Book Review: Performance Leadership

When I was studying teaching and piano performance at the University of Colorado with master pedagogue Dr. Guy Duckworth, I learned about three styles of teaching: authoritarian, laissez-faire, and democratic. Authoritarian teaching, which I tried for a while in my teaching, was characterized by teacher control and a top-down approach. The teacher (me) determined the agenda for the lessons, how students were to approach the lesson content, and minimized student input. Laissez-faire teaching, which I also tried for a while, minimized my role as the teacher and basically left the students to determine their own lessons and standards. I found both of these styles of teaching profoundly unsatisfying and unproductive.

The democratic approach, on which I finally settled and which was espoused by Dr. Duckworth, encouraged student participation in setting goals and agendas, student participation, and collaboration. This style of teaching was most satisfying for me and produced the best musical results. My goal was to help students attain objective performance standards, and, with my more democratic style of leadership, my students were able to achieve those standards and were happy about it.

Performance Leadership, (209 pages, 2025) by Albert Wolfe seems more oriented toward this latter style of leadership. The book touts an approach to business management, “adaptive leadership,” that is more satisfying, unlocks more employee participation, and is more productive. It is a happier way to manage other relationships as well, such as in the family.

Based on the work of “20 executive coaches with a cumulative 10,000+ hours working with clients of all sizes across the world,” the principles espoused in the book are responsible for increasing the productivity of numerous businesses.

A number of frequently-used acronyms help to define the style of leadership. For example, EMMA (Expectations—both the boss’ and the employee’s, Motivations, Measurement, Accountability) and CCC (Courage, Curiosity, Care; i.e., the emotional tone of the work environment). These two acronyms also characterize good family management.

Wolfe’s company, Adaptive Leaders, a consulting firm founded in 2015 “to help leaders and organizations accelerate growth and develop healthier leadership and teams,” has been highly successful helping business leaders apply the principles espoused in the book to see the client companies’ productivity improve.

I was intrigued by the book, because, knowing the author (my son, by the way), I was delighted to see a number of Biblical principles worked out and applied in practical ways. For centuries, people have found that living as Jesus directed is a key to happy, fulfilling, and meaningful life. He called it “abundant” life. Albert Wolfe asserts, even though the Biblical roots are never explicitly acknowledged, that the approach in his book applies to both business and to family life, an assertion with which I would have to agree.

Here are five features of adaptive leadership as espoused by the book:

Egalitarian style: employees are to be treated with care and respect, just as in the New Testament even slaves were to be treated with kindness and respect (Ephesians 6:9).

Chesed: This is a Hebrew word sometimes translated “lovingkindness” or “loyal love.” This is the most frequent description of God himself in the Hebrew scriptures. It is a covenant term and indicates that each party in the covenant is seeking the welfare of the other. In “The Bonus Case Study” of Performance Leadership, a “reverse negotiation” is included, a perfect example of chesed (Psalm 136, 26 times in this chapter alone, translated “love”).

Value of work: each party (the boss and the employee) expect to work hard and that the work is good and valuable (Colossians 3:23).

Collaboration: the value of collaboration rather than division among employees and employer is heightened in Performance Leadership (Galatians 5:15).

Dedication to purpose: an overall tone of devotion to something larger than oneself is advocated in the book (2 Timothy 2:20-21)

Performance Leadership ultimately is about a style of leadership and living. The “Bonus Case Study” chapter applied the performance and management principles to the production of the book itself in only 3 months. The principles truly are practical and effective both for business leaders and for parents.

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