While Managing People is Like Herding Cats, a book about leadership and being a leader, is currently out of print, you can still get a copy from Amazon.com. In the book, the author poses several questions:

• Are there differences between managing and leading people?

• Are leaders made or born?

• What are the qualities and other traits of effective leaders?

According to the author, managers are willing to live with status quo, while leaders are not. Managers follow standard operating procedures. Leaders have vision, inspire others and elicit change. They continually reinvent themselves in response to the changes in our society.

One theme carried throughout the book is that leadership inspires people to do what needs to be done. Managers push and command, while leaders pull and communicate.

The author discusses the concept questions in three sections: The Leadership Crisis, What Makes a Leader and Leading Change. He also develops this idea throughout the book: “Be humble. Stop trying to “herd cats” and start building trust and mutual respect. The “cats” will respond; they will sense your purpose, keep your business going and even kill your rats.” Hence, the title.

Other Books on Leadership

You’ll find many titles related to leadership available through Amazon.com. Also, the Wall Street Journal recently reviewed two Harvard Business School Press books on the topic (10/26/04). The first, The Transparent Leader by Dial Corp. CEO Henry Baum, emphasizes valuing people by keeping an open door, communicating honestly, listening carefully and ensuring that integrity permeates the company. The second, Bad Leadership, by Barbara Kellerman, divides bad leadership into seven categories, which can be summarized by the notion that “Power tends to corrupt” and its corollary, “Absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely.”

 

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