The Leadership Code: Five Rules to Lead by

Several of the previous reviews provide a good overview of the material in the book so I will not repeat it here. There are a lot of leadership titles out there and most provide one or two insights but I found this to be one of the most substantial leadership books in terms of real actionable advice and insights that I have read in some time. This book is not a collection of academic fluff or highly conceptual "models."It contains number us useful checklists and self-assessments derived from the author's substantial research which can easily be applied in a real business. The sections on strategy, leading change, goalsetting and preventing burnout are especially useful. It is well-written and concise. This is one I will have my entire leadership team read.

Dave Ulrich, Norm Smallwood and Kate Sweetman have accomplished an almost impossible task: sifting through the overwhelming amount of information and knowledge on the nebulous subject of leadership, and actually making sense of it. They synthesize their research into five essential rules they call the "Leadership Code." They tell readers how to strategize, execute, involve employees, develop a base of talented people and how to grow as leaders. Filled with business vocabulary, this is clearly a book by businesspeople for businesspeople. Nonetheless, getAbstract recommends it to current and aspiring executives who want to crack the code to find and follow the elusive path to great leadership.

Those who have read any of Dave Ulrich's fifteen previously published books already know that he is one of the insightful thinkers and most eloquent writers in the contemporary business world. In his last book The Leadership Brand, Ulrich and Norm Smallwood make this affirmation: "We believe that leaders matter, but leadership matters more. We have all experienced a gifted leader who engaged all of us -- our hearts, minds, and feet. Dynamic leaders enlist us in a cause, and we willingly follow their counsel. But leadership exists when an organization produces more than one to two individual leaders. Leadership matters more because it is tied not to a person but to the process of building leaders." By no means do Ulrich and Smallwood question the importance of individual leaders. On the contrary, they assert (and I agree) that one of the most important obligations of being a leader is to strengthen or at least sustain a process by which to identify, hire, develop, and then retain high-impact leaders at all levels and in all areas throughout her or his organization. Efforts to write most of the best business books are driven by an important question (e.g. How can a company "leap" from good to great?) and, in fact, this book responds to two basic sets of questions: "1. What percent of effective leadership is basically the same? Are there common rules that any leader anywhere must master? Is there a recognizable leadership code? 2. If there are common rules that all leaders must master, what are they?" Stated another way, is there a "DNA" of effective leadership? If so, what is it? Are leaders born with it or can it be developed? In this book, Ulrich, Smallwood, and Sweetman respond to these questions. They offer "a unified way of [begin italics] thinking about] being a better leader and [being] a better leader." After rigorous and extensive research, "we have discovered and validated what we now know to be the five essential rules all excellent leaders must follow. Since these rules form the basis for all good leaders, just as our genetic code determines our elemental core as people, we call it the [begin italics] leadership code [end italics]. " Ulrich, Smallwood, and Sweetman devote a separate chapter to each of these five essential rules. I see no need to identify them. Other reviewers have already done so. What I prefer to do, rather, is explain why I think so highly of this book. Here are three reasons. First, the co-authors approach their reader on two separate but interdependent levels, suggesting (1) what effective leadership requires and (2) how to help others to become effective leaders. (Note: CEO Jeff Immelt spends 20-25% of his time mentoring GE's middle managers.) "Modeling the rules of leadership ensures that you lead well, but helping others master those rules guarantees success." It is important to keep in mind that the title of one of Ulrich's books, co-authored with Jack Zenger and Smallwood and published in 1999, is Resu

Is there a "Da Vinci Code" for leaders? Ulrich, Smallwood and Sweetman purport to have found "The Leadership Code," As they point out, "This leadership code, like any other code, provides both structure and guidance, and helps you know not only what to do to be a better individual leader, but also how to build better leadership capability." Since there are probably "half a million books on leaders and leader¬ship, we turned to recognized experts in the field who had...already spent years sifting through the evidence and developing their own theories." Since I was honored to be included in their acknowledgements, my review may be somewhat biased. (But if they appreciate my work on leadership skills and development, they are clearly brilliant people, right?) From their literature review and body of interviews conducted, they con¬cluded that 60 to 70 percent of leadership effectiveness would be contained in the leadership code. Their analysis and synthesis result in a framework that they believe is accurate, logical, and useful. While many academics will turn up their noses at the lack of elegance in their research design, the book is likely to pass a more important test: perceived value and relevance to leaders on the firing line! The Leadership Code essentially breaks down into five deceptively simple rules: Rule 1: Shape the Future. This rule is embodied in the strategist dimension of the leader. Strategists not only envision a future, they help create it . As practical futurists, they figure out where the organization needs to go to succeed, they test these ideas pragmati¬cally against current resources (money, people, organiza¬tional capabilities), and they work with others to figure out how to get from the present to the desired future. Rule 2: Make Things Happen. The execution dimen¬sion of leadership focuses on the question, "How can we ensure that we get to where we want to go?" Executors translate strategy into action. Executors understand how to make change happen, to assign accountability, to know which key decisions to take and which to delegate, and to make sure that teams work well together. Rule 3: Engage Today's Talent. Leaders who optimize talent today answer the question, "Who goes with us on our business journey?" After getting "the right people on the bus, talent managers generate intense personal, professional, and organizational loyalty. Rule 4: Build the Next Generation. Leaders who are human capital developers answer the question, "Who stays and sustains the organization for the next generation?" Just as good parents invest in helping their children succeed, human capital developers help future leaders to be successful. Rule 5: Invest in Yourself. At the heart of the lead¬ership code--literally and figuratively--is personal proficiency. Effective leaders cannot be reduced to what they know and do. Who they are as human beings has everything to do with how much they can accomplish with and through other people. L