Title: Hanging the Mirror: The discipline of Reflective
Leadership
Book Website/blog: http://www.hangingthemirror.com/
Authors: Alan Scheffer, Mark Scheffer, Nancy Braun
ISBN: 978-1-60047-758-4Reviewed by Kirkus
Genre/Subject: Leadership, Management, Organizational Development
Soft cover, 171 pages
Available from: Book website, Amazon, Barns and Noble
KIRKUS REVIEW
Three management consultants take a fresh look at business leadership in a work that will enlighten and inspire.
These three debut authors have crafted an impressive book,
one that is highly readable, instructional and humanistic in its approach to
leadership. The title is derived from a client comment that the authors’ company
“pushed each of us to hang a mirror and really take a look at what we saw.” The
premise that leaders need to be “reflective” to be effective is played out in
finely tuned, well-organized chapters that move through topics including
motivation, vision, recognition, involvement and communication. The authors’
keen insights, enhanced by liberal use of authoritative sources, pervade each
chapter, offering leaders much to ponder. The authors ask provocative
questions—“To what extent do leaders use their authority for employees
or onthem?”—and
raise deep issues: e.g., “Only when self-reflection incorporates the views and
perceptions of others, only when we reach beyond our own beliefs and
expectations, can it be said that we have truly hung the mirror” and “The hard
reality is that many of us do not really value the thinking of others and do not
believe that it can improve our own.” Wisely, the authors devote the majority of
the book to self-reflection, guiding readers with relevant examples, sound
counsel and end-of-chapter questions. Still, the authors broaden their concept
to demonstrate how a reflective leader can help create a reflective
organization. They concentrate on the leader’s responsibility to build
organizational unity by “defining the culture to which they aspire” and by
paying attention “not only to their own effectiveness, but also to the
effectiveness of each leader within their scope of authority.” The authors come
full circle in the final chapter, “Living the Reflective Life,” in which they
describe some of the key characteristics inherent in living a reflective life:
“Only through reflection do we become everything we could be.”
Deftly written and researched, perceptive and relevant; an
important addition to leadership literature.
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