Respectful leadership

The respect part has always been difficult to understand. Exactly that comes into play in this novel by Michael Ballé and his father Freddy. As in their other books, you are drawn into the story as if you were experiencing the learning process yourself. In this book, the CEO of a software company learns the meaning of respect from a representative of one of her most important customers. This customer has adopted respect as a corporate culture. Although the software company does a poor job, this customer gives the CEO a chance to turn things around... if she is willing to learn. With some reluctance, she does so and we sympathise with her struggles on how to lead with respect. As we read, we are educated ourselves in a lively and entertaining way. Suddenly, 'leadership' is no longer just a slogan, but comes to life as the authors manage to translate the concept of 'respect' into concrete behaviour.

Leadership is a popular topic. Social media like Twitter and LinkedIn contain many one-liners about and comments on leadership, sometimes it seems like everyone has his or her own theory about it. The authors do not add yet another theory to the literature. Instead, they make clear what leadership in a Lean organisation looks like in reality and in practice. 

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