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Authors: Susan Kuczmarski and Thomas D. Kuczmarski
Reviewed
by Andrew Clancy,
Senior Editor
It's been said that every company has at least one, a leader that's a little … different. In today's business climate, the difference, thankfully, has nothing to do with the person's exterior and everything to do with how he or she approaches the team that's under his or her direction. If one were to ask the average employee to describe an executive, there is a good chance that the response would be as uniform as a set of white button-down shirts in a dry cleaner's plastic garment bag. Many managers have a style that leaves a rather bland taste in the mouths of their associates. Yet there remains that small, elusive group of freethinkers who challenge convention and make a great impression in both their employees' minds and the quarterly statements. These are the mavericks, the risk-takers, the square apples. In Apples Are Square: Thinking Differently About Leadership, authors Susan and Thomas D. Kuczmarski save readers the trouble of sifting through the bad apples to find the good. They collected information through interviews with a panel of 25 "values-based" leaders and spend the majority of the book weaving anecdotes with advice that may help soften the more hard-hearted leaders. The Kuczmarskis belong to the set of business writers whose examination of leadership is more spiritual than tactical. Readers who are looking for a replacement to Six Sigma's "DMAIC" method would probably be better served reading another title. Apples Are Square is intended more for the executive that cannot seem to match his employees’ motivations to his own. The authors postulate that this problem can be a thing of the past, particularly if the leader is stuck in it. In Apples Are Square: Thinking Differently About Leadership, authors Susan and Thomas D. Kuczmarski save readers the trouble of sifting through the bad apples to find the good. They collected information through interviews with a panel of 25 "values-based" leaders and spend the majority of the book weaving anecdotes with advice that may help soften the more hard-hearted leaders. The Kuczmarskis belong to the set of business writers whose examination of leadership is more spiritual than tactical. Readers who are looking for a replacement to Six Sigma's "DMAIC" method would probably be better served reading another title. Apples Are Square is intended more for the executive that cannot seem to match his employees' motivations to his own. The authors postulate that this problem can be a thing of the past, particularly if the leader is stuck in it. A square apple is, first and foremost, not the latest in a long line of top-down managers. The concept of team effort is something to which the square apple does more than simply pay lip service. The old method of one person issuing directives to a group is something the authors feel lost its validity. Workers are now coated with a layer of skepticism that can only be chiseled away by the leader's willingness to contribute actual work to a project. In addition, Apples Are Square encourages executives to give their approach to employees a bit of a makeover. Readers may be surprised to learn that the majority of workers can have their notions of a leader completely rearranged just by the occasional everyday conversation with the boss. Fear and misunderstanding perpetuate a workplace climate where both executive and employee view each other with mutual distrust. The Kuczmarskis accomplish a great deal by showing how simple it can be to remove these feelings. There will be certain groups of readers that may feel the Kuczmarskis are a bit serpentine in tempting them to take a bite out of Apples Are Square and disobey the longstanding laws of Corporate America. How easy can it be to reverse decades of operating under a single management style? This is where the frequent use of narratives from the "values-based" panel comes in extremely handy. Readers are not given a wish list of behaviors then left to guess at how to apply them. Instead, the authors make a point of letting the experts explain how change can occur in even the most hardened of environments. To the book's credit, Apples Are Square shows that change can be a challenge at times. However, the positive nature of the author's message reinforces their belief that a new, more visionary style of leader triumphs in the end. While the editor is not, nor has ever been, in favor of writers resorting to numeric methods (i.e. "Six Secrets to Success" or "Four Steps to a Better Team"), the authors' seven-step program is thorough enough to overturn any thoughts of taking the easy road. It would ruin one of the book's most pleasant surprises to reveal the derivation of the term "square apples." Rest assured it is connected to one of the panel of 25 and is a story that will long stay in the reader's memory the next time he or she is in a grocery store. Aside from its relevance to the overall message of the book, it may serve as a poignant reminder that greatness can have its beginnings in the shabbiest of circumstances. Leaving that mystery to tempt all readers, Apples Are Square is one piece of knowledge-giving fruit that should have only positive ramifications for executives. Apples Are Square: Thinking Differently About Leadership by Susan Kuczmarski and Thomas D. Kuczmarski is available from Kaplan Publishing. It is under consideration by Soundview Executive Book Summaries. If you'd like to subscribe to Soundview Executive Book Summaries, please click here. Soundview Executive Book
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