How To Lead With Unyielding Integrity The Book Report By Rolf Crocker I’m always encouraging staff and friends to read, and to share what they’ve read.  The most valuable things I do is, when I have read something that resonates with me, I will do either one or both of the following:  1) Write the statement (or synopsis) on a Post-It-style flip chart mounted on the wall in my office and 1) Share it with my boss, a co-worker or friend.  The act of a truth or concept flowing through me from pen-to-paper or from thought-to-words not only causes the concept to stick, but causes it to flow the 18 inches from my head to my heart, where it becomes a part of me.  Try it! The Ethical Challenge – How To Lead With Unyielding Integrity (©2003 John Wiley & Sons) Edited by Noel M. Tichy and Andrew R. McGill.   This book is a compilation of speakers at the Michigan Business School’s 2002 Lecture Series, featuring such notable speakers as Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of GE, Joe Liemandt of Trilogy Software and former Secretary of State James Baker III. Presented from a post-Enron/WorldCom/Tyco point of view, this book acknowledges that our country’s Leadership Tank is ‘low’, and that the primary contributor to this is lack of personal integrity and ethics.  The goal of this book is to develop in the reader what Tichy calls a ‘Teachable Point Of View’ (personalizing one’s experience in a way that can be communicated to others) and to develop a ‘Virtuous Teaching Cycle’ in which one becomes simultaneously Learner and Teacher, thus continually propagating the teaching, and taking it to new heights.  A favorite quote from the book comes from Robert Quinn, Professor of Organizational Behavior and HR Management at the University of Michigan Business School.  Quinn states, “Excellence is a form of deviance…  You become excellent because you are doing things normal people do not want to do.  You become excellent by choosing a path that is risky and painful, a path that is not appealing to others…  You do it because it is right and because it brings enormous internal satisfaction.  That is the key.”  4 Stars! Boards That Make A Difference (©1997 John Wiley & Sons) by John Carver.   Carver is unquestionably the definitive author in Board Leadership with his creation of the Policy Governance model.   This is the first real breakthrough in Board governance, extracting Boards from the mire of minutia and placing them on the higher ground of true leadership.  Lofty words, you say?  I think not.  Carver starts with all Boards, on behalf of the moral ownership (the Association Members), defining a vision statement that defines What Good for Which People at What Cost.  From there the Board develops a series of Policies that describe the ‘Ends’ – those results they whish to achieve.  The Board then set ‘Limits’ – limiting the means by which the manager (or CEO) can go about achieving the Boards ‘Ends’ – an example would be a dollar limitation on expenditures without coming back to the Board for approval.  From their, the Manager has ALL available means, using her best skill and judgment, subject to the Law and Governing Documents, to achieve the Ends desired by the Board.  This concept, already in place at CAI, will rock your world and turn it upside-down.  5 Stars!! This Book report was originally published May 2004.