BOOK SUMMARY 19 The Leader Code

BOOK SUMMARY 19 The Leader Code

·         Summary written by: Dianne Coppola

"Leaders are not born, they are taught; in fact leadership skills are more caught than even taught."

- The Leader Code, page 5

Imagine you have been promoted to a senior leadership position in your organization. On your first day in your new position you oversleep and arrive late to work. From then on everything that can go wrong does go wrong. You feel like you are in over your head and then someone throws you a lifeline – they offer to be your leadership mentor and share with you the ‘leader code’ they discovered in an ancient book. Do you accept the offer?

This is the opening to Dan Blakeslee’s book, The Leader Code, and he chooses to reveal his formula for effective leadership through the dialogue that ensues between Bob (the mentor) and Christopher (the protégé). The ancient book Bob refers to is the Bible and if this revelation makes you uncomfortable, you are a lot like Christopher who initially resists the idea that he can learn from the Bible even if he is not religious. As it turns out, while Blakeslee does quote several passages from the Bible early on in the book, it is more to provide some historical context about his leadership framework. Those with an open mind and a desire to learn will continue to read and will benefit from Blakeslee’s wisdom.

The Golden Egg

Effective Leaders Emulate Chameleons

"There is no one best leader mode. They can all be effective…and they [all] can be ineffective…"- The Leader Code, page 58

A chameleon is “a type of lizard that can change the color of its skin to look like the colors that are around it” (Merriam-Webster online dictionary). I’ve always thought that was so cool! When you think about it, effective leaders actually are like chameleons; they adapt their methods of leading others according to the situation and the abilities of the people they are leading. In doing so, they are more effective and their teams achieve higher levels of success. Those who fail to adjust their leadership styles to the situation as well as the knowledge and skills of those they are leading, are less effective and the results suffer.

This makes intuitive sense, but exactly how does one know what adjustments to make? Fear not, The Leader Code provides you with a clear and simple way to assess the situation and determine which mode of leadership is most likely to achieve desirable results. To be an amazing leader all you need is some PEP and a little STP!

Gem #1

Develop your PEP!

"There are three Greek words that are used to describe a leader in the New Testament. These three leadership styles encompass most of the situations that you will face as a leader."- The Leader Code, pages 19-20

The foundation of the leader code is based on three words used to describe leaders in the New Testament:

·         Poimen (pronounced poy-mane’) which means pastor or shepherd;

·         Episkopos (pronounced e-pis’-kop-os) which means bishop or overseer; and,

·         Presbuteros (pronounced pres-boo’-ter-os) which means elder.

Blakeslee divides each of these leadership styles into two distinct roles for a total of six leadership modes. Each mode is defined by how it performs the following five tasks:

1.    Listening – to diagnose and solve problems

2.    Planning – both long- and short-term

3.    Delegation – directing others

4.    Recognition – feedback and rewards

5.    Mentoring – train and develop others

I loved the clarity that these five tasks brought to my understanding of a leader’s responsibilities, and the fact that they are relevant no matter where someone is in an organization or community. And while I wish that I had this frame of reference back when I held a management role in a large organization, it is equally applicable to my responsibilities as a parent of two twenty-something young men and in my current role as an external consultant. We all will find ourselves in situations where doing these five tasks will be critical to our success. In the future, I will be more conscious of which task area I am operating in and you might want to do the same.