Learning to Fly: Leadership and Performance in the Boardroom

Citation

Vint, A., Gould, D. and Recaldin, C. (1999), "Learning to Fly: Leadership and Performance in the Boardroom", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 20 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/lodj.1999.02220daf.002

Learning to Fly: Leadership and Performance in the Boardroom

Angela Vint, Des Gould and Carlena Recaldin Kogan PageLondon1998255ppISBN 0749 42449 4£25.00 (hardback)

Keywords: Leadership, Directors, Skills, Development

The issue of corporate governance and the role and responsibilities of the company director has increased in prominence since the publication of the Cadbury and Greenbury reports. This has brought about a timely renewal of interest and reexamination of the leadership task, qualities and style amongst those who occupy, or aspire to senior positions in organisations. In particular, it has served to emphasise that success at the very top of organisations requires ‘‘soft’’ as well as ‘‘hard’’ skills and that leadership and management are two very dffferent concepts. Yet, according to a survey by the Institute of Directors in 1990, few company directors receive any preparatory training for their new role and so often have difficulty in switching from an operational to a strategic focus.

According to the authors, the aim of this book is ‘‘to provide directors with a practical approach for developing the skills, attitudes and knowledge to direct their businesses towards outstanding performance.’’ The book is arranged in seven chapters with a short additional concluding chapter. Chapter 1 outlines the concept of corporate governance and its implications for the director role. Chapter 2 examines the changing role of the Board and its responsibilities to lead change, set direction and encourage learning. In particular, the tone of this chapter is one which emphasises the role of the Board as an energetic team which focuses on both the long and short term strategies for the business.

In examining the changing role of the director, Chapter 3 outlines the skills and qualities needed by modern day directors. The authors argue that to be an effective director, individuals have to learn how to stop being ‘‘a manager’’ and step outside the comfort zone of being a technical or functional expert. The chapter also discusses the often ignored role of Non Executive Directors. Chapter 4 presents a brief summary of the new perspectives on leadership, illustrated by some short case studies on successful current leaders such as Julian Richer and Bill Gates.

In the following three chapters, we get to the ‘‘real meat’’ of the book as the authors discuss the practical ways of developing directors. In particular (Chapter 6) they make a strong case for the value of coaching both at an individual, i.e. personal and group, i.e. board level (Chapter 7). As experienced coaches, they have much to offer in helping individuals and organisations understand the purpose and process of coaching and appreciate the dffference between mentoring, coaching and counselling. This section of the book is likely to be of particular interest to academics, practitioners and students of organisational behaviour more generally.

The particular strength of this book is that it is written in a highly readable style. It contains lots of useful models and interesting case studies and there are plenty of checklists and summaries of key points. The primary audience for whom this book was written may be directors, however, its contents are likely to have appeal to many outside the boardroom.