Making our acquisition processes effective and efficient requires personal involvement from each member of the acquisition community. From senior leaders to interns, each person’s skills in managing projects and people is what makes us successful. This month’s book reviews focus on different aspects of leadership and how we can develop into more competent and effective leaders. As illustrated in the career development companion article this month, Army modernization is a challenging undertaking, but a necessary and critical one. To achieve modernization, we need strong, effective leaders at every level of our military and civilian Army acquisition community. I think you will find this month’s reading list helpful, and encourage you to use the information and suggestions from these books in your own professional careers.

The Leadership Challenge, 4th Edition, by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner.
The fourth edition of The Leadership Challenge updates one of the great leadership books to be released in the previous two decades. Originally published in 1996, the book became an instant reference for leaders who wanted to manage more effectively. It is still a best-seller with each new edition. This edition expands on the authors’ original ideas and incorporates new, updated business examples, as well as a graphic redesign.

The book is exceptional because it is written for leaders of all levels — those who manage simple projects to those who oversee multimillion dollar companies. It enables readers to understand how they individually can lead better and then apply that reflection to their organization’s leadership.

The book’s Leadership Practices Inventory is a compilation of feedback from thousands of leaders from all backgrounds and jobs. The authors’ analysis of this input led them to several conclusions about successful leadership practices, which they share in this book. The book’s five essential practices for successful leadership are:

• Model the way. Leaders must be role models in every sense of the word and their values must be shared clearly and consistently.
• Inspire a shared vision. Leaders must have a long-term vision — “an ideal and unique image of the future for the common good” — for the success of their followers and the organization.
• Challenge the process. Leaders must try new ideas and discover best practices through learning and experimenting.
• Enable others to act. Leaders must set new standards for their followers, enabling them to develop talent, skill, and confidence. Having individuals grow professionally can only help the organization as a whole.
• Encourage the heart. Leaders must express appreciation for the value of their followers by recognizing their strengths and praising them.

Kouzes and Posner advise that these practices can be made part of anyone’s leadership skills, regardless of job position or rank. The authors determine that “leadership can happen anywhere, at any time. It can happen in a huge business or a small one. It can happen in the public, private, or social sector. It can happen in any function.” Adapting these practices into your everyday life enables you to be a leader in any situation and can help make you a successful leader.

The Art of Followership: How Great Followers Create Great Leaders and Organizations, edited by Ronald E. Riggio, Ira Chaleff, and Jean Lipman-Blumen.
The Art of Followership explores the role of the follower, rather than the leader, in making organizations and processes successful. While the art of leadership has been investigated by scholars and businessmen alike, the followers’ responsibility is not nearly as well discussed. Editors Riggo, Chaleff, and Lipman-Blumen collected contributions from professionals and experts to compile this groundbreaking book that makes readers thoroughly reflect on the leader-follower relationship.

The Art of Followership maintains that followers, as well as leaders, contribute to effective leadership. Followers who abide by a certain mantra will inevitably affect the organization and shape the organization’s leadership. The follower’s relationship to the leader is usually more complex than either the follower or leader realize. In addition, followers are often involved in, and play more extensive roles in, organizations and situations than they are aware. As contributor Robert E. Kelley writes, “We need to pay attention to followers… Conversations abut leadership need to include followership because leaders neither exist nor act in a vacuum without followers.”

The book succeeds in introducing the idea of followership, and also explores its many meanings and how the term and role has evolved. Many disciplines are touched upon in the book to explain followership, including philosophy, psychology, and education. The book defines followership and reveals the many roles followers play in culture, society, and organizations, and cites research and practice that explains the positive role of followership and why this is so important.

Several new followership models are discussed by the book’s contributors. In an essay titled “Rethinking Followership,” author Robert E. Kelley establishes the five followership styles: the sheep, yes-people, alienated, pragmatics, and star followers. Kelley explains the characteristics of each type and how each plays a significant and important role in the leader-follower relationship. Followers can identify with one of the types and explore their role, while leaders can better learn how to interact and be effective with each follower type. The book includes many more models such as this to help the reader grasp and explore the followership ideology.

Most of us are both followers and leaders in different aspects of our job. The Art of Followership can help you determine your role in each and help you better interact with others in your organization.

Executing Your Strategy: How to Break It Down and Get It Done, by Mark Morgan, Raymond Elliot Levitt, and William Malik.
Executing Your Strategy explores the vital role that leaders play in executing their organizations’ competitive strategies and gives practical advice on taking your organization to the next level of productivity and success. The authors take a rather complex task — taking an organization’s strategy and converting that into reality — and break it down so that any leader can successfully implement his or her strategic goals. Leaders often are able to develop a strategy, but often struggle with executing it effectively.

According to authors Morgan, Levitt, and Malek, leaders often fail to correctly identify and adequately invest in the necessary projects and programs an organization needs to implement its strategy. Project leaders often do not connect with strategy makers to ensure that the correct resources are being used properly for the strategy implementation goal. An organization’s strategy needs to adapt to the ever-changing workplace and global environment and leaders often fail to successfully acclimatize their strategic plan to these changes. Morgan, Levitt, and Malek offer practical advice for leaders to see these projects through the new and changing factors that affect the organization through plan completion.

The authors suggest six steps for leaders to successfully complete strategic projects and accomplish strategic initiatives. Improving the organization’s goals involves strategy-making imperatives and project leadership imperatives. The 6-part model (INVEST) consists of the following:

• Ideation — identity, purpose, and long-range intention. Leaders need to continually update and communicate their strategic plan purpose and future intentions.
• Nature — strategy, culture, and organizational structure. Based on their ideation, leaders must develop a correlation between strategy and their organization’s structure and culture.
• Vision — strategy, goals, and metrics. Leaders must have a clear-cut vision of their strategic goals and metrics to measure those goals. Leaders should base this on their strategy and ideation.
• Engagement — strategy and portfolio management. Leaders have to choose the most effective projects to successfully implement their strategic plan. Choosing the right projects should be determined by portfolio management.
• Synthesis — portfolio, program, and project management. Leaders need to then complete the selected projects and programs successfully in alignment with portfolio management.
• Transition — program and project management and operations. Leaders should then move the products from project and program implementation into the organization’s operations, so the full benefit of their implementation can be reached.

Whether you are leading a large organization that needs to better implement an already established strategy or trying to develop an initial strategy for your organization, this book offers helpful guidelines on how to execute those tasks. Executing Your Strategy will help any leaders, no matter how large or small their organization, to implement the strategy that will make their organization successful.

Strong leadership skills are an imperative for any acquisition community member to be successful. Each of us must continue to strive toward being productive, effective, and adept leaders.