Walk the Walk, by Alan Deutschman

I just finished Walk the Walk, by Alan Deutschman. It's a short read, and could be finished in a night (I dragged it out over two myself).  The book came out in 2009, with great promotional fanfare. The blog was maintained throughout 2009 – looks like the final post was in January of 2010. Deutschman's theme is all in the full title: "Walk the Walk: the #1 Rule for Real Leaders."


His message is simple:  leaders are needed throughout organizations, and real leaders' actions are consistent with their top one or two guiding principles. The book has several vignettes scattered throughout, including Urban Myer at University of Florida, Jeff Bezos at Amazon, and President Barack Obama during his first few weeks as president.

Overall it was an interesting book, and the model of leadership makes sense in both theory and application.  Basically, the idea is to avoid cognitive dissonance when followers buy your brand of leadership.  In application, this means being consistent in both message and action.

It seems a little pulpy to me, as several of the vignettes leave out additional information that would be contrary to the author's point.  It doesn't make the model less valid, but does feel like the supporting evidences of the model's success are rather weak and incomplete in places.

Walk the Walk might be a fit for a quick read at the airport or while you're doing other things.  If you're looking for a deep and consistent look into what makes a leader tick, you might enjoy another title.