The Contrarian's Guide to Leadership

Steve Sample is a very unusual University President. The most surprising aspect of his career is that he wasn't run off. Sadly, I do not think a Steve Sample could happen again in the current environment where unorthodox men of subtle mind, unusual patience, and serious commitment to achievement are run out by lesser men and women of banal sensibilities. The Contrarian's Guide to Leadership has its appeal to Contrarians. A conformist will never become such a person. The Conformist will hit .225 and the Contrarian will always be slamming off-speed pitches into the power alleys. Sample is an example of the best of what has happened in leadership the last 30 years: the migration of engineering discipline into the mainstream of executive management. But Sample is what most engineers are not: an obviously selfless kind of leader who can bring to bear his immense abilities on executive management because he obviously doesn't need the applause of his public. Perhaps the best advice Sample gives in his book is the confidence he places in quality of input rather than the hectic and insipid filling of one's mind with contemporary trends. Sample tells us to read and re-read the "supertexts." I have the happy experience of daily indulging as deeply and often as I can into the Scriptures, so it's especially invigorating to me for someone of Sample's caliber and achievement to boldly tell others that such a practice is essential for leading others. In the final analysis, it doesn't matter a lot what I say about this book, because Sample's achievements in his field of endeavor are most remarkable, and speaks beyond my plaudits. After all, USC is not your average college. I can tell you this book is an interesting read, and if it was taken seriously by leaders in higher education, we'd be in a lot less trouble as a nation.

As the foreword to the book makes clear, Steven Sample has been immensely successful as a university president with a leadership style based on common sense, optimism and a personal philosophy of leadership. Readers looking for a dramatic, non-traditional idea of leadership will not find it here, despite the title promising a "contrarian" idea of leadership. The first few chapters of Sample's book make clear that leadership comes from common-sensical values such as nurturing the growth of lieutenants and maintaining open communication lines with those lieutenants. For instance, Sample makes clear that undermining lietenants' authority or cutting off their communication to the leader spells sure death to the leader. This seems commensensical enough, and I doubt Sample is the first one to make this point. What is "contrarian" is Sample's choice of inspiration: Machiavelli. Instead of responding to other "leadership" materials, Sample spins out a personal philosophy of leadership based on a selective reading of Machiavelli. Sample would like his readers to prioritize Machiavelli and other "supertexts" to the exclusion of pat, journalistic answers to leadership and management style. Fair enough. The exiled Florentine, Shakespeare and Plato make great teachers, and it's probably time that managers revisit them after being 20 years in the work force. These (Western) supertexts provide timeless lessons that are more digestable and practical than Sun Tzu et al. While Sample's reading of Machiavelli puts a good spin on an unpalatable text, Sample makes the point that leadership is not for idealists. You've got to get your hands dirty, make unpopular decisions, and "give the devil his due." Sample's exhoratation to develop Machiavellian instincts is tempered by his equally strong argument for God (or conscience) in a leader's life. Sample's philosophy of leadership is personal and "contrarian," but it is also exemplary. Highly recommend!

This book intrigued me for a couple of reasons. First, here was a book written by a university president - and an extraordinary one at that - on a subject traditionally dominated by corporate executives, professors of business, and, no kidding, professional basketball coaches. And second, ever since my graduate school days I've been especially absorbed by unconventional strains of thought, and here's a book that drives a wedge into the most predictable of genres.Steven Sample, who assumed the presidency of an already upwardly mobile university and made it that much better, does not disappoint. His chapter entitled "Work for Those Who Work for You" really hit home. I've always believed that managers and leaders should empower their people and set them up for success. This approach frequently requires that I perform some rather mundane tasks like making phone calls and sending out meeting requests. But according to Sample, that's what real leaders should be doing. "Virtually all leadership experts, whether they subscribe to traditional or au courant theories, depict leadership as a glamorous and majestic calling. But the contrarian isn't fooled. He knows that effective day-to-day leadership isn't so much about himself, as it is about the men and women he chooses to be his chief lieutenants. He knows that a lot of the things on his own plate will be minutiae and silliness, while his lieutenants will get to do the fun and important things." This book is exceptionally Western; that is, there are numerous references to Machiavelli (including an entire chapter), Clausewitz, and Plato, for instance, but none to Confucius, Lao Tzu, or Sun Tzu. I was somewhat surprised by this if only because Sample, throughout his tenure as president of USC, has consistently reached out to the Pacific Rim. This is more of an observation and not necessarily a criticism; the breadth of Sample's knowledge of Western thought is pretty impressive - especially for an engineer by trade - and that know-how coupled with his extraordinary experience in academia and some interesting folksy anecdotes makes for a very readable and useful text. Read this book and carve out a permanent place for it in your office.

Having heard about the now-legendary USC leadership class that Steve Sample and Warren Bennis co-teach, I rushed to get my hands on a copy of this book. I saw that Bennis wrote in the foreword that this book "has the look of a classic," and I'm inclined to agree.This is written by an unusually gifted practitioner who's able to distill his experience into some very colorful and startling lessons. I'll admit that some of those lessons were a bit jarring at first -- but they've forced me to reconsider my simpler assumptions and to find new ways of thinking about problems. This is exactly the kind of book you'd want to be reading in these topsy-turvy times.

What is remarkable about this book is that it stretches and challenges the reader on every page. I found myself saying, "I didn't know that! I don't agree with that! or That's my experience too!" Sample weaves practical advice in with real-life leadership situations and grounds it all in history, literature and philosophy. He writes well. This never feels like homework. But when you finish the book you feel like you have learned and grown. I am getting copies of this book for all my friends.