The Meaning Revolution: The Power of Transcendent Leadership

Kofman, LinkedIn’s v-p of executive development, delivers an earnest if overblown treatise on the power of inspiration as a leadership value. According to Kofman, many workers are disillusioned and unhappy because traditional command-and-control leaders rely on incentives, financial and otherwise, to encourage employees—which fail to actually inspire. Such leaders end up struggling with the challenges of disengagement, while their organizations stagnate. Transcendent leaders, on the other hand, inspire their followers by communicating that their workday has been spent improving the world in some way. Kofman stresses that workers need to know that their work has meaning, rather than simply having the chance of an annual bonus waved in front of them. Kofman guides readers through the quest for fostering a meaningful corporate culture, harmonious collaboration, and humbleness in the C-suite. All solid advice, but his admonition to stop relying on financial incentives and to instead bring employees into alignment with the company’s goals and values has been delivered elsewhere, many times. Readers stuck in a missionless rut may find the guidance helpful, but overall, this is a lot of book for comparatively little payoff. (May)