Good Humans Make Great Leaders
Inspiring Others Begins with You
Effective leadership starts with being an admirable human being, suggests the warm business guide Good Humans Make Great Leaders.
Drawing on a background in the military and working with Fortune 500 companies, Jody Fletcher’s engaging leadership guide Good Humans Make Great Leaders posits that personal virtues help people to inspire others.
Arguing that the virtues associated with being a good person, including kindness, empathy, and care, are also what make an inspiring and effective leader, this book forwards guidance for establishing a foundation of respect and trust with one’s employees. Its sections are about being a good human and being a good leader, with suggestions for people to work on themselves coming before suggestions for leading others. The chapters cover topics including communication, active listening, and motivation in depth, with some drawing distinctions between influence and control, and between mentorship and leadership. Each chapter ends with a list of questions to prompt reflection and engagement.
Its presentation down to earth—as with Fletcher’s admission “I don’t have a PhD or anything else that requires me to wear an awesome corduroy blazer with elbow patches”—this warm, good-natured guide includes popular culture and homegrown references, as with notes about the speed of Taylor Swift’s costume changes, the futility of trying to convince a child to clean their room, and about how being a good person often boils down to steps like not kicking puppies. Its jovial tone extends to its coverage of subverting expectations, where it notes that bad people may be influenced by society, social media, television, video games, or curses by ancient witches; elsewhere, it observes that “good humans generally are kind, treat people with respect, and aren’t evil geniuses trying to rule the world.”
The book often uses conceptual tools like the Wheel of Emotions to connect one’s feelings to their root causes, and the Skull Gym, which aims to strengthen connections between emotional awareness and emotional expression. It illustrates its ideas with a bevy of personal stories, as with anecdotes about veteran networking events, surfing, and spending time with family, though this also means that its points aren’t backed with much research. Instead of expertise, it riffs on its subjects in a lighthearted manner.
The prose is conversational, addressing emotions and psychology in a frank and straightforward way. Quips about the all-powerful Google machine, people being as empathetic as Darth Vader, and being a teenager a decade away from a fully formed frontal lobe sometimes preference accessibility over groundedness, though. For instance, psychological concepts are explained using references to Will Ferrell characters, Ron Swanson from Parks and Recreation, and Eeyore from Winnie-the-Pooh. The book’s blueprint for becoming a good person, leading according to one’s values, and exerting a positive influence on others is built on humor and flair, and its positive vision of leadership is based on love, listening, and personal development, resulting in a wealth of ideas for improving one’s relationship-building skills.
A winsome leadership guide, Good Humans Make Great Leaders suggests a path toward becoming a good person and an effective leader.
Reviewed by
Joseph S. Pete
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
