Lead More, Control Less ─ 8 Advanced Leadership Skills That Overturn Convention

In their decades of leading groups all over the world, Marvin Weisbord and Sandra Janoff discovered they could get better results by helping people coordinate and control their own work rather than by issuing orders from above. This led people to higher motivation, greater creativity, and longer-lasting results than more traditional practices. The most effective way to lead, they found, is to focus everyone on the same goal, set up structures that encourage self-regulation, and get out of the way. But this means learning a set of unconventional skills.

Lead More, Control Less describes eight essential skills for establishing a culture that encourages people to take charge of themselves. Using examples and case studies, Weisbord and Janoff show leaders how they can share responsibility, defuse group conflicts, enable everyone to get the big picture, and more. And they also help leaders deal with personal pressures, such as managing anxiety and understanding why the negative reactions they get may have absolutely nothing to do with them.

By wearing authority more lightly, leaders can unleash commitment, initiative, and innovation beyond what they ever experienced before. Mastering these eight skills frees leaders to concentrate on larger issues, confident their people can handle the day-to-day work. With this approach, leaders truly gain more control by giving it up, using their position to empower others.

Marvin Weisbord?is an international consultant with more than fifty years’ experience with large corporations, NGOs, and nonprofits. He is the author of Organizational Diagnosis and Productive Workplaces and the editor and coauthor of Discovering Common Ground. Weisbord and Janoff founded?Future Search Network, an international collaborative of volunteers who deliver?strategic planning services worldwide in any language for any culture. They also?coauthored Don’t Just?Do Something, Stand There! and three editions of Future Searc
Sandra Janoff?is a consultant and psychologist who works with Fortune 500 companies, small businesses, communities, and nonprofits on whole systems transformation. Janoff and Weisbord founded?Future Search Network, an international collaborative of volunteers who deliver?strategic planning services worldwide in any language for any culture. They also?coauthored Don’t Just?Do Something, Stand There! and three editions of Future Search.