The Wizard and the Warrior: Leading with Passion and Power

by Lee G. Bolman and Terrence E. Deal

Book Overview

The Wizard and the Warrior gives leaders the insight and courage they need to take risks on behalf of values they cherish and the people they guide. Great leaders must act both as wizard, calling on imagination, creativity, meaning, and magic, and as warrior, mobilizing strength, courage, and willingness to fight as necessary to fulfill their mission. Best-selling authors Lee Bolman and Terrence Deal present the defining moments and experiences of...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0787974137
• ISBN13: 9780787974138
• Release Date: March 2006
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.4" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A unique offering among an ocean of business book sameness

Despite its Harry Potter-esque title, The Wizard and the Warrior is an engaging read with interesting case studies. Bestselling authors Terrence Deal and Lee Bolman effectively use the metaphors of a Wizard and Warrior to draw meaningful distinctions among the necessary skill sets of successful leaders today. They postulate that effective leaders need to show the courage and strength of a warrior when it's necessary to mobilize their people or fight for what they believe. While at other times, they must exhibit the creativity, meaning and imagination of a wizard to create seemingly magical outcomes. Soundview likes this book because it effectively weaves these concepts with compelling examples from individuals who lead Xerox, Jet Blue and Mary Kay Cosmetics. Furthermore the book doesn't merely offer pithy solutions or easy answers to tough questions, but it engages the reader to expand their thinking in a more versatile manner to help instill passion and power. It is a truly unique offering among a maelstrom of business book sameness.

Innovative leadership lessons contrast dual forces

The market may be saturated with books about business leadership, but Lee G. Bolman and Terrence E. Deal move into fresh territory with this beautifully written, inspirational and practical guide. They impart advice on understanding workplace dynamics and nuances, and emerging as an effective leader. The book offers ample evidence to support the authors' basic assertion: Managers struggle because they have an idealistic approach that fails to account for organizational politics and intangible workplace factors, such as values, creativity and passion. The authors contend that managers who are unwilling to "play the game" will inevitably stumble and never realize their leadership potential. The book's wisdom and insight are built on the real-life lessons and experiences of dynamic leaders. We warmly praise this book and recommend it to any leader or potential leader who is willing to take a good, long look in the mirror.

Lead with passion and power...but also with principle and faith

Here is a synthesis of the core concepts in Lee Bolman and Terrence Deal's book: "The wizard and the warrior inhabit two distinct but overlapping worlds. The warrior's world is a place of combat, of allies and antagonists, courage and cowardice, honor and betrayal, strength and weakness...The wizard inhabits a realm of possibility, magic, and mystery. The wizard's strength lies not in arms or physical courage, but in wisdom, foresight, and the ability to see below and beyond appearances. The wizard brings unshakable faith that something new and better really is out there...The greatest leaders move and out of both roles, even if they are more comfortable with one or the other." Bowman and Deal carefully organize their material in terms of three warrior roles in business, the military, the American presidency, and basketball coaching, respectively: Toxic (e.g. Al Dunlap, Hermann Goering, Richard Nixon, and Bobby Knight), Relentless (e.g. Bill Gates, Ulysses S. Grant, George W. Bush, and Mike Rzewski), and Principled (e.g. Warren Buffett, George Marshall, Abraham, Lincoln, and John Wooden); and in terms of three wizard roles within the aforementioned categories: Authentic (e.g. Liz Claiborne, Norman Schwarzkopf, Ronald Reagan, and Phil Jackson), Wannabe (e.g. Ken Lay, William Westmoreland, Woodrow Wilson, and Rudy Tomjanovich), and Harmful (e.g. Frank Lorenzo, Hermann Goering, Warren Harding, and Dave Bliss). Throughout their narrative, they rigorously examine exemplary warriors and wizards, building a case for their observation that "the greatest leaders move in and out of both roles, even if they are more comfortable with one or the other." More specifically, the greatest leaders combine the strengths and virtues of Principled Warrior and Authentic Wizard in that they "wield both sword and wand, know how to create as well as defend, accept reality but will challenge it because they see unfulfilled possibilities, learn by sensing and intuiting, are both strategists and visionaries, and combine the power of commander and the courage of a champion with the wisdom of the counselor and the magical powers of the shaman." But they are by no means perfect. However, as Bolman and Deal suggest (and I agree), we admire them because they somehow overcome their human weaknesses to achieve extraordinarily difficult goals. "As is clear from examples like Abraham Lincoln and Nelson Mandela, you need not like war to be a warrior." Bolman and Deal also point out that, the warrior heart "must be found in a cause important enough to justify the costs of combat. For many leaders, heart develops over time through experiences that test their courage and strength in the face of rigorous challenge and worthy competitors." In this context, I am reminded of the fact that Mohandas Gandhi greatly admired Henry David Thoreau's concept of "civil disobedience" and applied its principles so effectively that India was eventually able to obtain its independence. Gandhi was ass

Just the thing.

As a business owner myself, and friend to many others, I know that it is important for business leaders to, in an obvious sense, lead. But there's more to leading then meets the eye. One must lead with a passion for what they do, with a love for what they do, and that is what this book teaches. Bolman and Deal do an impeccable job at showing us how to lead with "passion and power" through their examples. But the leader cannot always be passionate, he/she must sometimes become a warrior to make the tough choices that some other leaders could not make. I seriously recommend this book to business owners, team leaders, and really, to anyone as I feel that everyone can learn from what this book has to offer.

Great leadership for a lean manufacturing transformation

Although not a book specifically about transforming manufacturing operations, the leadership styles described are exactly what are needed for that difficult task. The transformational leader needs to be a "wizard"... creating the magic and inspiring the passion within the organization to reach the tipping point. And he must be a "warrior" to make the difficult decisions and hold strong when long term plans fly in the face of expectations for short term results.