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Leadership Can Be Taught: A Bold Approach for a Complex World Hardcover – October 18, 2005

by Sharon Daloz Parks (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 46 ratings
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If leaders are made, not born, what is the best way to teach the skills they need to be effective? Today's complex times require a new kind of leadership--one that encompasses a mind-set and capabilities that can't necessarily be taught by conventional methods. In this unique leadership book, Sharon Daloz Parks invites readers to step into the classroom of Harvard leadership virtuoso Ronald Heifetz and his colleagues to understand this dynamic type of leadership and experience a corresponding mode of learning called "case in point." Unlike traditional teaching approaches that analyze the experiences of past leaders, case in point uses individuals' own experiences--and the classroom environment itself--as a crucible for learning. This bold approach enables emerging leaders to work actively through the complex demands of today's workplace and build their skills as they discover theory in practice. Through an engaging, you-are-there writing style, Parks outlines essential features of this approach that can be applied across a range of settings. In the process, Leadership Can Be Taught reveals how we can learn, practice, and teach the art of leadership in more skilled, effective, and inspired forms. Sharon Daloz Parks is director of leadership for the New Commons--an initiative of the Whidbey Institute in Clinton, WA. She has held faculty and research positions at the Harvard Divinity School, Harvard Business School, and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
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  1. Print length
    304 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Harvard Business Review Press
  4. Publication date
    October 18, 2005
  5. Dimensions
    6.25 x 1.25 x 9.25 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1591393094
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1591393092
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Readers seeking an atypical business book may like Leadership Can Be Taught. Its author, Sharon Daloz Parks, has a conventional enough background: She's taught at various Harvard graduate schools, including its Divinity School, the Business School, and the School of Government--the book itself comes from Harvard Business School Press--and she now heads a leadership institute in Washington state, just outside Seattle. Parks' approach to leadership development, though, springs from a decidedly non-traditional philosophy.

Unlike others who lionize strong leaders and decisive, authoritative personalities, Parks looks for her leadership lessons to Ronald Heifetz, a humble, almost meek instructor at Harvard. The book opens with a transcript of Heifetz's typical class at Harvard, and illustrates his free-flowing banter with students. There's something of a biblical, storybook-like quality to this narrative, as it shows Heifetz's Socratic style in drawing out students and leading them to truths. Heifetz's approach carries over to the book, which has an indirect, oblique style, and shuns the reductionist, simplifying, bullet-point orientation of most business books.

Through the course of the book's nearly 300 pages, Parks argues that leadership is less magical and yet more important than we usually believe. Drawing on Heifetz's ideas, she explains her belief that leaders are formed gradually, over time and through deliberate effort--not born with special traits. Four key themes run through the book: first, that true leadership differs from the kind of formal authority typically conferred by organizations; second, that leaders have less of a role solving technical problems than in helping teams of individuals deal with adaptive challenges; third, that conventional power--meaning authority over people and budget--is less important than "presence"; and fourth, that this mysterious quality of "presence" rests less on innate personality than on a style of interacting with others in an organization.

Parks' concept of presence becomes a key axis on which the book turns. It's an intriguing concept. As she defines it, presence is "the ability to hold steady and to improvise in the midst of the conflict and tumult of adaptive work depends on cultivating an inner consciousness of the connectivity of which one is a part--especially when there is a high degree of voltage on the wires. It requires the ability to recognize and intelligently manage strong feelings--one's own emotions and the motions in others….It requires an understanding of one's self in relationship to audience, the ability to pay close attention, to listen, to feel, and to bring one's own heart-mind into the present…."

Not all of this book rests on such dense academic language. Much of the writing describes anecdotes of students' interactions with Heifetz, as they learn his (and Parks') concept of leadership. Still, this is a challenging work, and not one that all readers will enjoy. Those who enjoy new paradigms of leadership, such as those advanced in Resonant Leadership or The Leadership Wheel, will be best suited for the unusual ideas, and style, of this book. --Peter Han

About the Author

Sharon Daloz Parks is Director of Leadership for the New Commons—an initiative of the Whidbey Institute in Clinton, WA. She has held faculty and research positions at the Harvard Divinity School, Harvard Business School and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harvard Business Review Press; 1st edition (October 18, 2005)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1591393094
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1591393092
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.34 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 1.25 x 9.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 46 ratings

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Sharon Daloz Parks

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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
46 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

S. Jamal
5.0 out of 5 stars Leadership as artistry: Great insights how PAL is taught, and how to think differently about leadership
Reviewed in the United States on September 21, 2008
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First, let me disclose my bias - I took PAL-164 (the sequel to PAL-101) with Heifetz, which I thought was great. I also read both of Heifetz's books (required for the course) and also In Over Our Heads, by Robert Kegan, which Parks discusses in her book. So I found Parks' book to be valuable in that it helped me get even more out of the course. I especially like the recounting and analysis of class conversations and interviews with Alumni of the course. I also like that she integrates with other of others in this field. While I wonder whether many of those who have not taken PAL with Heifetz or Williams would benefit as much from this book, or find it as interesting as I did, I think this book would at least get them interested.

I think there is merit to the case-in-point teaching method, and more instructors should try it out where appropriate. Parks touches on how teachers can start using this approach, a little it at a time. For those wishing to give the case-in-point method a try, this book is helpful. It complements Heifetz's other books, and is useful for others who would like to try or improve the 'experiential' teaching method in general.

I found the last chapter was not as interesting as any of the earlier chapters (which I think largely repeats too much points she made earlier, just in more creative prose) and I wish she had included more class room discussion with more 'balcony' views. However, it is definitely worth checking out.
4 people found this helpful
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Daniel Im
4.0 out of 5 stars Leadership is about empowerment
Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2012
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Parks' Leadership Can Be Taught is an examination and illumination of Ronald Heifetz's teaching method at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. She not only gives the reader an in depth experience of being in Heifetz's classroom, but she also translates his methodology into transferrable principles for leadership and teaching. She does this by dissecting the case-in-point approach that Heifetz uses. She also dismantles the notion that an individual is born a leader, and plots a way to develop presence - "the ability to intervene, to hold steady, inspire a group, and work in both verbal and nonverbal realms" (13). In the second half of the book, Parks addresses the transferability of this approach to a variety of different situations, such as the workplace or different classroom settings. She then places herself in the shoes of a teacher, and examines the principles that teachers need to learn in order to teach with this methodology. The book closes with a critique on our culture's myth of leadership and an evaluation of this method's strengths and limits. In a sense, Leadership Can Be Taught is a hybrid-workbook or pathway to help leaders, teachers, and organizations rethink leadership, teaching, and how to learn.

Parks presents an integrative framework where the theory of leadership and practice of teaching are woven together seamlessly (231). Through this new methodology, the traditional roles of teachers are reimagined, and students now have a different approach to learning. Leadership is less about an individual's talent and exercise of power, and more about empowering a group of individuals to work through, and learn from, their toughest issues. In this new model, "the teacher is a co-learner and at the same time a model, practicing authority and leadership in public so that others may eavesdrop, watch, contend with, and learn" (232). Consequently, this book has expanded my understanding of teaching and leadership. Not only will I cease to run away from conflict, but I will prayerfully and carefully examine where I need to start conflict in my ministry, in order to bring about beneficial change and learning. In the training seminars I lead, I am now going to strive to use the case-in-point method, and learn how much more beneficial this could be, than the simple case-study method.
6 people found this helpful
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Michael F. Murray
5.0 out of 5 stars Why "Leadership" is not what you thought it was!
Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2021
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An excellent description of both "experiential education" and how it is being used to train leaders in a world that desperately needs "Adaptive Change" facilitators in the positions we normally think of as "Leadership Positions". It is also a great example of how "agency" gets taught and empowered in a world where "Positional Leaders" need push back and challenge.
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Sungwon Han
3.0 out of 5 stars well...
Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2014
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I don't know how can I say...about this text book...
The author describe and explain for the case through some situation....
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laurie cassidy
5.0 out of 5 stars I'd like to give a copy of this to everyone I ...
Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2018
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This book is a treasure, Sharon Parks does it again! She describes this way of teaching leadership in a way that is both accessible and deep. Her poetic and thoughtful way of writing is also well documented. I took the class she describes and reading her text gave me a new appreciation of my experience and ways to continue reflecting upon this way of seeing leadership in my life and work today. I'd like to give a copy of this to everyone I know.
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Mowgli
4.0 out of 5 stars A genuine book on Leadership.
Reviewed in the United States on July 10, 2014
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This is a great book and an eloquent deep-reading and much needed reframing of 'Leadership'. This is exceedingly better than the vast majority of books on leadership out there and I would highly recommend it for any educator as its as much about pedagogy as it is about the subject of leadership. There are two reasons I held off from giving it full stars. The first is that while its very insightful with lots of really beautiful ideas I had trouble determining its objectivity as it adopts a slightly 'cultish' tone around this specific approach of adaptive leadership. The second is that I felt the book could have been stronger if was 60-70% its current length as many of the ideas are repeated without much nuance. Perhaps my two points are also related. Having said that its still very much worth the investment and I have recommended it to others.
3 people found this helpful
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Douglas Paxton
5.0 out of 5 stars Sharon Daloz Parks is a remarkable woman, and this ...
Reviewed in the United States on November 18, 2017
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Sharon Daloz Parks is a remarkable woman, and this book brings our leadership explorations to life! It is one of the most popular books in our leadership program. Thank you for this gift of wisdom!
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Ann R. Wertz
5.0 out of 5 stars Leadership for the critical thinkers!
Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2014
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Wow, this is a challenging approach for anyone who is involved in leadership. I have great respect and admiration for all who are and have been connected to Ronald Heifetz and his teaching team. Thank you for expanding my vision and pushing me to the razor's edge.
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Top reviews from other countries

Patty Berube
3.0 out of 5 stars It's OK
Reviewed in Canada on February 24, 2014
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Bought this on a recommendation of a co-worker. Has some good points, but not my general type of reading. Didn't quite finish it.
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Chris L.
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 31, 2016
Verified Purchase
Good description of the teaching methods of Ron Heifetz
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