TOP DRAWER BOOK REVIEW
by
HL Carpenter

 

Leadership Presence
by Belle Linda Halpern and Kathy Lubar
280 pages; hardcover; $25.00
Gotham Books, New York, 2003

“All the world’s a stage.” So says Jaques in Shakespeare’s ‘As You Like It’, and so opens the first chapter of Leadership Presence.

What does the theater have to do with leadership?

In both cases, success depends upon the rapport developed with the audience.

Authors Belle Linda Halpern and Kathy Lubar, actors and co-founders of an executive coaching firm, have made a career out of teaching executives how to achieve that rapport. In fact, they say, anyone can, by applying the same techniques actors use.

You might think learning how to ‘act’ would turn you into an ineffective, insincere manager. After all, your work involves real life, not playing a role in a movie.

But Leadership Presence is not about becoming an actor. You can discover your goals and values and figure out how to empathize with others without studying under a drama coach. Instead, the book is full of lessons about the people skills that will enable you to communicate and connect. Those are talents good actors – and great leaders – have in common.

You may indeed be only one among many players on the world’s stage, as the character in ‘As You Like It’ went on to say. But the message in Leadership Presence is this: you can make your part a memorable one, for both yourself and your audience. The secret has nothing to do with makeup, lights and pretense.

It’s all about your ability to be real.

 

Review originally published April 2004.