Leadership Lessons from Max De Pree

I recently finished reading Max De Pree's book, Leading Without Power. It's for my continuing education class in April. I found some nuggets. Here's a small sample.

* Leadership among volunteers is rather dependent...on shared values and commitment, on understood vision...mission statements, and on moral purpose.

* One of the easiest mistakes is to tell people that you have a job for them, that you need them to do it, but that the job is not very hard and not much preparation is required to be successful.

* There's a sense of urgency - movements are never casual.

* Renewal, one of the essential ingredients of which is abandonment.

* Non-profits tend to accept willingness for competence - a dangerous mistake.

* The naggers, the weak, the overambitious - every person deserves to be taken seriously.

* Followers need to be able to act on the language of the leader.

* You are not being fair to somebody if you do not delegate some important work.

* Leaders will explain to the organization how they intend to do their jobs on behalf of the group, how they will build on the group's strengths, how they will make difficult choices.

* If you are going to try something new, be prepared for it to work.

* Capacity does not mandate use.