Name: Maizatul Kartini binti Kamaruldin
Book: The Language of Leadership
Author: Roger Soder
Publisher: Jossey-Bass
Publication Year: 2001
Book Language: English
Synopsis:
This book is about leadership. Written for leaders in the education, business, and non-profit sectors, “The Language of Leadership” offers you the information and practical guidance you need to understand the crucial impact of words on the ability to lead, heal, motivate, and chart a path to the future. The book deals with elements of leadership as applied to those in elected and other public offices, those in schools, such as principals and superintendents, as well as those in higher education and those in the private sector.
The book introduces the major premise that persuasion is a critical part of leadership. If you cannot persuade others of the rightness of your proposals and your view of what needs to happen, you will not be an effective leader.
The book discusses lessons learned and directions to be taken if leaders are to be effective at persuasion, at creating and sustaining a thoughtful public in a democracy, and putting things back together through reconciliation and reconstitution. The book concludes with advice on what the new leader should and should not do in order to be ethical and effective.
Comment:
This book is a must read for leaders! It discusses many aspects of leadership including big-picture ideas, mission statements, five-year strategic plans, goals and objectives a leader must have. This book makes one think, and at the same time, offers practical advice for leaders in business or educational settings.
If you are a new leader in any organisation, association or party, the final chapter, “Reflections and Directions” concludes the book with a summary of lessons learned and some directions to be an effective leader. The author successfully explores the powerful role that language plays in helping leaders, no matter what their field, support their position and creates a climate of credibility.
Nevertheless, this is an eminently practical book, a handbook for survival as well as excellence in leadership. This book is good for your reading if you wish to know how to lead in perfect situations? Far more useful is knowing how to put things back together after they have fallen apart.
– Maizatul Kartini binti Kamaruldin, Senior Executive, Accounts and Events
Excerpt:
“As a poet, there is only one political duty, and that is to defend one’s language from corruption. And this is particularly serious now. It’s being so quickly corrupted. When it’s corrupted, people lose faith in what they hear, and this leads to violence.”- Rollo May quotes W.H Auden – page 86
“To be an effective leader in a democracy, whether in the public sector, the schools, or the private sector, it is necessary to have a people who understand the conditions necessary for a democracy – a people who understand the demands, tensions, and contradictions of a democracy. Leaders need to recognise the connection among leadership, a democratic civic society, and education of the people. ”- Roger Soder – page 115
“What we learn, too, is that leaders must have high expectations of those they would lead, especially if they wish to reconcile and reconstitute. To bring people out of their caves and back into the community, leaders have to expect more, expect the best.”- Roger Soder – page 157
