There Is No Box: A Practical Guide for the Relatable Leader
Marisa Cleveland & Simon Cleveland
Matt Holt Books/An Imprint of BenBella Books (November 2022)

How to become “a leader for all seasons”

The last time I checked, Amazon offers more than 60,000 titles in the leadership category. I suspect that many of these books are like residences for sale: Out there somewhere, there’s a buyer for each. There Is No A No Box is a case in point.

There are people out there, somewhere, who will greatly benefit from reading this book. Most of what the Clevelands offer is sensible.  The presentation of material would have been more effectve had they followed Albert Einstein’s advice to “make everything as simple as possible but no simpler.” Frankly, I found this a difficult book to read at times when the narrative is out of focus and somewhat disjointed.

So, what is relatable leadership? Here’s what Mary Ludden suggests in the Foreword: “Being a relatable leader, which is core to the authors’ methodology to establishing your leadership style, takes situational leadership theory to a new level not previously seen in recent literature. A relatable leader is one who aligns their valuE system — their why — and shows up every day for their team knowing they won’t have all the answers. Instead, the [relaatable]  leader realizes the act of being present and authentic s the first step in creating a circle where all are invited to share their concerns.” And their hopes, and dreams, and aspirations, and their…you get the idea.

Here’s some background information:

In the 1980s, Ken Blanchard and Paul Hershey developed a theory on how the adaptation of a leadership style to an employee’s potential is more effective than trying to adapt employees to fixed leadership styles. Based on their work, the two men identified four leadership styles that can be matched to an employee’s ability and commitment.

The four situational leadership styles developed by Blanchard and Hershey are:

o Telling and directing (S1): In this style of leadership, the leader provides support, specific guidance and close supervision. Telling and directing leaders make decisions and direct actions through communication and interaction. These leaders are closely involved and use a top-down approach, meaning employees follow the directions that have been given to them.

o Selling and coaching (S2): Considered the explaining and persuading style, selling and coaching leaders accept input from group members and encourage them to submit their own ideas and suggestions. These leaders effectively sell their concept to the group and aim to recruit their cooperation through debate and collaboration, although the final decision belongs to the leader.

o Participating and supporting (S3): Participating and supporting leaders offer less direction and leave the decisions to others. Although they may oversee operations, participating leaders trust the group or member’s ability and expect them to make the appropriate choices.

o Delegating (S4): These leaders tend to limit participation and leave most of the responsibilities to the group. Delegating leaders may be consulted now and then, but they primarily pass decision-making and project direction to the group members.

With regard to this book’s title, There Is No Box, careless use of the metaphor can create avoidable barriers to understanding how best to solve problems. For example, are you solving the right problem? What is its context? Are you reacting to symptoms rather than focusing on its root causes?

Yes, situational leadership is context-driven and allows for different leadership styles when engaging others in the given situation/process. However, invoking another set of metaphors, if an ox is in a ditch, concentrate on getting it out; find out why and how it fell in the ditch; and then make certain it doesn’t happen again. Problem-solving 101. Marisa Cleveland and Simon Cleveland share what they have learned about leadership in general and about situational leadership in particular. As indicated earlier, I think there are executives who aspire to become a situational leader and need a book such as this to help them achieve that objective.

The Clevelands use an end-of-chapter device (“Reflection”) that asks the reader to interact with the key points made in the given chapter. I always recommend that those who read a business book highlight key passages. With regard to There Is No Box, I also recommend that a lined notebook be kept near at hand in which to record comments, questions, page references, etc. but also to record responses to the questions posed or implied in each “Reflection” section. These two simple tactics will facilitate, indeed expedite frequent review of key material later.