Max DePree offers advice in two books on leadership--Leadership Is an Art and Leadership Jazz. In the first of these books, DePree offers a definition of leadership, and he suggests that we should consider the leader as a steward who would be expected to leave behind assets and a legacy. DePree discusses the leader in terms of what the leader owes to others, meaning what the leaders are responsible for and to whom they are responsible. Leaders bring assets not only to individuals but to institutions. Leaders also are responsible for future leadership, meaning that the legacy they leave is a lesson to others. Leaders owe much to others, and this is clearly because leaders are dependent on others as achieve their leadership because there are those to be led. The author states, "Corporations, like the people who compose them, are always in a state of becoming" (DePree, 1989, 15). This process of becoming is an important factor cited by DePree, and it applies to the leader, to the follower, to the corporation or institution, to everyone and everything. This is an important concept that we have to remember. It relates to daily life, showing that we are always learning, always adapting, and always becoming something different as a result. We would do well to help guide that development and the direction of our becoming, and much of what DePree says on the subject could help in this effort.
An interesting concept provided by DePree is that of the roving leader, or the leader who is there when needed. He says that roving leadership is a key element in the day-to-day expression of a participative process:
Participation is the opportunity and responsibility to have a say in your job, to have influence over the management of organizational resources based on your own competence and your willingness to accept problem ownership (DePree, 1989, 48).
No one is expert at everything, and thus there are hierarchical leaders and roving...