Editorial Review:
Leadership in the workplace, says Max DePree, is like playing jazz; it's more an art than a science. Today's successful managers are attuned to the needs and ideas of their followers and even step aside at times to be followers themselves. As a result, they spark vitality and productivity from their work force. They culivate communication and spontaneity, diversity and creativity, and the unique potential of every person in the organization to contribute to the success of the team. In Leadership Jazz you'll learn
-How to hold people accountable but still give them space to make mistakes.
- How to balance the needs of your employees with those of the company.
- How to inspire change and innovation and maintain a sense of stability.
- How to practice the art of delegation.
- How to work constructively with creative people.
- How to assess candidates for senior positions.
- And much more!
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Customer Reviews
Average Customer Rating: 
This Book Is About the True Spirit of Leadership  2008-08-03
If you really wish to understand the true "spirit" of leadership, this is a simple, from-the-heart book that will lift your commitment to those you serve, so you can lift their spirits in turn. Mr. DePree's wisdom is profound. The notion of "Jazz" may be confusing to some. This book is not "jazzy." It's about the process of leading others in a way that encourages them to improvise and harmonize as jazz musicians do.
Leadership Vapor ...  2008-03-30
I received a copy of this book from upper management as part of an offsite planning retreat. Reading it later, it struck me that "there is no there there." Max DePree may be a nice guy and maybe was an effective CEO for Herman Miller, but trying to climb down from the clouds to distill his advice to a day to day operational level is like nailing Jell-O to a wall.
Come to think of it, "Leadership Jazz" may be somewhat like chicken soup for the management soul. It certainly won't hurt and just may help.
Perhaps the best thing about it is the fact that it is a quick read. Platitudes, sermonizing and bromides about servant leadership abound. I'm not saying it's bad, just a bit ethereal.
If this is leadership "jazz," I'm not sure I want to riff with that band ....
Waste of time  2007-07-02
I had to read this book in graduate school. As I read it - all I could think was 'how much did the publisher pay my school to make me buy this book?' With so much good material and real life examples about leadership - this book is not a significant source of inspiration and continually states the obvious.
Good points -
*Short *Easy to read *Inexpensive
Bad Points-
*Incomplete *Boring *Outdated
The Undeveloped Metaphor  2006-08-28
Jazz is the right metaphor for business today.
I have long thought that the popular metaphor for business leadership of an orchestra conductor is wrong in the rapidly changing conditions of today. To say that a CEO's job is like an orchestra conductor's -- to keep every one at the same place on the same page -- assumes there is a score that all of the musicians have to follow. There isn't.
Jazz demands improvisation. It gives individual musicians the freedom to create and to respond to each others creations. Max De Pree recognizes this and states this metaphor accurately at the beginning of his book.
"We have much to learn from jazz-band leaders, for jazz, like leadership, combines the unpredicability of the future with the gifts of individuals." (page 9)
But, De Pree doesn't develop this metaphor further. The title of the book, "Leadership Jazz", implies more than the book delivers in development of the metaphor.
The book does deliver very good advice on leadership. It is an excellent description of the power of "servant leadership" which is the real metaphor of the book, and, judging from the many stories De Pree relates from his years as the CEO and Chairman of Herman Miller, Inc., it is the metaphor for his life. Leaders do need to read this book.
I just wish De Pree had developed the richness of the jazz metaphor.
Servant-leadership 2006-08-14
DePree's book falls into the popular genre of a practical leadership primer. In poetic terms, he surveys many of the important attributes related to becoming an effective leader, though this, he admits, a difficult approach: "To catalog the attributes of a leader is like fighting the Hydra. Like Hercules, I confront two more heads every time I write one off" (p. 219).
He contributes to the servant-leadership literature through insights that are largely behavioral and cognitive, focusing on the relational, spiritual, and ontological aspects of serving others or the common good through leadership. "Above all, leadership is a position of servanthood. Leadership is also a posture of debt; it is a forfeiture of rights" (p. 220). His list includes integrity; vulnerability; discernment; awareness of the human spirit; courage in relationships; sense of humor; intellectual energy and curiosity; respect for the future, regard for the present, understanding of the past; predictability; breadth; comfort with ambiguity; and presence.
The strongest aspect of DePree's book is in the stories he tells, based upon decades of practical business experience, and the aphoristic moral dimension of that same experience. His voice is strong in this book; he is a steward of resources that enhance other's lives. "Good leadership," he said, "includes teaching and learning, building relationships and influencing people, as opposed to exercising one's power" (p. 177).
This is a consistent theme: the purpose of business is not to make money but to enhance life, that decisions are not made about individual employees but about families, that the leader is responsible for the renewal of the community.
President Bill Clinton provided this back-jacket blurb for DePree: "Max DePree has written two books: Leadership is an Art and Leadership Jazz. I highly commend them to all of you. They are very well done and very much worth the cost of the books. They're astonishing." I agree that this book is astonishing because it shows very clearly how enlightened servant-leadership, if broadly practiced in business, industry, and commerce in the United States, could transform the nation, uplift our citizens, and provide dignity and care for all American workers.
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