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Leading Without Power: Finding Hope in Serving Community, Paperback Edition Paperback – May 9, 2003
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"This is a book to be read, reread, shared widely within any organization. Every chapter has pictures for our mind that will remain vivid long after the book is closed. A vibrant testament to human potential, the why of work."
―Frances Hesselbein, president and CEO, Leader to Leader Institute formerly the Drucker Foundation
De Pree holds up nonprofits as mirrors of our greatest aspirations places where people work for the opportunity to contribute to the common good, and for the chance to realize their full human potential. He calls such organizations movements and challenges others to follow their example. Movements, De Pree maintains, transcAnd ?the deceptive simplicity of a single bottom line? and set standards for leadership and service all organizations should reach for. They lead not with the power of the paycheck or with bureaucratic carrots-and-sticks, but with the promise of meaningful work and lives fulfilled. For that reason, nonprofit or otherwise, they are the most successful organizations of all. Brimming with rich, warm, and wise advice, Leading Without Power takes an enlightened look at the forces that drive selfless accomplishment. It offers encouragement and hope for creating organizations that inspire the very best in people. And it provides leaders at every level with a new context for effecting positive change. Table of Contents:
- Places of Realized Potential
- What's a Movement?
- A Context for Service
- What Shall We Measure?
- The Language of Potential
- Service Has Its Roots
- Attributes of Vital Organizations
- Vision
- Trust Me
- Why Risk It?
- The Function of Hope
- Elements of a Legacy
- Moral Purpose and Active Virtue
- Print length192 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherJossey-Bass
- Publication dateMay 9, 2003
- Dimensions5.5 x 0.5 x 8.4 inches
- ISBN-100787967432
- ISBN-13978-0787967437
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"... provides leaders at every level with a new context for effecting positive change." (Publicnet.co.uk, Tuesday 12 August 2008)
"A rich source of leadership wisdom that speaks to the needs of school leaders today." (The School Administrator)
From the Inside Flap
This is a book to be read, reread, shared widely within any organization. Every chapter has pictures for our mind that will remain vivid long after the book is closed. A vibrant testament to human potential, the why of work.
--Frances Hesselbein, president and CEO, Leader to Leader Institute formerly the Drucker Foundation
Here is Max De Pree at his best, and that is very good indeed. In Leading Without Power, De Pree shows us why we cannot master the how-to-dos of effective leadership without also being clear about what leaders--and followers--must be. In doing so, he not only provides us with much practical wisdom about creative leading and organizational health, he also nurtures our souls. This is a book to be savored by all who care about such things as vision, faithfulness, trust, and hope.
--Richard J. Mouw, president, Fuller Theological Seminary
Being CEO of a nonprofit organization is not so much a job as it is a love affair. Why keep at it if it is just going to limp along? Like any love story, my work may have its struggles, and Max De Pree provides the practical help, inspiration, and encouragement that keep me focused and motivated. But he also adds poetry, art, and dance to the work, and to the way I work.
--Stephen A. Hayner, president, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship
From the Back Cover
"This is a book to be read, reread, shared widely within any organization. Every chapter has pictures for our mind that will remain vivid long after the book is closed. A vibrant testament to human potential, the why of work."
―Frances Hesselbein, president and CEO, Leader to Leader Institute formerly the Drucker Foundation
"Here is Max De Pree at his best, and that is very good indeed. In Leading Without Power, De Pree shows us why we cannot master the how-to-dos of effective leadership without also being clear about what leaders―and followers―must be. In doing so, he not only provides us with much practical wisdom about creative leading and organizational health, he also nurtures our souls. This is a book to be savored by all who care about such things as vision, faithfulness, trust, and hope."
―Richard J. Mouw, president, Fuller Theological Seminary
"Being CEO of a nonprofit organization is not so much a job as it is a love affair. Why keep at it if it is just going to limp along? Like any love story, my work may have its struggles, and Max De Pree provides the practical help, inspiration, and encouragement that keep me focused and motivated. But he also adds poetry, art, and dance to the work, and to the way I work."
―Stephen A. Hayner, president, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Jossey-Bass; First Edition (May 9, 2003)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 192 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0787967432
- ISBN-13 : 978-0787967437
- Item Weight : 8.8 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 0.5 x 8.4 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #199,621 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,278 in Entrepreneurship (Books)
- #1,815 in Business Management (Books)
- #2,545 in Leadership & Motivation
- Customer Reviews:
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- Reviewed in the United States on February 3, 2025Excellent perspective on how to lead in a volunteer environment.
My biggest take-way is the idea that your best workers are actually volunteers. They don't follow becuase of the leader's reward power, but the satisfaction of way they do.
- Reviewed in the United States on August 27, 2000Max De Pree continues to bless us with his insightful books on leadership. In this book he helps us to realize that leading without power works best when it is a movement that is being led, and when leaders focus not on success, but on building a legacy. When we are trying to build a legacy we become competent in establishing and maintaining relationships. A true legacy establishes and sustains an enduring direction.
Leading without power includes a vision that is based on morale purpose and active virtue. Nonprofit organizations without the clear insight they received through empowering vision, fail to realize their potential.
When leading people without power, helping them see their spiritual calling in life is mandatory. Many people are not clear about this essential resource.
I enjoyed this book because I am a highly task-oriented person who prefers to begin my thinking from a left-brain prspective. This book challenged me to think about relationships, and to think from a right-brained perspective. Whether your preferences are tasks or relationships, left brain or right brain, you will find great hope in serving community as you allow the message of this book to transform your leadership style.
- Reviewed in the United States on July 16, 2010This book is not only inspiring to me, but has been a great discussion resource for our entire management team. We are a fast moving, innovative high performance organization, with lots of personal and organization development under our belts. And yet, this simple little book is concrete enough to point new directions for growth and challenge us to be even better. Thanks Max!
- Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2019I've used this book within my organization from 1996 through today... and have taught using it for years now. I find it to be the easiest for people to digest, and to put into action. He uses a lot of "bullet point" references that make it easy for list makers to organize their own thinking around. Simply the best there is in my books.
- Reviewed in the United States on December 19, 2019Thought provoking book.
- Reviewed in the United States on August 17, 2015Too often people think that leading is about power - De Pree shows us it is the opposite
- Reviewed in the United States on August 13, 2013I ordered this book because I read Leadership Jazz and liked it quite a bit. I am heavily involved in a non-profit and thought there would be new and novel ideas in this book that would help me be a leader. Particularly, how to get things done through others when you don't have much power.
I was actually disappointed. I found the book to be way philosophical -- so laden with concepts such as Justice, Grace, Truth, Authenticity etcetera without clear definitions of what the author means by them in a non-profit or even for-profit context. These ideas were also in Leadership Jazz, but were not as focal as in Leading without Power. Perhaps that was his intent -- to make it like scripture so you can create your own meaning. He indicates he spaced each sentence and gave margin space for making notes -- perhaps so readers can record their own references to personal experience that help internalize the concepts.
I also found myself reading many ideas I found in Leadership jazz, such as the importance of measurement, trust, respect and civility, etcetera.
He did say a few things, though, that made it worth the price of admission:
1. Don't confuse willingness with competence.
2. Getting the right person in the right position is just as important in a non-profit as in a for-profit organization.
3. Don't tell competent people how to do their jobs as this only destroys trust and communicates disrespect.
4. Competence in developing relationships is critical in a non-profit.
5. Non-profits can be places of healing. I never thought of it that way -- that people heal from their life's experiences when they contribute in environments of trust and respect.
I will keep the book, and did underscore a lot of passages. I feel it is highly conceptual though, and would have the most meaning to people who have significant life's experiences to relate to the concepts he shares.
- Reviewed in the United States on September 29, 2009I can see where the author is coming from, and I think I see what he wants to say. The problem? He rambles. A lot. Stories of his experiences as the CEO of Herman Miller and his vacations seem to crop up every few paragraphs, and more than a few seem only tenuously connected to the subject matter. I also spotted several plugs for books that he enjoyed without even an explanation as to why he enjoyed them or how they relate to what he's talking about. With all the name-dropping he did, I imagine it was a favor for a friend. It just didn't feel quite right to me.