What Leaders Read 1

Effective Leadership
John Adair
1988, Pan Books
John Adair is visiting professor in leadership studies at the University of Exeter and an international consultant to business and government. His previous writings include 'Training for Leadership' and 'Action Centred Leadership' from the course he established (with the Industry Society) of the same name. He has also written a number of books in the Effective Management series. John Adair has been listed among the top 40 people in the world who have contributed most to management thought and practice. Effective Leadership is aimed at the individual who is serious about improving his or her own leadership development capabilities. The author aims to stimulate an awareness of leadership, provide an understanding of the principles and functions of leadership, and guide the reader through the methods used to develop leadership skills. The book is in three parts: understanding leadership, developing your leadership capabilities, and growing as a leader. Within each chapter are exercises designed to stimulate thought and actions. At the end of each chapter there is a checklist which enables readers to focus on the issues covered in the text and relate their own experiences to the learning. Throughout the book there are numerous quotes, stories and case studies from leaders in world history, largely from the military context. These colourful and powerful insights into the thoughts and actions of real leaders are successful in capturing the essence of the qualities required in and of a leader.

Part 1: Understanding leadership

John Adair was a lecturer in military history at the Military Academy, Sandhurst in the 1960s and early 1970s, from which time much of his work on leadership development came. With this background, he is adept at presenting in a simple, clear and practical manner. It also explains why many of the examples stem from the military context, with (it must be said) great effect. The first part of the book is an introduction to the subject of leadership, but not from the purely theoretical or academic stance that one might imagine. Adair is clearly very knowledgeable in the subject and well versed in the academic theories of leadership. Adairs approach for the learning process is that leadership development comes from principles and theories from case studies and examples, tied to the readers own experience and practice. Each is a stepping stone towards the long term goal of developing leadership qualities in an individual. The old ideas of leadership coming from in-bred superiority, or from purely individual traits entitling one to become a leader, have now been superseded. Consideration of traits possessed by a leader was the first major approach to the study of leadership. This led to and
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was followed by the second major approach, the situation. It was acknowledged that there are three kinds of authority: position, personality and knowledge. A situation will determine the type of leader and the kind of authority required. Knowledge or expertise alone is regarded as not enough to lead; however, without it leadership is impossible. The third line of research into leadership has been the group approach, which sees leadership in terms of functions to meet the group needs. From experiments in the USA in the 1950s on group personality and group needs, results showed three areas of need present in working groups: 1. the need to achieve the common task 2. the need to be held together as cohesive unities 3. the needs that individuals bring into the group The author discusses other theories from studies into leadership during the period from the 1930s into the 1960s. These include Fiedlers 'Contingency Theory of Leadership Effectiveness', Hersey and Blanchards 'Situational Leadership Theory' and Tannenbaum and Schmidts 'Decision-Making Continuum'. Adairs view reflects the US and European standpoints that a high value is placed on the freedom of the individual. Thus leaders should be aware of both the group and each individual need, and should harmonise them in the service of the common task. This led to Adair formulating the three-circles model, fundamental to the theme of the book. Each of the three needs interacts with the others. One must always be seen in relation to the other two. It is the role of the leader to perform the functions of leadership: to be aware of what is happening with the group(s), to understand what function is required and when, and to possess the skill to do the function effectively. This will achieve the common task by working as a team, while respecting and developing individual members. Adairs three-circles model

Task needs

Group needs

Individual needs

Adair maintains that the three approaches to leadership trait, situation and group are complementary and involve each of the three circles. He goes on to discuss the qualities and values which are required and which can be developed, not only within the three circles, but within the three circles at different levels of leadership in an organisation. Leaders must understand the changes as they move up the organisational ladder. Adair evolved functional leadership courses based on the three-circles model. He also established (with the Industry Society), the Action Centred Leadership (ACL) courses in the early 1970s, which were written using the same principles as Effective Leadership. The ACL characteristics are valued as simple, practical and participative. The Industry Society prepared 10 guidelines from the course, and the author provides one version of the guidelines adopted from an organisation which used the course:
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1. Set the task of the team 2. Instruct all leaders in the three circles and make them accountable 3. Plan the work 4. Set individual targets after consulting 5. Delegate decisions to individuals 6. Communicate the importance of each persons job 7. Train and develop people (especially the under-25s) and get support for rules and procedures 8. Where unions are recognised, encourage joining 9. Care about the well-being of the team 10. Monitor the action - learn from action and mistakes The ACL courses provide training for managers and have increased leadership awareness, provided a focus on necessary actions, placed an emphasis on team performance and provided a common thread integrating the entire programme.

Part 2: Developing leadership abilities

Part 2 takes the reader into the functions a leader will have to do or manage. Adair states that any function will affect task, group and individual, ie all three circles. He covers eight functions: defining the task, planning, briefing, controlling, evaluating, motivating, organising and setting an example. A leaders prime responsibility is to ensure the group achieves its common task. This begins with communicating the objectives while ensuring the aim is known and the purpose understood. The author takes pains to explain each meaning of objective, aim and purpose. With communicating comes planning, without which a leader is not likely to be effective. The available resources, as well as the constraints, need to be determined. At all times, the leader must keep a firm control of the decision-making process, whichever process that is. As Montesquieu writes: To suggest where you cannot compel, to guide where you cannot demand, that is the supreme form of skill. Too often judgements are broken down to a single issue. The author promotes the use of generating many options from creative thinking techniques, including brainstorming, and advocates that binary thinking should be avoided. Thinking ahead by taking educated guesses is another leadership quality, so any plan should be simple and flexible, and should have a contingency. Planning involves defining the task, which must be communicated to the group. Everyone should know what their job is and every member of the group should have clearly defined targets and performance standards. Briefings state the main purpose, allocate tasks, distribute resources,

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and set and check standards of performance. Here, the author also covers effective speaking methods, briefing the organisation as a whole and briefing the individual. Once the plan is implemented and the work is under way, the function of controlling begins: the monitoring and directing of action. Though a leader should intervene as little as possible, there should always be clarity about who is doing what, how, and by when. The function of the leader as controller is in directing, regulating and restraining to ensure the groups work stays on course. Observe rather than do, ensuring also that control systems are established at all levels. The three-circles model applies throughout. Controlling also applies to self-control. Fear and courage are contagious, remaining calm and deliberate is a leadership capability. In managing human affairs, there is no better than selfrestraint (Lao-Tzu). The author goes on to tackle the next leadership function: evaluating. Any course of action will have consequences, and these should be anticipated as far as possible. Debriefing sessions give an opportunity to evaluate the performance of the team in relation to the task, with feedback playing a large part in this process. Individual appraisals are considered, the author recommending they should be ongoing and focus on past performance, future work, targets, priorities, standards and strategies, with agreed activities adopted in a Personal Action Plan. Too often appraisals degenerate into empty rituals. The practice of having favourites is regarded as ill judged for a leader, and the final evaluation should be on one's own performance as a leader. Adair enters into the world of academic theory once again when discussing motivation the ability to keep individuals and the group (and, by extension, the organisation) moving in the right direction. The leaders task is to develop achievement, status and recognition in the three circles. Much research into motivational theories occurred in the late 1940s and 1950s. Maslows selfactualisation hierarchy of needs is discussed, as is McGregors theory on how managers make assumptions about people based on Theory X and Theory Y character types. However, most space is devoted to Herzbergs theory on motivators and hygiene factors (Adair adequately explains these theories in the text). Keeping the three-circles model in mind, leaders play a large part in motivating the group and individuals, and an understanding of motivational factors from the theory is important in leadership development. Adairs seventh function is organising. He reminds us that, as freedom is the value underlying the individual, so order is the value underlying society. The aim in organising is to achieve a balance between these two fundamental values. The structure of an organisation grows, develops and contracts according to the situation, and a leader will find that an existing structure is the product of a predecessors actions to meet a given situation. Adair suggests that an organisational structure should be simple, but free and flexible to re-align in order to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing environment, with the purpose always in mind. Organising also involves delegating, restructuring individual jobs and organising oneself, with particular regard to time management. The final function is setting an example. The author maintains his approach according to the three-circles model. What leaders do is more powerful than what they say, but words and examples must go together if the right example is to be set. Any action taken by the leader will be seen throughout the organisation. At lower levels leading is often by doing, and a leader should not ask the group to do anything he or she would not do. Example, like fear and courage, is contagious. It induces imitation and possesses creative power, particularly if it involves self-sacrifice.
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Part 3: Growing as a leader

Adair advocates that the eight functions of leadership described in Part 2 must be developed over a period of time. The conditions for growing as a leader exist within the individual and the organisation together. Aiming this third part of the book purely at senior management, Adair firmly lays the responsibility for leadership development strategy with the board of directors. Including the strategy process itself, he prescribes 10 methods through which organisations can develop leaders. They begin with selection, training and career development policies, using line managers as mentors and appointing someone to be responsible for research and development into leadership development issues. The methods also include getting the structure right, providing the opportunities for self-development, creating the right organisational climate and, finally, the attitude of the chief executive at the very top of the organisation. The final section of the book uses the knowledge and learning from the text for leadership development programmes. Adairs assumption for the book is that you are responsible for your own self-development. He maintains that leadership cannot be taught, it can only be learnt. Leadership courses invariably conclude with an individual action plan with short (immediate to 6 months), medium (up to 3 years) and long-term (3 to 10 years) actions and stages to achieve. The authors final words are on the subjects of bad leaders, luck and failure. It is often the case that more can be learned from bad leaders than good ones. With regard to luck, chance will present you with opportunities. How you perform and tackle those opportunities will depend on how prepared you are: leadership development will be that preparation. Finally, there can be no success without working on the edge of failure, but it is essential the three-circles model is used to determine the cause.

Discussion
This is an erudite work. The structure of the book is successful in its design to guide (develop) the reader through the subject of leadership development. The use of stories, quotes, case studies, exercises and checklists provides thought-provoking, stimulating and practical additions to the text, which maintain the readers attention. It is a book for the serious reader of leadership development because it demands action; it is not just an interesting read. The military foundation to the work is useful and relevant: Adair argues that this is where the subject of leadership is grounded. The move to a business and commercial context from a military one has been skilfully handled. It is evident, however, that this work dates from the late 1970s and early 1980s, even though the published date of the first edition is 1993. Reference to the use of the telephone with no mention of the technological advances of email and information communications technology renders the book somewhat dated in this context. Effective Leadership is a valuable contribution to the subject of leadership development, but it is in need of updating for the audience of the 21st century.

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