HBR’s 10 Must Reads On Leadership (Vol.2)
Various Contributors
Harvard Business Review Press (March 2020)

“Your title makes you a manager; your people make you a leader.” Donna Dubinsky

That is what Dubinsky said to her friend and colleague at Apple, Bill Campbell, when he was named CEO of Claris, the software company that was spun out of Apple.

All supervisors would be well-advised to keep her observation in mind. Yes, executives are expected to manage work. Supervisors are also expected to help “grow” the people entrusted to their care. Their own growth, in my opinion, will be determined by how effective they are as a leader as well as a manager.

This book is a long-overdue companion to a volume first published in 2011 in a series that anthologizes what the editors of the Harvard Business Review consider to be “must reads” in a given business subject area. In this instance, leadership. Each of the selections is eminently deserving of inclusion.

If all of the eleven articles were purchased separately as reprints, the total cost would be about $100 and the practical value of any one of them far exceeds that. Given the fact that Amazon US now sells this volume for only $17.27, that’s quite a bargain.

The same is true of volumes in other series such as HBR Guide to…, Harvard Business Review on…, and Harvard Business Essentials. I also think there is great benefit derived from the convenience of having a variety of perspectives and insights available in a single volume.

In all of the volumes in the HBR’s 10 Must Read series that I have read thus far, the authors and their HBR editors make skillful use of several reader-friendly devices that include “Idea in Brief” and “Idea in Action” sections, checklists with and without bullet points, boxed mini-commentaries (some of which are “guest” contributions from other sources), and graphic charts and diagrams that consolidate especially valuable information. These and other devices facilitate, indeed accelerate frequent review of key material later.

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As indicated, there are eleven articles in this book, including one “bonus” classic: “The Focused Leader” by Daniel Goleman. Those who read HBR’s 10 Must Reads On Leadership (Vol. 2) will have cutting-edge thinking for “staying on top of their leadership game.”

More specifically, they will learn the dos and don’ts with regard to how to

o Provide leadership during interaction with others
o Leverage “the seven seismic shifts of perspective and responsibility” when supervising others
o Get their essential leadership skills in proper alignment with organizational goals
o Understand and resolve “the authenticity paradox”
o Develop “Both/And Leadership”
o Determine whether or not you are a collaborative leader
o Develop “Cross-Silo Leadership”
o Develop the time management skills that the best CEOs have mastered
o Develop the skills of great leaders who are also great teachers (and great students)
o Develop “Nimble Leadership” (without compromising core values)
o Become a leader who has much sharper focus on what must be done and how it’s done

NOTE: Stephen Covey says that “executives spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.”

Here are two other points with which to conclude. First, there are no “leadership issues.” Rather, there are only business issues. These are two key questions: “Which problems must be solved?” and “Which questions must be answered?” Peter Drucker once observed, “There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all.”

And now the second point: Whatever their size and nature may be, all organizations need effective leadership at ALL levels and in ALL areas of the given enterprise. That is, people who see what must be done and then engage with others to do it.