Our culture’s legacy of leadership is in trouble, and the crisis is not one of competence but of character. The evidence is all around us. From the ashes of Enron, Adelphia, and WorldCom, there can be little doubt that the leadership that dominates corporate America is failing and extending to our other modern institutions as well – political, religious, family, and media. Les Csorba, a recruiter with a premier executive search firm, argues that “leadership is character in motion.” He draws from more than twenty years of leadership experience serving a United States Senator, a Governor, two U.S. Presidents as well as several CEOs and national religious leaders. In looking at the leadership style of today’s more well-known leaders, he unveils “7 Principles of Trust” and explores the nature of leadership as a distinctly moral calling. For the last fifteen years, Csorba has recruited leaders in both the private and public sectors. He is a Board Member of Yellowstone Academy, an inner-city private school. He has appeared on national television and radio programs, and his columns have appeared in USA Today, The Washington Times, and the Wall Street Journal’s “National Employment Weekly.”

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This book was most likely prompted by the financial scandal that hit Enron at the start of this century and consequently shook the ordinary investor’s faith in corporate governance standards. Les T Csorba, its author, makes no mention of this possible source of inspiration for the book. But since he served a couple of American presidents (including the current one) and has been recruiting business leaders for the last 15 years, it would not be unreasonable to conclude that the Enron scandal and the subsequent change in global opinion about corporate ethics must have influenced his thinking on the need for leaders to create trust in them, and, therefore, the book under review.

Indeed, the primary theme of the World Economic Forum's annual meeting at Davos in 2003 was — Building Trust. Critics found the 2003 agenda at Davos a little defensive and even apologetic. But given the number of financial scandals that shook the western corporate world around that time, such an agenda was a natural outcome. This book on trust, too, is a justifiable product of that mindset

The core of the book lies in the enunciation of seven principles underlying trust, which the author presupposes to be the most critical component of leadership that a leader must nurture. These principles may sound very prosaic and ordinary, but a close look at each of them will convince leaders of their relevance that transcends the barriers of time, place and culture.

Listing them here would be useful, as any aspiring leader would do well to keep them in mind: trusted leaders are cast from the crucible of their experiences, trusted leaders are moulded through “formal” or “informal” mentors, trusted leaders live out selfless character, trusted leaders have a sense that they are called to lead, trusted leaders handle privilege with great care, trusted leaders are tenaciously focused on their objectives. And trusted leaders invest in the lives and leadership of their followers. Mind you, none of these principles is very original, substantiated and expounded as they are by Biblical and historical references by the author. But credit should go to Csorba for the manner in which he has put all of these together and argued out a convincing case for each of these principles without sounding trite.

There is a strong moral underpinning to every argument that the author offers in support of the need for leaders to build trust in them and in everything they undertake. References to Biblical stories and characters, historical personalities with strong leadership skills, myths and even folklore have made the book an easy read. This is further supplemented by the neat divisions of the chapters and the sections within them. Each of the sections is almost self-contained. So, you could actually start reading the book from any section and yet not feel left out of the argument chain that the author has created.

The book launches itself with that famous picture by Pieter Bruegal — where six blind men try to lead each other, each of them not aware of the consequences of their blundering leadership skills. Based on this, Gert Hoffman wrote his novel — The Parable of the Blind. The sixteenth century picture allows the author to explain how the act of both blindly following blind leaders and leading blindly is treacherous. Hoffman’s novel allows him to outline the many follies and foibles of modern-day leaders, how they are “self-absorbed, withdrawn, bitter and distrustful”.

Csorba admits that the purpose of the book is not whether the blind can lead the blind, but to where and how. Regrettably, though, the thirteen chapters of his book fail to throw fresh light on this issue. There is ample illustration of how leaders of today have failed their generation and how they need to build trust and adhere to those seven key principles. But an analysis of what went wrong and how it went wrong is missing in the book. Without this element, the book ends up putting together a series of didactic sections on what a good leader ought to do to build trust. The author’s credibility may suffer a little too, particularly in those sections where he chooses to use George W Bush as a leader who inspired the trust of people in the wake of what he spoke and did immediately after September 11, 2001.

Reviewed By A K Bhattacharya