Leading Out Loud by Terry Pearce - Book review

Leading Out Loud: A Guide for Engaging Others in Creating the Future, 3rd Edition

By: Terry Pearce

Published: February 11, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 272 pages
ISBN-10: 047090769X
ISBN-13: 978-0470907696
Publisher: Jossey-Bass









"The distinctions that separate leadership communication from operational communication reflect the difference between a set of instructions and an internal connection", writes coach, consultant, founder and President of Leadership Communication, Terry Pearce, in the completely revised third edition of his landmark and classic book Leading Out Loud: A Guide for Engaging Others in Creating the Future, 3rd Edition. The author describes the critical importance of authentic communication by leaders, to build trust and inspire others, and shares provides the concepts and exercises to achieve effective communication skills in a globalized and interconnected society.

Terry Pearce understands that the ability to communicate effectively, in a manner that combines personal values with empathy for others, is an essential leadership skill. The author presents the various forms that leadership conversation takes, including speaking to groups of various sizes, written messages, and those informal discussions that happen at random times and places.

For Terry Pearce, these spontaneous conversations, where trust and authenticity are established, and where empathy for others takes place on a deeply personal level, is where leadership takes its real form. For the author, it is crucial for the leader to develop their won self awareness, in order to discover their own true and authentic selves, to build deep and trusting relationships with others.

Terry Pearce (photo left) recognizes that leadership is a place where art and science not only intersect, but become entwined, as the mind and the sole connect as one. Leadership is a deeply personal event, built on trust, authenticity, values, and empathy. These aspects of the leader are all shared between the soul and the mind. Neither science nor the soul has a claim on their entirety. These very fundamental human qualities are part of the holistic human experience. For leadership, they form the core of real communication and inspiration.

Terry Pearce divides the book into two overall sections. The first of the two sections considers the concepts of leadership, self awareness, and personal connection with others. The second section presents the construction of Personal Leadership Guide to enhance communications and to build trust authentic leadership. The areas covered in the two parts are as follows:

Part I: Leadership Communication

* Discovering what matters
* Deepening emotional awareness
* Connecting with others
* Writing: Applying discipline to authenticity

Part II: The Personal Leadership Communication Guide

* Establishing competence and building trustworthiness
* Creating shared context
* Declaring and describing the future
* Committing to action
* Leadership communication in action

For me, the power of the book is how Terry Pearce combines a theoretical and philosophical examination of the nature of leadership communication with the practices and exercises to develop leadership as a skill. The author offers insights into why there is such a crisis in leadership, and why trust in leaders and the organizations they are supposed to guide are failing. Terry Pearce offers an alternative approach to leadership communication through self awareness, authenticity, and empathy for others.

The book is a deeply personal look at the true guiding principles of leadership and its role in the inspiration of oneself and of those who share in the leader's vision. The create this sense of being part of something larger, people must be deeply and personally inspired to achieve greatness. The author offers the path through a soul and science based approach to communication. it's not enough to have the skills of communication in the technical sense if the soul isn't part of the vision sharing process. The role of the leader is not a destination, but a journey, and the personal leadership guide is the record of that self awareness and personal development journey.

I highly recommend the essential and deeply personal book
Leading Out Loud: A Guide for Engaging Others in Creating the Future, 3rd Edition by Terry Pearce, to any leaders at any levels of any organization, who are seeking to establish deeper and more trust build relationships with their followers. This book offers a road map to navigate that very personal journey along the path of authentic and empathic leadership.