By Sally Atkinson, professor at the Cranfield School of Management.

Amidst the welter of books offering advice on leadership, it is refreshing to find a text that stands out both from a practical and contextual standpoint. Too often we are offered stories of the great and the good which do not translate into transferable lessons to practicing managers. Furthermore, whilst the academic study of leadership in the organizational context offers many insights into the domain of ‘new’ organizations, much of what we are offered in terms of leadership practice reflects past rather than future notions of organizational life. Leadership Unplugged is thus a genuine attempt to address these gaps. The style is easily accessible, well referenced and grounded in practical examples.

In terms of content, the authors place great emphasis on the conversational aspect of leadership, as the tenet of strategy implementation. This focus, although in itself nothing particularly revelatory, is welcome, as it takes the social constructed perspective of organization and translates this into practical outcomes. Likewise, the authors include the vital area of political action in the organizational context, an increasingly recognized legitimate facet of both leadership and organizational change. Indeed, there would have been room to explore the arena of the political aspects of leadership in even more depth. This leads onto a wider point. Whilst the strong practitioner focus has led the authors to avoid academic contextualizing of these social elements, perhaps some scene setting of the emerging notion of ‘organization’ as a social construct would have added to the weight of the text without destroying the pragmatic style. Such contemporary phenomena as leadership at all levels, and the relational nature of organizational networks could therefore have been discussed in the light of the conversational focus.

Where the book is helpful, therefore, is in its attempt to translate a socially constructed approach to leadership in a practical fashion. What would complement this perspective particularly is more attention to the relational context in which leadership conversations sit. Just as trust literature has acknowledged that interpersonal phenomena do not occur in a vacuum, so persuasive actions or conversations are not helpfully perceived as ‘stand alone’ interventions. The authors touch upon this with their discussion on relationships and contacts, but do not really explore the impact of different relational types on conversations. Furthermore, trust literature has also established that for senior managers in particular, the perceived relationship with an individual can be significantly influenced by third parties through storytelling and rumor. Exploring the lens that a relationship provides, alongside the organizational lens of politics and the associated particular social dynamics would therefore add considerably to the authors’ propositions. For example, it would be helpful for them to explain what kinds of relational network need to be built in order to have successful conversations. Is acceptance contingent upon well-chosen personal relationships from which positive messages will radiate from the subsequent network effect? Or is the relational imperative more focused on the organizational level, i.e. a requirement to mix social and hierarchical perspectives in analytical terms? Or would their recommendations actually suggest that the relational context, and the corresponding notions of trust, are irrelevant, or so difficult to achieve as to be impractical?

Finally, accepting Leadership Unplugged as a perspective has implications for organizational leadership and talent development. If you buy into a social and political model of organizational leadership, then development activities must be supportive of this. Leadership development is thus not solely served by traditional case study, knowledge-based programs. Understanding and managing social and political dynamics, and within these the often overlooked facet of interpersonal relationship management, underpinned by strong strategic analysis and conceptual development, become central to growing leadership capability. Perhaps the authors will develop this theme in their later volumes.