Unfinished Leader: Balancing Contradictory Answers to Unsolvable Problems

by David L. Dotlich, Peter C. Cairo, Cade Cowan

With the demands of technology, transparency, and constant connectedness, and calls for higher performance, leaders from the front line to the C-suite face complex dilemmas that cannot be easily denied or postponed. These perplexing, recurring issues are familiar to anyone in a leadership role today, including: How do I balance my functional or business unit goals with the needs of my peers and the whole company?How do I support and promote others while still advancing my own career?How do I emphasize teamwork and still reward the "stars"?Can I really devote enough time and energy to both family and work? These are not "problems" but paradoxes--situations in which there will never be a single correct solution--and while they make many leaders feel overwhelmed and challenged, this remarkable book provides help. "The Unfinished Leader" is a modern handbook for recognizing, facing, and inspiring others to expose the real issues that underlie paradoxes in modern organizations. Leaders must first recognize situations they will never be able to "solve" and understand how to confront the barriers--in their own heads and their organizations--that push them towards seeking ultimate solutions that don't exist. Leading through complexity requires giving up the illusion of control, consistency, and closure, while embracing the reality of being permanently "unfinished."Drawing from interviews with 100 CEOs and top leaders from a wide range of companies--such as Avon, Nike, Colgate, DeutschePost DHL, Johnson & Johnson, PepsiCo, and many more--"The Unfinished Leader" provides the mindsets and tools to recognize contradictory requirements, understand competing demands, and still be able to take action. No one can find or even should look for perfect solutions to impossible situations. "The Unfinished Leader" will help leaders at all levels understand and excel at their true task: guiding themselves and their teams through ongoing paradoxes, reconciling competing outcomes, continually changing and adapting, and thereby building lasting success.

Genres: Business

282 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Imperialsong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not just for CEOs

A good book with some excellent ideas. I'm not not a CEO. I don't work for a corporation. I don't run a company. So why did I read this this book? In part, because I was going to meet one of the authors and I wanted to know how they thought. Also because I am embarking on a project where I will be selling ideas. This looked like the most interesting book. I chose well. It is a good book. It has good ideas that I will try tho implement and good techniques to use. I will read additional books by this author.

[Susan Wilson]

I think better books have been written since, like Sinek’s Infinite Game, that give more useable frameworks and practical advice and examples. The questions provided throughout are useful and the chapter summaries helpful.

[Taylor Ellwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a useful book, which explores Leadership and the paradoxes involved in making complicated decisions. The authors provide different models of leadership as well as case studies that illustrate how those models work. What I liked about this book is how the authors explore various problems of leadership and show how those problems can’t be resolved with a one size fits all approach to problems, but instead deserves a careful approach that weighs the various needs and variables that have influence on the problem. At the same time I would’ve liked to have seen some exercises the reader could use to implement the concepts in this book. If you are looking to improve your leadership skills this book can help you with those skills.