Leadership is an Art

by
Max De Pree
A presentation by
Aleta Trammell
LIS 387.1
 Max De Pree

ƒ President of Herman
Miller.
ƒ 1983, Herman Miller
chosen by Milton
Moskowitz as one of
the one hundred Best
Companies to Work
for in America
 De Pree’s Theory of Leadership
„ A leader’s job is to understand the diversity of
people’s gifts, talents, ideas, and skills.
„ The art of leadership lies in polishing and
liberating and enabling those gifts.
„ A leader is a person who serves
„ Signs of outstanding leadership appear in the
followers.
 Leadership

• Leaders need to recognize when another individual’s skills

and gifts could do the job better than they can.
• Leaders must be able to gracefully step down and follow
the other person’s lead.
 Roving Leadership
• Roving leaders are
those who are there
when we need them.
• Roving leaders take
charge, in varying
degrees, in a lot of
companies every day.
Potential
• Leaders need to allow
space and freedom so
employees can grow
into their full
potential.
 Covenants vs. Contracts

„ Covenants „ Contracts
„ Induces freedom „ Breaks down under
„ Rests on shared the inevitable duress
commitment to of conflict and
ideas, issues, change
values, and goals
„ Cold and formal
„ Bring warmth, love,
and personal
chemistry
„ Enables work to be
fulfilling
 Dilemmas

• De Pree lists the worst thing that he must overcome is

entropy
– Entropy is everything has a tendency to deteriorate.
 Entropy

„ Some signs of Entropy

„ A tendency toward superficiality
„ When folks confuse heroes and celebrities

„ Manuals

„ A loss of respect for the English language

 References
„ De Pree, Max. The Art of Leadership. New York :
Doubleday, 1987.