I'm trying to read this book but it is getting harder and harder to do so. It's preface and first chapter (The Leadership Challenge) were fine. However, the second chapter (The Greater Good) was awful. It spews a lot of anti-capitalism garbage served up as fact without backing any of its statements. Stuff you'd expect to hear from a socialist that is a professor in the fairyland of academia. First, you do not raise yourself up by tearing down others. Second, the author (singular because it is obvious Dobbs just lent his name and this book is all written by Nanus) essentially condemns capitalism and individualism and praises socialism and the collective. What a fool and a moron. Seriously. He acts as if there was still a debate over this issue. Third, he begrudgingly acknowledges anything positive that capitalism has done for society and only presents non-profits as doing the best things for society. He doesn't present what damage non-profits have done. In America, it was non-profits that did the greatest damage to society with the Prohibitionist movement. This unbalanced view greatly hurts what little good this book offers. Leaders of non-profits have to work with reality and not fantasy. And that's not the only thing that is off about this book.

The author just doesn't understand management at all. Now the book is about leadership, but, contrary to the author's stance, leaders are managers. He views them as two separate jobs and anyone that has actually lead an organization (I being one of those) knows they're not. Again, the author comes across as not being connected to reality ... like a professor. And I won't even touch the silliness of his E=mc^2 statement.

And his "organizational capital" is another example that he really doesn't understand business. He thinks he's coming up with some new form of capital that no one else has but when he lists what his "organizational capital" is, you can easily identify the items on his list as really belonging to the other established forms of capital that he just listed.

Now since I've read it this far, I am going to try to skim through the rest of this book and see if there's anything worthwhile in it. If you don't see a second review by me here, you will know that I didn't find anything that other books have done a better job of covering.

Whenever you buy a book about business (and non-profit organizations are businesses) and you see one of the authors is a professor, my best words of advice is to always put the book back up on the shelf. I've yet to read a business book by a professor that was worth reading. Sadly, this book is another example of that. What little solid information that I've read so far in this book is what others have said numerous other times and is the only reason why I didn't give this book a 1 out of 5. What new "information" this book presents is just fantasies you'd expect to hear from someone insulated from reality on a college campus.

There is a dearth of leadership literature aimed at the non-profit and public sectors. Leaders Who Make a Difference by Nanus and Dobbs helps to fill that void. It is a very valuable leadership guide and reference book for leaders in the non-profit sector. Their synthesis of the leadership literature and their emphasis on shared vision, strategy, and team building with tools and guides is very valuable to students of leadership as well as current mangers who are enhancing their leadership skills. The roles of a leader that are emphasized - visionary, strategist, change agent, coach, politician, and campaigner - are useful reminders to leaders in all sectors about the importance and complexity of leading well with a full set of skills. This book is being used in the curriculum of an International Family Planning Leadership Program with great success - so it has global relevance and appeal. Our fellows have found the book to be full of tips and tools that serve to validate the skills that they already have as well as guide them to devleop more facets of their leadership. I highly recommend this book to leadership development programs and practitioners in the non-profit and public sectors.

"As Editor of the Not-for-Profit CEO Monthly Letter, I had occasion to review "Leaders Who Make a Difference" for our readership, which consists almost entirely of executive directors and board members. I recommended it enthusiastically, telling our readers that `this volume should be on your desk; not in the book case, but on your desk.' After the review was published, I received the following letter from a nationally known consultant to not-for-profit boards." George B. Wright, Editor, "The Not-For-Profit CEO Monthly Letter," C3 Strategies, Portland, OR

"The challenges today's nonprofit organizations face make effective leadership a critical need. By combining relevant theory with case studies that exemplify leadership excellence, Nanus and Dobbs have created an invaluable and much-needed resource for all nonprofit leaders." Kathleen D. Edwards, consultant and author, Bowman-Edwards & Associates, Seattle, WA.

Academics and practitioners working in the nonprofit sector have long recognized that the quality of organizational leadership is a major determinant of agency performance. Much of the existing leadership literature has its roots in the corporate or public management fields. By contrast, Nanus and Dobbs have built up an analysis grounded in the experience and special institutional context of the nonprofit sector. As an academic teaching and researching in this area, I appreciate the focus on the nonprofit sector, the theoretical framework and the empirical accounts offered.

In my current nonprofit management course (begun before publication of the book), I found that assigning sections of the book: Chapters 1,7,8,and 9 (the guts of the theory), to be especially helpful. Each student is required to do a descriptive, detailed NPO case study. An element of this study is a descriptive account of a recent or current organizational management issue. The Nanus and Dobbs theory section enabled me and the students to put these management issues into perspective and to identify the critical role of leadership. Next spring, I plan to use the Nanus-Dobbs book as one of my assigned texts and to enlarge on the course treatment of leadership issues. I suggest that other academics consider a similar use.

I also expect that "Leaders Who Make a Difference" would be an effective and appealing aid in the recruitment and training of NPO board members. It offers a keen overview of the leadership roles the board can play; in addition it makes that role realistic, appealing and challenging.