Do not let the size of this volume fool you. This is no ordinary small book. This book is pregnant with some of the most fascination working principles of leadership.

There is something uncanny about this small book. I can't seem to put my hands on it. But I know that it is there, because I thoroughly enjoyed this small volume.

5 stars and counting!

I first read this book in the early nineties and recently re-read it with a profound love and respect for the concepts it teaches. I can point to several things in the past 14 years that I conciously did as a result of the principles espoused in this book and my life and career has been enriched beyond my wildest imaginations!

After finishing Max De Pree's Leadership is an Art, I was powerfully reminded that sometimes innovation comes from having to relearn the lessons from the past. Even though this book is only 148 pages long, it could take a lifetime to build a corporate culture around the values that it espouses, and indeed, that is what Max De Pree's father and then Max himself had done to build Herman Miller into a values driven organization. As a company founded and built around the principle of values first, Herman Miller grew to become a world class company that has consistently ranked at the top of its class in all categories of business success.

There are so many wonderful take aways from this beautifully written book. This is one of those books where you may just want to have it on hand for easy reference as a leadership manual. However, there are no manual-isms in this book, it is purely a guide for the heart for anyone on the path of leadership. The lessons of wisdom passed along through this monograph amount to one common denominator: "effectiveness [at work] comes about through enabling others to reach their potential." The bottom line: a work environment that leads to the fulfillment of human potential is the basis for the realization of the "FULL" potential of what the corporation is capable of achieving.

On page one of Leadership Is an Art Max Depree writes, "The book is about the art of leadership: liberating people to do what is required of them in the most effective and humane way possible". This is a theme that runs throughout this very wise and in every way excellent work. The following quotes provide some of the flavor of Depree's enlightened and inspiring thinking:

* The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between the two, the leader must become a servant and a debtor.

* In addition to all of the ratios and goals and parameters and bottom lines, it is fundamental that leaders endorse a concept of persons. This begins with an understanding of the diversity of people's gifts and talents and skills.

* Understanding and accepting diversity enables us to see that each of us is needed. It also enables us to begin to think about being abandoned to the strengths of others, of admitting that we cannot know or do everything.

* Leaders don't inflict pain; they bear pain.

* First, as a Christian I believe that each person is made in the image of God. For those of us who have received the gift of leadership from the people we lead, this belief has enormous implications.

* Leaders owe people space, space in the sense of freedom. Freedom in the sense of enabling our gifts to be exercised.

* Participative management is not democratic. Having a say differs from having a vote.

* Interestingly, though in organizations like ours we need a lot of freedom, there is no room for license. Discipline is what it takes to do the job.

* One of the important things leaders need to learn is to recognize the signals of impending deterioration.

* Without forgiveness, there can be no real freedom to act...

Depree has given us an abiding philosophy of leadership. Actually operating in alignment with these principles demands a very high level of integrity - one that few leaders ever do attain. Those that do so unleash forces of transformation resulting in high performance high involvement organizations.

This book characterizes a commercial arena filled with vocational potential. I give it the highest recommendation.

Despite what appears to be the vast majority of opinions on this book, I found this book very difficult to get through. What De Pree writes as "authoritative" leadership concepts, I see as nothing more than common sense. Perhaps I have been blessed to work in a company that touts similar values and beliefs or perhaps I am just a person that already believes that it is the diversity of people that is what makes a company successful. But I found dredging through De Pree's long lists of leadership principles exhaustive and frustrating. I didn't find this book revolutionary (which is how he seems to write it) or even particularly interesting. "Man's Search For Meaning" is a FAR more compelling leadership read....