Flexible Leadership: Creating Value by Balancing Multiple Challenges and Choices, (2004).

Flexible Leadership: Creating Value by Balancing Multiple Challenges and Choices, (2004) Gary Yukl and Richard Lespinger, John Wiley and Sons, 288 p.

University administrators know that each participant in the research cycle has a pivotal role to play in the success or failure of a project. I know this too. As a Program Officer who dispensed funds, a Research Coordinator who spent funds, and now a mediator between the two as Associate Director of an Office of Research Services, I am aware that each person has a unique opportunity to diminish or enhance cutting edge research. I also know that questionable leadership exhibited by any of these players can be as damaging to a project as questionable science.

Yukl and Lepsinger (2004) make this point clear in their book, Flexible Leadership: Creating Value by Balancing Multiple Challenges and Choices. They suggest that leaders from all levels are pivotal to individual and organizational performance. As part of a complex system of interactions occurring over time, they must balance competing demands while assessing the impact that each decision has on those individuals with whom they interact. Rather than seeing themselves as arbitrators of rules and regulations, Yukl and Lepsinger believe that excellent leaders know when to follow, collaborate, alter course, or concede.

They discuss their views by organizing their book into three major sections, each relating to their model of flexible leadership. Comprised of a total of 12 chapters, this book begins with The Nature of Effective Leadership. As an introduction, this chapter describes various types of leaders and the myths associated with each. It lays the foundation for the remainder of the text by providing a brief overview of their model including a diagram consisting of four concentric circles radiating from a small inner core.

This inner circle, organizational effectiveness, is surrounded by another that is divided into three pieces, application and innovation, efficiency and reliability, and human resources and relations. The third circle is sliced into six and each relates to a particular leadership behavior or system that impacts on an organization. The outer ring entitled situational factors, is not subdivided and is placed there to signify the importance the authors attribute to the role that context or environment plays on any organization.

The ensuing 10 chapters are divided into four sections. The first section relates to the circles depicted in their model. These circles represent challenges associated with improving organizational efficiency and the types of leadership behaviors and management systems that can negatively or positively affect this efficiency. Section II is focused on the importance of assessing the external environment then making adjustments to invoke changes so as to maximize benefits or minimize challenges imposed by the environment within which the business exists. There is an emphasis on how effective organizations should seek to employ flexible leaders who absorb information from the environment, assess the impact then utilize existing systems and programs to facilitate the necessary adaptations. Section III focuses on human resources and relationships with an emphasis on how flexible leaders can support, recognize, empower, and build teams that interact positively to changing conditions so as to ensure the success of their enterprise.

The final section, Finding the Right Balance, looks at tradeoffs that must be made as the adapting process ebbs and flows in reaction to change. Chapter 12 provides the reader with guidelines and five competencies that should be considered when learning to be a flexible leader and ends with concluding remarks about flexible leaders who know what to do, when to do it and how it should be done. These guidelines include: building a commitment to a core ideology; building capable leadership and involving and empowering people at all levels; maintaining open lines of communication; employing a variety of reward systems that support several objectives; and supporting excellent leadership by example.

What makes this book of interest to many types of administrators is its assertion that leaders are not born but rather they can be taught. Most leaders must learn how to coordinate organizational systems and programs when changes are imposed upon them and how to apply their flexible leadership skills for problem solving. These individuals know how to involve appropriate participants from all levels from within and outside an organization who have an impact on each other and to focus their attention on the greater good of the organization as opposed to their own individual area of responsibility.

Yukl, a professor at the State University of New York at Albany, and Lepsinger, president of a consulting firm specializing in strategic management for business, have been active in the field of leadership since 1970 and are cognizant of the theories, techniques, and tools needed to ensure flexible leadership is effectively implemented. Richard Lepsinger has had experience in working with businesses to create and implement strategic plans and is a proponent of the 360[degrees] feedback method. Gary Yukl has written or co-authored several books and articles on leadership and is the recipient of numerous awards for his work.

These authors employ a pragmatic approach to leadership in this book. Easy to read, it addresses issues in a manner that encourages aspiring leaders to appreciate the complex world of leadership while encouraging them to implement seemingly simple but effective approaches to problem solving. Their ideas can be used in a variety of settings and although most examples relate to the private sector, individuals working in the non profit, health and educational sectors can easily adapt these concepts to their institutions. For example, the authors talk about envisioning change, facilitating collective learning, monitoring the environment, and undertaking strategic planning. None of these tasks is exclusive to organizations in the business world and can be applied to almost any organization that strives to succeed.

What makes this book of particular interest to research administrators is the concept that leaders are not managers whose main goal is to ensure compliance with rules and regulations, but instead they strive to find solutions that will benefit individuals, teams and organizations. Excellent communicators, they gain the commitment of all members of a group. They know that their actions, based on Yukl and Lepsinger's five competencies, in conjunction with a keen sense of situational awareness, are crucial to ensuring a positive outcome. They also know that they do not work in a vacuum and that developing the leadership capability of their colleagues, at all levels in their organizations, is equally as important as developing their own.

All stakeholders in the research administration field including university administrators, funding agents, researchers and collaborators, need to realize that they are all leaders involved in an enterprise ensconced within a sometimes unstable environment. Yukl and Lepsinger suggest that all players need to continually envision their success as they maneuver their way through the myriad of government regulations, systems and bureaucracies. Building their own leadership skills by assuming a variety of roles such as facilitator, follower or mentor, elevates university administrators to the position of leader, not manager. The authors' guidelines for team building and managing systems and programs within organizations are noted in Chapters 9 and 10 and are of particular interest to individuals involved in all phases of the research enterprise.

Knowing when to manage, lead, or concede, is an important aspect of a research administrator's skill set as we balance rules and regulations, assess risk, run interference, problem solve, and act as a source of information and support. Yukl and Lepsinger would suggest that all participants involved in research from university presidents to research assistants, are in an excellent position to assess the human, financial, social and cultural impact of their decisions and make decisions based on the greater good of the enterprise. They all should be taught the difference between leading and managing and, with the support of their superiors and subordinates, act accordingly.

For example, good leaders know when a management approach is needed. This is especially true in cases when adherence to ethical and safety guidelines is expected because high-risk research projects are involved. In the same instance, however, a leader is able to balance due diligence with the goals of the research project to ensure a positive outcome for participants, researchers, funding agencies, government regulators and the university. It is this balancing act that separates managers from leaders and elevates university administrators to the status of professionals. This status is enhanced by the acquisition of leadership competencies that include having situational and personal awareness, a systems approach to problem solving, a focus on what is really important, and personal integrity.

Yukl and Lepsinger provide an excellent overview of these competencies and illustrate them with business examples such as Southwest Airlines, an American company that has taken a lead in employee and customer satisfaction. By listening to employees, encouraging innovation and instituting changes based on their input, the company has been able to instill a culture of leadership where employees are encouraged to assume a variety of roles in their work day. Southwest is also mentioned as being an exemplary organization that scans the external environment then making "tactical changes without losing sight of the core competencies or disrupting its image."

Much the same can be said about research offices in universities. Yukl and Lepsinger would probably agree that the image of leaders in the administrative field would not be tarnished if they assumed a flexible approach to coordination of research projects. Instead they would be lauded for their innovation and ability to foster a climate of trust and cooperation.

Frances Chandler

Brock University 

September 2006