Let's Give them Something to Talk About.

TITLE: The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership
AUTHOR: Steve Sample
PUBLISHER: John Wiley & Sons
192 Pages, $24.99 (CDN)

THE BIG IDEA

In The Contrarian's Guide to Leadership, Sample explores the skills, ideas, and mentality of what it takes to be the kind of leader who sees humanity as it truly is. This is not so much a book with a huge unifying idea but a book filled with provocative ideas to chew on.

WHAT YOU CAN USE RIGHT NOW

The next time you are faced with a challenge or issue don't immediately catergorize it into either being true or false, right or wrong, good or bad. Instead suspend an opinion until you have all the facts or circumstances force you to make an opinon. Sample calls this "thinking grey" and it's surprisingly hard to do. It is an unnatural act to not make a snap decision about something. We are conditioned by things like the media to immediately form an opinon around an issue or event. However, if a leader is to make great decisions about contentious issues he or she must put their mind on hold long enough to examine all the relevant information, free of the bias of previous opinions about the subject, and then make a commitment. To develop this skill Sample suggests "thinking grey" about everyday decisions. Next time you meet someone new, don't decide right away whether you like them or not, you might be surprised as to what you find.

WHAT WE THINK

The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership makes me uncomfortable. Don’t worry, it’s a good kind of awkward. This is an amazing book for someone who is not afraid to ask tough questions, have their ideas about human nature challenged, and be shown a very unique take on what a great leader can be. Sample’s tone is honest and straightforward and his ideas well thought out and unique, which is especially refreshing in the leadership/bio genre where books tend to be light on the advice and heavy on the MY-EGO/TURNAROUND-OF-COMPANY-X-IS-THE-GREATEST-ACHIEVEMENT- IN-HISTORY. What is interesting is Sample’s book doesn’t really have a definitive structure or “system,” if anything it kind of ambles.

Throughout this book Sample explores the skills and mentality that it takes to see the world as it truly is. There is no one central thought that you can take away from this book that will instantly make you a better leader. What it does do however is provide some very provocative ideas for you to chew on. One of those meaty ideas is a seemingly simple question, how do you feel about God? I bet there are very few people that could give you a concise, well thought-out answer that doesn’t make them blush, laugh, or brush you off as a patchouli scented hippie. But as Sample states, “One of mankind’s deepest and most abiding concerns for all times, in all places, and for all peoples, is our feeling for and relationship with God.” Whether we want to acknowledge it or not seeking a relationship with the Divine has permeated all societies and effected their structures, values, and operations for all of human history. A leader needs to understand these consequences so they can authentically engage the world around them. In order to do that they must be intimately aware and engaged with how they feel about a Higher power. Sample points out that there are certain texts that have stood the test of time for a reason, they provide incredible insight into the human condition, he calls them "Supertexts." He recommends reading and understanding the obvious like The Bible, Koran, and Torah, as well as works like Machiavelli’s The Prince for its insights into leadership. Books like Plato’s Republic for showing us at our best, Shakespeare’s Hamlet for a look into our depths, and Sophocles’ Antigone for its demonstration of the pitfalls of rigidity in leadership.

The greatest downside of this book is that a lot of the advice works really well in large mature organizations with highly politicized environments, but not so much in small entrepreneurial settings. Sample is an academic; his claim to fame is running the University of Southern California and turning it into a premier research institution, committed community actor, and top undergrad university. However, anyone that has been involved in post-secondary educational politics knows the free flow of ideas in an area of study is countered with a regimented and bureaucratic organizational structure. Sample is a product of this environment. He is very hierarchical and cold in his thinking about how people should be organized and lead. He demonstrates this thinking in constantly referring to direct reports as “lieutenants,” there is not too much mention of a “team” in this book. A more striking example is his heavily Machiavellian influenced approach to leadership. He counsels that leaders should never be too predictable so that followers can guess their moves and manipulate them. To a certain extent I agree with this conjecture, it can be very useful in highly political workplaces. However, it implies an inherent lack of trust in a leader-follower relationship, and if you don’t have trust in a relationship, what do you have?

Nagging doubts about the sincerity of humans aside, The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership is a fantastic read for those who aren't interested in the newest catchphrase to use at a meeting, but are looking for solid ideas to chew on. Sample provides some great ideas to expand your horizons and force you to think about why and how you think the way you do. It will make you uncomfortable, but as my Mum says “If you want to grow you have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.”

The B Cubed Crew