It is moving toward relational leadership, meaning that the group or community or partnership or whatever IS the leadership. The prompt for this appears to be at least multi-cultural influences, as different cultures agreed they must work together -- what he calls shared work. When I read this book, I immediately thought of the International Space Station as an example, where one witnesses the law of politics dance with the law of science -- a complicated dance that demands new behaviors and ways of working. I also thought of the US Government's Census 2000 Partnership, in which the Bureau of the Census says it brought together more than 140,000 partnerships. This was not the typical Federal Agency "interagency" project, this was a change of control, a change of ownership, a change of how the work got done, as an impressive peacetime mobilization occurred to "make every American count." Both stories here strike me as illustrations of what Drath is working to get his arms around. Both stories are imperfect, but I sense Drath's thinking is seminal on this, still working out the nuances of this Relational Leadership.Drath is honest that he is at the early stage of identifying the dynamics at work here and giving a name to the behaviors, but he proceeds to describe what he sees.I've read lots of leadership books over the years and more recently because I am in a leadership development program. But when I heard Bill Drath recently present his thinking in person recently, at a Smithsonian Business Series in Washington DC, I found I was hearing thinking that I hadn't heard anywhere before. This was my first exposure to him and his book. I followed up later and learned more about his inquery into understanding shared work across complex boundaries.I think he's on to something that is at least in my future...and maybe yours.

A must read for those struggling with leadership in this era

The Deep Blue Sea is low on hype and full of rigorously explored insight. It is not "inspirational" in any traditional way, nor is it a "how to." Instead it aims to get down to--and under--the very roots of one's thinking about leadership. One goes on a thoughtful journey with this author, and slowly sees more and more, until finally the whole landscape seems to shift and a new vista appears. That is the value of this book--a solid place to stand and think that affords a very different view of what leadership is and could be. Drath has forever changed my view of leadership, a shift not without pain but with many rewards.

Serious Leadership

The title and introduction present a tremendously useful analogy to think about leadership. Regardless of what you think leadership is, you'll find your thoughts supported and your mind stretched. A must read for everyone serious about leadership practice and about developing leaders.