Leading Quietly by Joseph Badaracco – early thoughts

I’m just about one-fourth of the way through the book Leading Quietly by Joseph Badarocco. Badaracco is a professor at the Harvard Business school.

There is much for me to like in this book. In fact he had me at page one when he wrote

“…the most effective leaders are rarely public heroes. These men and women aren’t high-profile champions of causes, and don’t want to be. They don’t spearhead ethical crusades. They move patiently, carefully, and incrementally. They do what is right – for their organization, for the people around them and
for themselves – inconspicuously and without casualties.”

His emphasis on leaders being something other than the people who are faced with obvious moral imperatives to make an unpopular choice is refreshing. He acknowledges that mixed-motives often play a role in what we do and that self-interest isn’t inherently bad – on the contrary, it is those self-interests, coupled with a desire to do what is right, that motivates us to get up and actually do some things!

I’m not always on the same page as he is – and his emphasis on self-interest cam sometimes feel a little too pragmatic – but so far, I appreciate where he seems to be going in this book.