2024 Full Shelf Challenge V. 2: 02

Title:  The Invisible Leader

Author:  Zach Mercurio

Info:  Copyright 2017:  Advantage

Rating (on a scale of 1-4 stars):  ✮✮✮

Where Acquired: Amazon.com

Category (ies) - Recommended reads:  The author was presenting a one-day seminar at my workplace based on the book and it was suggested that the participants read the book beforehand.  Bingo card:  "Offers New Perspective"

Synopsis: Most people see a leader as a particular person who is born and bred for leadership.  Mercurio dispels this line of thought by focusing on how authentic purpose can be the "invisible" leader of any person in any role of life. 

Select Favorite Quotes:

Everything we do, every job we have, and every organization we work in has a world-changing reason for existence.  When we focus on that reason, results follow. - p. 17

Definition of authentic purpose:  A person or organization's genuine and unique reason for existence that is useful to others in society. - p. 23

Even minimal brief contact with beneficiaries of our work can enable employees to maintain their motivation.  When we believe we matter, and we change people's lives, motivation and results follow. - p. 78

...it is critical to create belief by aligning decisions, behaviors, and actions with a larger purpose, and designing environments to support and prove it. - p. 126.

The Positive:

• This book was very well written and researched.  Not only were the examples presented by the author taken from the research of other's experiences, but from that of Mercurio as well.  
• For the most part, the presentation of the concept of "invisible" leadership was stimulating.  Mercurio packed a lot of information in just over 200 pages.
• This tome offers a fresh perspective on leadership.  The invisible leader is not a specific type of person, a self-help strategy, or some nebulous "woo-woo" presence of "energy."  Great leadership, asserts the author, is finding and implementing authentic purpose.

The Negative: 

• Mercurio initial premise is that the principles in this volume could be applied to any organization or individual.  However, the latter third of the book focuses on giving strategies and tools that only apply to someone in a leadership position.  How does a regular person apply the principles of "invisible" leadership?
• Yes, I'm going to complain about the aside boxes and the repeat bars yet again.  Why do authors and publishers do this?  Having boxes of text that annoyingly repeat what the author has just said, or inserting additional information or questions in odd places (such as the middle of a paragraph) destroys the flow of the text and adds nothing to the reading experience except frustration.  Unfortunately, this book utilizes both.
• While I understand that successful businesses and organizations need to focus outward, I'm not sure that the author's assertion that being guided by purpose is exclusively outward focused.  I've seen what happens when businesses, churches, and individuals focus outwardly, but ignore inner focus.  This produces high turnover, individuals who suffer from burnout, feel dehumanized, and/or grow to hate his/her job or volunteer position.  I'm wary of the belief that this is an either/or prospect; maintaining a balance between outer and inner focus would seem to produce the type of results of which the author speaks.

Conclusion/Takeaway:

In addition to reading this work, I attended a workshop at Colorado Christian University based on the book.  My hope was that some of my concerns about the content of both the book and presentation would be addressed.  However, the presentation offered no opportunities for feedback or questions.  

Overall, I enjoyed the book and workshop.  However, I am a bit disappointed with having no outlet to apply the ideas presented.