By Michael Brimm,
Professor of Organizational Behavior at INSEAD.

There are a number of hallmark ideas that may be considered “interesting”. Such ideas should enable new ways of seeing situations of concern and, with this new perspective, suggest new behaviors and practices. In addition, “interesting” ideas must have an element of novelty such that they are perceived as something new; yet be obvious, once they are understood, and leave the reader saying, “Of course! I knew that, but never thought of it that way.” Noel Tichy provides such “interesting” ideas in his new book.

The fundamental novelty of “Leaders as Teachers” emerged in his earlier book, The Leadership Engine. In this new book, he elaborates on this idea and adds a new dimension of Leaders as Learners. Most importantly, he combines the elements of teacher and learner in his elaboration of the Virtuous Teaching Cycle. The fundamental insight in this approach seems very obvious, at least after Tichy has pointed it out. Every teacher and professor knows the best way to learn something is to teach it to others. This allows the “teacher” to communicate his ideas while deepening his own understanding of these ideas and their implications. Tichy develops this insight in the leadership context using a variety of business examples, and offers specific processes and practices to apply it through an appended “work book”. Examples are drawn from a variety of industries as well as a mix of companies differing in size and scale. The exploration of the differences between teaching/learning in large established companies and small start-ups provides recognition of a distinction that is often overlooked in leadership literature, Geeks and Geezers by Warren Bennis being a notable exception.

As is often the case with American writing on leadership, there are no French examples and few European references other than passing mention of Royal Dutch Shell and Nokia. The challenge for the reader is to reflect on the ideas and consider how these might be applied in his/her own context. This parallels the numerous examples throughout the book of leaders who have “learned” from other companies and reinvented observed practices to fit their own situation. Few authors provide as many concrete ideas supported by documented practices as Tichy does in this work. His background as an academic is reinforced by his work as a consultant to numerous leaders and his three years as the director of General Electric’s Crotonville Training Center during the Jack Welch regime. While some of the ideas will be familiar to those who have read the author’s earlier work, this is an excellent starting point for anyone who has not had prior contact with the rich stream of leadership frameworks that have emerged from his experience. In the barrage of books with Leadership in the title, this one is really quite “interesting” !

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