I Am Not a Great Leader - A Short Primer on Leading to Real Agility

By Mishkin Berteig

What are the roots of great leadership? In the complex, uncertain business world, leadership is more important than ever - or is it? This short book brings together leadership topics with the key concepts and practices for creating real agility in your organization. Stories, theory and practical advice are tied together in a short but potent challenge to the concept of the leader as hero in organizations.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Berteig Consulting Inc.
• Release date: Sep 9, 2018
• ISBN: 9780993606410

Book preview

I Am Not a Great Leader - A Short Primer on Leading to Real Agility

I Am Not A Great Leader - a Short Primer on Leading to Real Agility

Copyright 2018 by Berteig Consulting Inc. and Mishkin Berteig

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

ISBN: 978-0-9936064-1-0

Berteig Consulting Inc.

96 Carnegie Lane

London, Ontario, Canada, N6C 5X2

Part 0 – Preface to v1

This version of the book was started on Friday August 24th and the bulk of it written over the next few days on a round-trip to Hong Kong as a writing retreat.  I wrote on the shuttle from my home to the Toronto airport early that morning, I wrote at the airport, I wrote on the plane on the way to Hong Kong.  I didn’t go anywhere in Hong Kong; I stayed at the hotel Marriott to continue writing, and got back on a plane twenty-seven hours later.  I then continued writing with a stop-over in Vancouver on the Monday which is where the bulk of the writing stopped.  I continued with some additional content and edits until this evening, Wednesday September 5th.  All-in-all, 13 calendar days to write just under 22,000 words spread over 90 pages.  I’ve got lots more to write about leadership and agility but that will have to wait for v2.

I’ve been meaning to write about leadership and agility since about 2007.  It’s been a long time coming.

- Mishkin, September 5, 2018.

Part I – Introductory Material

I Am Not A Great Leader

I don’t mean the title of this section to be ironic, or to somehow subtly turn things around and have you realize that I am actually a great leader.  Far from it. Then why am I writing a book about leadership? Well, there’s a short answer and a long answer. The short answer is very simple: I need to publish a popular business book in order to build up my business. The long answer is more philosophical and I will share it, but for now, let me share my successes and failures as a leader so that you know what to expect from the rest of the book.

My first loyalty, my strongest identity is as a Bahá'í. This is a religion... that believes in God...that has rules of personal conduct and community function.  Not popular these days in the West, and particularly in my normal circles of association.  I don’t claim to be good at being a Bahá'í, but it is my primary lifelong aspiration.  My understanding of leadership is strongly influenced by my understanding of the Bahá'í teachings.  Other than here, I won’t make a big deal of that, but I still want you to know it. Why? Because I imagine that being part of minority religion with very different expectations than society around me has given me some empathy for those who may have suffered for other reasons -  Women.  People of colour. LGBTQ.  And the very poor (I was this too, by the way).  Empathy is part of leadership. I’m not good at it, but at least I’m trying.

My second most important identity is as a father. Here I feel my leadership failings most acutely.  I’ve been a father for over 20 years as of this writing and seeing my beautiful children, I know that I could have done so much more for them - strangely, by doing less for them in some ways. In case they read this book someday, I will say this: I love my children dearly and deeply, but I still don’t really know how to act on that.  Perhaps my experience as a father is not that different from many other fathers: I have put a great deal of effort into my professional life, and therefore, in retrospect, been absent from my children’s lives more than I wish.  And that despite lots of warnings along the way. My failures to date make me uncertain of my applying the phrase I would do anything for my children to myself. Would I?  Love is a funny thing; it may not be love until it is truly tested. Love is part of leadership.

My third part of my identity is as a husband. Here I know I haven’t done so well. I have been happily married for 21+ years – but my dear Melanie has made so many sacrifices and gone through so many trials for our marriage that I am certain of her love. Have I been there for Melanie during her times of difficulty? Well, at best I can say sort of.  (By now you must be thinking: who is this guy? He sounds like a total dork!  Patience dear reader, I hope to redeem myself.)  Anyway, my own failings around money and support for Melanie have left her to deal with many things alone that really should have been a shared burden (or avoided entirely). Her commitment to me and to our marriage and to our family is a source of wonder to me, and at times I fear it will end unexpectedly. So far so good. Melanie has persevered through incredible trials and difficulties that I would not be able to stand. Perseverance is a part of leadership.

I could go on, looking at each important part of my life and enumerating how I don’t measure up to my standard of leadership. However, the pathos may get too thick for even a patient reader...so I’ll move on to perhaps the most obvious dimension of leadership that almost everyone who buys this book will be interested in: business leadership. Here I will tell a longer story.

I’m Not Even a Great Business Leader

As of this writing, I’m 46 years old.  I’ve had my share of ups and downs.  As I mentioned earlier, I have experienced poverty (in Canada, mind you, with a pretty good social safety net – I’ve been on welfare, and struggled with adequate food and shelter, but I’ve never been homeless).  My memories of childhood are filled with Uncle Scrooge and Richie Rich comic books filled with depictions of fantastic wealth, and a physical reality of rarely having the means to get toys, see movies, eat out, or do any of the extra-curricular activities that my friends seemed to have in abundance.  Mostly, I