Whenever I find a book that I love, everyone around me knows about it. According to my new favorite book, 5 Voices, that is because my foundational voice is a Connector: “It doesn’t matter if it is a movie or a restaurant or a business colleague they want to introduce you to, whatever Connectors are into they are going to use all their persuasive abilities to convince you that you should be, too. And chances are, they will!” (82).
I hope that by the time you’ve finished reading this article, the Connector in me will have convinced you to take a chance this summer on a few of my favorite leadership books.
Three Leadership Book Recommendations
5 Voices by Jeremie Kubicek and Steve Cockram
Authors Jeremie Kubicek and Steve Cockram insist that “the more we know ourselves, the greater our capacity to truly lead ourselves and others well” (20). In the book 5 Voices, that means knowing your voice order: a combination of the of the Nurturer, Creative, Guardian, Connector, and Pioneer voices. While we all have some combination of all five, the bottom four are filtered through the voice we unconsciously use most of the time: our foundational voice.
Foundational voice Nurturers are often the quietest individuals in the group, yet this does not mean they are unimportant. Far from it! While Nurturers may not assert themselves over the louder voices in a group, “the Nurturer voice is necessary in building and maintaining relationships” (30). And, as we will see in the next two book reviews, maintaining relationships is fundamental to the success of organizations. For that reason, Nurturers need to be heard!
Creatives “come equipped with an early warning radar system that gives them the ability to sense danger where values run the risk of being compromised, and they can see opportunities, solutions, and possibilities for the future long before they become reality” (33). While it is clear to see that Creatives can offer great value to an organization, they too have quieter voices and are often misunderstood when they first share their ideas. They need the other voices to patiently help them articulate their thoughts rather than write them off for lack of understanding.
The Guardian has a louder voice that will challenge the new ideas of the Creatives, Connectors, and Pioneers. Guardians are needed to hold these future-oriented voices in check, to confront their big ideas with a bit of reality. Their aversion to change for change’s sake can save organizations time and money, even if their tough questions initially take the wind out of some sails.
Connectors, as the name suggests, thrive on connecting with other people and then connecting those people with other people. When a need arises, they know someone who can help, or they know where to go to look for someone. As I mentioned earlier, Connectors are able to persuade and are, therefore, great people from whom to gain buy-in. If they love the new direction or initiative of an organization, everyone will know about it and will probably buy into it as well.
Finally, we have the Pioneer, the loudest of the voices. They can easily dominate conversations because they have a vision of the future that must be shared, yet “Pioneers are experts at aligning people, systems, and resources to deliver big-picture visions,” and, as such, they will be the ones who will keep an organization from becoming stagnant (40).
It is important for leaders to know how their voice is heard by others, especially since those selected for leadership are often Pioneers and Connectors, louder voices that can easily talk over the Creatives and Nurturers. Equally important is understanding that all voices have something valuable to offer and that no organization will be as effective as it could be without representation and input from all five voices.
To find out your voice order for free, visit https://5voices.com/assessment/.
The Leadership Challenge by James Kouzes and Barry Posner
Currently in its sixth edition, The Leadership Challenge is easily the most well-researched book on my list. Kouzes and Posner have worked together for over four decades, compiling their findings from case studies and surveys to develop The Five Practices framework. The Five Practices are: Model the Way, Inspire with a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart. According to research conducted by the authors “nearly 96 percent of direct reports who are most highly engaged . . . indicate that their leaders very frequently or almost always use The Five Practices. In contrast, less than 5 percent of direct reports are highly engaged when they indicate that their leaders seldom use The Five Practices” (21). In an environment where leaders clearly want their direct reports engaged, Christian school boards and administrators should take heed.
In order to Model the Way, leaders must “clarify values by finding [their] voice” and then “set the example by aligning actions with shared values” (24). This is the one leadership practice that is explicitly self-focused. What stands out about the other four practices is that they are explicitly others-focused.
Inspiring with a Shared Vision is only possible by including others in the process of creating that vision. Omitting this step leads to a vision created at the top with buy-in expected rather than a vision that people can easily get behind because they shared in the creation of the vision.
Challenging the Process implies that the way we’ve always done things is not necessarily the best. This requires a willingness on behalf of leaders to look outside themselves and possibly even their organization to find what works best in education.
To Enable Others to Act, leaders must “foster collaboration by building trust and facilitating relationships” and “strengthen others by increasing self-determination and developing competence” (24). One way to do this would be to facilitate teaching the 5 Voices model (mentioned in the previous review) to all staff and faculty and to intentionally group individuals together with people who speak from foundational voices other than their own.
Finally, it should go without saying that in order to Encourage the Heart, leaders need to know who is responsible for what in their buildings and must ensure that those individuals are recognized for the ways in which they exemplify the shared vision of the school.
Filled with case studies that exemplify The Five Practices, The Leadership Challenge takes the authors’ extensive research and presents it in a compelling book that all Christian school administrators should read.
The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” I heard this quote for the first time during a council meeting last year. We were having a strategy discussion about the programs we offered or should offer when a fellow elder pointed out that our strategy didn’t matter if we didn’t get the culture right. In The Culture Code Daniel Coyle, New York Times bestselling author of The Talent Code, details the three skills that are essential for developing successful cultures. He arrived at these three skills after seeing them exemplified in a wide variety of organizations known for their effective cultures (from the Navy SEALs and professional sports teams to Fortune 500 companies and beyond).
The first skill needed in a successful culture is that of building safety. Safety in an organization is communicated through listening to, thanking, and all-around valuing people for what they contribute. These efforts must be frequent, intentional, and authentic.
The second skill needed in successful cultures is the willingness of all in the group to share vulnerability. One potentially surprising place Coyle found this mentality was in the Navy SEALs. As Navy SEAL Dave Cooper has learned, “I screwed that up are the most important words any leader can say” (158). When leaders model vulnerability, they pave the way for an organization to thoughtfully and honestly assess the performance of the group and individuals in relationship to organizational values and goals. However, vulnerability will only happen in a safe environment (skill number 1).
The final skill Coyle focuses on is that of establishing purpose. As any good leadership book will tell you, establishing a purpose or mission needs to extend beyond posting catchy words or phrases on an organization’s walls. Coyle suggests that “it’s a never-ending process of trying, failing, reflecting, and above all, learning” (228). To begin the process, an organization must identify its priorities. “Most successful groups,” reports Coyle, “end up with a small handful of priorities (five or fewer), and many, not coincidentally, end up placing their in-group relationships—how they treat one another—at the top of the list. This reflects the truth that many successful groups realize: Their greatest project is building and sustaining the group itself. If they get the relationships right, everything else will follow” (229).
In Christian schools, where we understand that “there should be no division in the body, [and] that its parts should have equal concern for each other,” it seems rather fitting that we should want to place such a high emphasis on relationship-building (1 Cor. 12:25).
Conclusion
In a school setting, it is easy to expend the bulk of our energy addressing the immediate needs of our students and their parents while at the same time failing to assess and address the make-up of the school’s culture. And this is, perhaps, understandable. After all, becoming self-aware, spending time listening to others, being vulnerable, and making the way for meaningful collaboration might sound a bit too touch-feely. It may also seem unnecessarily time consuming considering all of the lessons that need planning, essays that need grading, and standardized tests that need to be taken. However, lessons, essays, and tests are strategies, not culture. And culture, whether healthy or toxic, will have a longer-lasting impact on faculty, staff, and students than any of the best practices available to educators today.
Further Reading
For those interested in reading more about leadership and culture, here are a few more books worth reading:
Boundaries for Leaders by Henry Cloud
Turn the Ship Around! by L. David Marquet, Captain, U.S. Navy (retired)
The Ideal Team Player, 5 Dysfunctions of a Team, and pretty much anything else by Patrick Lencioni
Next Generation Leader by Andy Stanley
Leadership and Self-Deception, The Anatomy of Peace, and The Outward Mindset by The Arbinger Institute
Great by Choice by Jim Collins and Morten T. Hansen
Extraordinary Influence by Dr. Tim Irwin
Start with Why by Simon Sinek
Works Cited
Coyle, Daniel. The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups. New York: Bantam Books, 2018.
Kouzes, James, and Barry Posner. The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations. 6th ed. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2017.
Kubicek, Jeremie, and Steve Cockram. 5 Voices: How to Communicate Effectively with Everyone You Lead. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2016.
Mark Brink teaches English at Unity Christian High School in Hudsonville, MI.