THE CONFIDENT LEADER

THE CONFIDENT LEADER

How the Most Successful People Go from Effective to Exceptional

Larina Kase

Tata McGraw-Hill Edition

Pp 271       Rs.375

“This groundbreaking book,” says Kevin Hogan, author of The Psychology of Persuasion, “will become a classic.” You can’t miss it emblazoned as it is masthead-like on the front cover. Is the conversion of a book into a 'classic' the same as leading people from ‘Effective’ to 'Exceptional'?

Chambers Twentieth Century defines a classic as ‘any great writer, composer or work’; in its adjectival form it refers to a work “of the highest class”; it is also equated to “chaste, refined, restrained.” Perhaps Kevin Hogan had some other meaning running through his persuasive psyche when he commented on The Confident Leader. The book is at best an aid to personal change.

This does not by any means trivialise the extensive research that has obviously gone into the making of the book, and the wealth of wisdom that can be drawn from it. It is only the claim of ‘classic’ that needs to be decried. In the fertile and apparently boundary-less field of personal change and achievement of a positive mental attitude, many have sown – and reaped aplenty. The Carnegies, Hills, and Robbins’ and a myriad others have delved into soul-searching analyses on the ground that all change starts from within us. The ‘field’ then metamorphosed into Management related activities, 'leadership' being the most attractive cash crop yet. Studies came to be conducted, experiments were carried out and impressive conclusions arrived at which helped classify executives into anything between three to twelve zodiac-like categories. Some even spoke of clusters of competencies within each identifiable quality of the ideal leader. The samples were small or large depending on the nature of the hypotheses and the funds available for the research. Truly, leadership is the most fertile of the fields – fed by the perennial theories of obfuscation and constantly nourished by the alluvium of self-doubt.

In this crowded field the making of a classic is … difficult. Larina Kase has made an attempt in that direction if Kevin Hogan is to be believed. Though no such claims have been made Kase herself, the subtitle promises to show How the Most Successful People Go from Effective to Exceptional.  “How” indeed!

Kase has divided the book into two parts, the first of which deals with the six growth steps said to be used by confident leaders – covering six chapters. The second part seeks to show How Confident Leaders Turn Problems into Dynamic Opportunities. A cursory glance at the chapter headings would show that the there is more of internal personal change envisaged here than anything else. The first chapter (Step 1) for instance, is entitled Get Your Exceptional Vision with the sub-title: What Change Do You Want to Make, and Why Is It Important to You? Step 2, contained in chapter 2, carries the sub-title: Are You ready to Make This Change Right Now? Shift now to the sixth step (chapter 6): Make the Change Stick by Using Your Natural Strengths Instead of Overcompensating for Your Weakness. Gibberish if you are not on the self-improvement wavelength. Let's talk about “Olivia, a bright, ambitious attorney, who worried about whether people would like her... tried to  make sure she didn't offend people, but, sadly, her fears became her reality.” Or, does this sound like a recipe for a confident leader: “if you're unwilling to experience discomfort, you'll probably have more discomfort because you'll try to control it with actions that end up increasing it.”

Part 1 of the book is liberally interspersed with 'Action Steps' for every one of the six growth steps described – and parts thereof. The sixth step/chapter has a part devoted to Focus, so there's a box entitled 'Optimal Focus Action Steps'. Then there's a section called A Counter-intuitive Way to Harness Your Strengths followed by 'Harnessing Your Strengths Action Steps'. Such Action Steps boxes continue into the second part of the book. What is a little more interesting in Part 2 is the Expert Interviews appended to each chapter. There's Michael Port, the best-selling author of Book Yourself Solid (2006), Joe Vitale who was a major contributor to Rhonda Byrne's The Secret , David Allen author of Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, and Mark Levy co-author of Accidental Genius: Revolutionize Your Thinking through Private Writing, among others.  There are oodles of guidelines meant to get the reader into the frame of mind for change; these action steps and exposure to experts are largely meant for the average executive who is looking for some long lost  secret that would get him above that mark.  Classics are made of sterner stuff.