Book: Unleashing the Power of Rubber Bands by Nancy Ortberg
Krishna
The cover design and the title are the two things that attracts you to the book. Unfortunately, those are the only two things nice about this book. It purports to be a leadership book – nonfiction, and helps you understand the qualities of developing leadership and the traits that make up a leader – at least from the excellent cover and the blurb but does nothing of that sort. Nancy Ortberg is on a different track altogether.
She thinks “leadership” is great and anyone can go grab it. She also thinks that platitudes and many “mother and apple pie” type of homilies make up a leadership book. There is religion mixed in heavily. I have nothing against religious beliefs per se but mixing in God at every second sentence in a book about teaching leadership grates heavily.
Consider this advice for a sample. Have enthusiasm even at 93 years of age – is that leadership? Have a mission statement and breathe it in every step of the way – leadership? Do things well – leadership? Take God’s help – leadership? Don’t know where this one is going.
The next chapter talks about making the team enthused about the vision through concrete experiences which is relevant and makes you think that finally the author is on track to deliver what was promised.
Alas the description is over the top with gushing wonder at how great a group of maintenance workers ‘got’ the vision. And still “leaders” seem to know what to do, as if that is a separate species, away from the worker bees that fill the factory. Very condescending tone all around.
She talks of stone ships – improper methods of leadership which do not work and how to avoid them. She also talks of slowing down to help others develop leadership skills and quotes a scene from Seabiscuit, the movie, as an example.
She talks about recognizing ‘what needs to be managed vs what needs to be solved’. A very good point, proving that this book is not without merit completely. But much of it is mom and pop psychology with weak examples raved about and little common thoughts held up as example of leadership. The leaders seem to be breed apart from the simply led, and ‘have it in them to lead’. Hmmm.
A very boring book on leadership filled with obvious facts, with a few nuggets of new information. You can skip this safely and not lose a whole lot of perspective or learning.
2/ 10
– – Krishna (Nov 2018)