In today’s complex world, leadership must rely on high levels of trust and openness throughout the organization. In this week’s book launch, bestselling author and father of organizational culture studies, Edgar Schein, and his son, Peter Schein, trail-blaze with a creative perspective on leadership that encourages vulnerability and empathy as a form of strength.
Humble Leadership
The more traditional forms of leadership that are based on static hierarchies and professional distance between leaders and followers are growing increasingly outdated and ineffective. As organizations face more complex interdependent tasks, leadership must become more personal in order to ensure open, trusting communication that will make more collaborative problem solving and innovation possible. Without open and trusting communication throughout organizations, they will continue to face the productivity and quality problems that result from reward systems that emphasize individual competition and climbing the corporate ladder.
Authors Edgar Schein and Peter Schein recognize this reality and call for a reimagined form of leadership that coincides with emerging trends of relationship building, complex group work, diverse workforces, and cultures in which everyone feels psychologically safe.
Humble Leadership calls for “here and now” humility based on a deeper understanding of the constantly evolving complexities of interpersonal, group, and intergroup relationships that require shifting our focus towards the process of group dynamics and collaboration. Humble Leadership at all levels and in all working groups will be the key to achieving the creativity, adaptiveness, and agility that organizations will need to survive and grow.
Meet the Authors
Ed Schein is the author of numerous bestselling books, including the recent Humble Inquiry and Humble Consulting. Schein recently retired from the position of the Society of Sloan Fellows Professor of Management Emeritus at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He has received ample recognition for his work, with multiple lifetime achievement awards from associations such as the American Society of Training Directors (2000), the Academy of Management (2009), and the International Leadership Association (2012). Edgar Schein is renowned as the father of organizational cultural studies.
Peter Schein is a strategy consultant in Silicon Valley with 30 years of business experience at large and small technology companies, including Apple, SGI, and Sun Microsystems in corporate development and M&A. He has an undergraduate degree in anthropology from Stanford, an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern, and an OD certificate from the USC Center for Effective Organizations. Humble Leadership is his second writing collaboration with his father, Ed.
Praise from Readers
“Effective leadership is all about building trust and relationships. With ‘Humble Leadership’ Ed and Peter help us to actually get there by understanding relationships on a much more granular and tangible level.”
— Severin Schwan, CEO of Roche Group
“Humble leadership, as the authors remind us, though, is no mere philosophy. It is a result of disciplined attention to structure, culture, and relationships. The Schein’s offer a persuasive roadmap to achieve this understanding and true effectiveness in institutional settings.”
— Paul F. Levy, Author of Goal Play! Leadership Lessons from the Soccer Field
“This is a must read for reflective leaders at all levels seeking to enhance their effectiveness and execution in pursuit of their organizational mission and vision.”
— Gary Kaplan, CEO of Virginia Mason Medical Center
Learn More
- Visit the website to learn more about the book and its authors.
- Buy a copy of the book (or leave a review of it) here.
- Watch the recent webinar to learn more about this new approach to leadership.
Elizabeth Johnson loves the color yellow, strong {black} coffee, editing, and exploring the mountains in rural Wyoming and Utah, where she and her husband serve as church planters. In her free time, she enjoys learning new things, hand-lettering and acrylic painting, and gaming with her husband.