Showing posts with label personal development. Show all posts
Showing posts with label personal development. Show all posts

How Great Leaders Get Great Results Review

How Great Leaders Get Great Results
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How Great Leaders Get Great Results ReviewAs there's no table of content here on Amazon, I would like to take the priviledge to type it for you as below:-
Ch 1: Why leaders need to communicate. CEO - Carlos Ghosn
Aspire
Ch2: Vision. Visionary - Steve Jobs
Ch3: Alignment. CEO - Anne Mulcahy
Perspire
Ch 4: Execution. CEO - Lou Gerstner
Ch 5: Discipline. Coach - Bill Belichick
Require
Ch 6: Risk. Governor - Jennifer Granholm
Ch 7: Courage. Senator - John McCain
Transpire
Ch 8: Results. CEO - Meg Whitman
Ch 9: Teaching your own results-driven story. Moviemaker - Steven Spielberg
As you can infer from the content table, the author leveraged heavily on the biographies of selected leaders to preach his ideas. With his good story telling skill and bright analysis, he definitely helped his readers to communicate better as a good leader on different levels and disciplines. Well worth the price and the time. Recommended!How Great Leaders Get Great Results Overview

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Learning Journeys: Top Management Experts Share Hard-Earned Lessons on Becoming Great Mentors and Leaders Review

Learning Journeys: Top Management Experts Share Hard-Earned Lessons on Becoming Great Mentors and Leaders
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Learning Journeys: Top Management Experts Share Hard-Earned Lessons on Becoming Great Mentors and Leaders ReviewLearning Journeys is such a pleasant book to read. This book is personal. It¹s personal essays by some of the great management and business leaders in the world. In the book, these leaders reveal the life-changing events of their lives. There are some sad stories, some funny stories, and some spiritual stories: some of the stories are business-related and some are totally personal. What struck me so much about this book is that it reveals the human side of business, something that is so often forgotten.Learning Journeys: Top Management Experts Share Hard-Earned Lessons on Becoming Great Mentors and Leaders Overview

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In the Spirit of Leadership: A Vision Into A Different Future Review

In the Spirit of Leadership: A Vision Into A Different Future
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In the Spirit of Leadership: A Vision Into A Different Future ReviewThis book is beautiful inside and out. With a gentle voice and a persistent nudge, Cheryl Esposito invites leaders to do the unthinkable: to bring their whole selves to work. Imagine a world where leaders were feeling, connected and heartfelt listeners who engaged with others from our commonality rather than from our differences.
This book will inspire anyone who is hesitating to speak the truth.
Highly recommended!In the Spirit of Leadership: A Vision Into A Different Future Overview

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Navigating Change: How Ceos, Top Teams, and Boards Steer Transformation (Management of Innovation and Change) Review

Navigating Change: How Ceos, Top Teams, and Boards Steer Transformation (Management of Innovation and Change)
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Navigating Change: How Ceos, Top Teams, and Boards Steer Transformation (Management of Innovation and Change) Review"Successful corporate transformation depends on effective decision making and leadership from three distinct but inter coonected entities: the CEO, the top management team, and the board of directors. The CEO is the executive who has overall responsibility for the conduct and performance of the firm; clearly his or her mindset, imagination, and behavior will have a defining effect on corporate adaptation. Ultimately, however, senior leadership is a shared endeavor, extending beyond the CEO to other top executives. Thus, the senior management group, widely referred to as the top management team, also has a central role in formulating and executing corporate transformation. The top management team is not simply an aggregation of individual executives. Rather, the dynamics and complementarities that exist within the team greatly influence corporate outcomes. Finally, the board of directors has legal responsibility for the governance of the firm...All three of these leadership entities are critically important to effective corporate adaptation under conditions of turbulence. This book examines all three, including their interconnections to one another and, particularly, their roles in designing and navigating effective corpotate change" (from the Preface).
In this context, in Chapter 6, Paul A. Allaire, chairman and CEO of Xerox Corporation, discusses in depth the role of the senior management team in bringing about a major transformation at his company. He argues that "Effective teamwork harnesses creativity and unleashes brain power; it leads to better solutions, better decisions, and improved business results through more effective implementation." In this invaluable article, after describing the centrality of teamwork at Xerox, and teamwork at the CEO level-the top management team, he concludes with some lessons from experience on what works and what doesn't work as following:
* Self-managed senior teams don't work.
* Remotely located teams work less well than teams in physical proximity.
* Laissez-faire or consensus leadership doesn't work.
* Ill-defned team objectives, processes, and rewards hamper performance.
* Teamwork starts with the CEO.
* Total Quality Management tools and processes can enhance teamwork.
* Roles, responsibilities, and expectations must be clarified.
* An effective governance process must be in place.
* Outside counsel and assistance helps.
* Teams need to be explicitly launched and then maintained over time.
Finally, Allaire writes that "Those are my insights on teams at the senioe executive level. I should also point out that there is no free lunch. No matter how deep your commitment, teamwork does have some negative aspects. Teams are time-consuming. You utilize more of the time and energy of top management than if you dictate a solution or a direction. You also run the risk that a tendency toward groupthink may develop...Continuous improvement means a continuous team approach to solving problems and staying on the right course. Team members need to know how valuable their contribution is. That's why at Xerox we not only teach teamwork, we celebrate it."
Strongly recommended.Navigating Change: How Ceos, Top Teams, and Boards Steer Transformation (Management of Innovation and Change) Overview

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Smarts: Are We Hardwired for Success? Review

Smarts: Are We Hardwired for Success
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Smarts: Are We Hardwired for Success Review
In one of Chuck Martin's previous works, Tough Management, he recommends "seven winning ways to make tough decisions easier, deliver the numbers, and grow the business in good times and bad." None of the "ways" is a head-snapper, nor does Martin make any such claim. The substantial value of this book is derived, rather, from responses by more than 2,000 senior executives and managers in 50 countries who participated in a survey conducted by NFI Research, Martin's firm. They completed a brief survey segment every two weeks over a period of 24 months. That is a key point because, over time both circumstances and respondents' reactions to them change. The final survey results thus have much greater credibility. Martin operates a global idea exchange and research engine with a network base of more than 2,000 senior executives and managers from more than 1,000 companies in more than 50 countries, including half of the Fortune 500. His observations and recommendations are thus based on an abundance of real-world data that he and his NFI associates continue to accumulate and then evaluate with meticulous care.
In this volume, which he co-authored with Peg Dawson and Richard Guare, Martin develops in much greater depth many of the core concepts introduced in his previous books. For example, insights concerning how both individuals and collaborative teams can achieve and then sustain superior performance by leveraging their strengths (i.e. talents, skills, temperament, and experience) when completing tasks for which those strengths are most appropriate. In this volume, the authors assert that there are certain brain functions starting at birth "and they are "`hardwired'" into every individual. Brain researchers have found that these skills are fully developed by the time you become an adult. These skills are called `Executive Skills' because they help you execute tasks." OK but so what?
As the authors then explain, our strongest skills will continue to be our strongest skills and our weakest will continue to be our weakest -- and are not significantly changeable - as we become adults. "The opportunity is how to deal with [strengths and weaknesses], and this book provides a framework for you to do that." They identify and then rigorously examines twelve executive skills that range from self-restraint to stress tolerance. Mastery of these skills by those who comprise the workforce within a given organization (regardless of its size or nature) will enable it to derive substantial improvement of its productivity, quality, employee recruitment, employee retention, training, teamwork, competitive edge, reduction of stress, meetings, operational execution, and information management.
Martin, Dawson, and Guare agree with countless others that organizations must measure only what is most important, and they should do so with consistency. Hence the value of diagnostic tools such as the "Executive Skills Profile" that he provides in Appendix B. It enables each of those who read this book to tap into their greatest Executive Skills strengths and then leverage them when completing whatever tasks to which they have been assigned. At this point, it is important to keep in mind that one of the greatest challenges for supervisors is to make certain that they are locating those for whom they are directly responsible in proper alignment with tasks appropriate to their given strengths. Organizations that sustain such alignment are "hardwired for success" because their people - as individuals and as members of a team - are themselves "hardwired for success."
In my opinion, this is Chuck Martin's most valuable book, thus far, and another brilliant achievement. He and his co-authors, Peg Dawson and Richard Guare, invite those who wish to obtain updates and/or share their own comments to visit www.smartsthebook.com.
Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Martin's other books. I also recommend Bill George's Authentic Leadership and True North, Michael Ray's The Highest Goal, Ram Charan's Know-How, Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman's First, Break All the Rules and Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton's Now, Discover Your Strengths, Buckingham's The One Thing You Need to Know and Go Put Your Strengths to Work, and Success Built to Last co-authored by Jerry Porras, Stewart Emery, and Mark Thompson.Smarts: Are We Hardwired for Success Overview

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Power of An Hour: Business and Life Mastery in One Hour A Week Review

Power of An Hour: Business and Life Mastery in One Hour A Week
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Power of An Hour: Business and Life Mastery in One Hour A Week ReviewThis book is an amazingly thorough, dense, content-packed work that should be on every business person's bookshelf. It is a tremendous resource for business consultants and coaches as well as the business owner. Dave Lakhani offers an effective system to implement not just change, but mastery in your business and personal life.
That being said, this book is not for everyone. In some ways, this is a difficult book. The exercises that Dave leads you through are thorough and and you will end up asking yourself some hard questions. Fortunately, you only have to tackle it an hour at a time. Dave doesn't do things half-way; his attitude seems to be "Why wouldn't you want to be the best in whatever you do?" The man is ferocious.
In that regard, I think this book is brutal and will weed out all but the people most determined to get their businesses and their lives to a level of excellence. And maybe that is okay. Too many people are happy comparing themselves favorably to mediocre competition. Let the slackers read the feel-good, warm-fuzzy books. This book is designed for people who work on a level of excellence and demand more from themselves and their lives.Power of An Hour: Business and Life Mastery in One Hour A Week Overview

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Building the Bridge As You Walk On It: A Guide for Leading Change (J-B US non-Franchise Leadership) Review

Building the Bridge As You Walk On It: A Guide for Leading Change (J-B US non-Franchise Leadership)
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Building the Bridge As You Walk On It: A Guide for Leading Change (J-B US non-Franchise Leadership) ReviewWhile this is the third book written by Quinn in a trilogy on the process of helping individuals and organizations to make deep change, I happened to read this one first. I then eagerly read his other two books.
It is human nature to find a comfort zone and then try our hardest to stay in that zone. We feel safe, secure, and in control in our comfort zone. Sometimes, however, we try so hard to stay in the zone that we exert more energy than it would take to change. So why not change? Change is difficult and necessitates giving up power. Prior to reading the book I felt it was almost admitting failure. Change can be especially difficult when we are acting in the role of leader, and trying to move a large group of individuals toward the fulfillment of a goal or vision. How, then, do we lead and manage change? How do we transform an organization?
Leadership is a state of being, which Quinn calls the "fundamental state of leadership". This is a state in which we are open to personal change, and consequently draw others to us by our change in behavior. In the book Quinn gives a detailed explanation of this new model of leaderhip and thoroughly examines the personal nature of change. He gives examples ordinary people who have led extraordinary change efforts. These stories motivate, they bring heroic efforts within reach of the ordinary individual.
Executive, middle manager, associate, student, father or mother - all will benefit from this book.Building the Bridge As You Walk On It: A Guide for Leading Change (J-B US non-Franchise Leadership) Overview

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Measure of a Leader: The Legendary Leadership Formula For Producing Exceptional Performers and Outstanding Results Review

Measure of a Leader: The Legendary Leadership Formula For Producing Exceptional Performers and Outstanding Results
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Measure of a Leader: The Legendary Leadership Formula For Producing Exceptional Performers and Outstanding Results ReviewIn Measure of a Leader, behavioral experts Dr. Aubrey Daniels and James Daniels propose yet another "new model of leadership." Under this model, the authors suggest that the leader's role is to create conditions under which followers apply discretionary effort to implement the organizational mission, vision and values. They define discretionary behavior as "that behavior that a person could do if they choose, but for which they would not be punished if they
didn't...commonly (referred) to as going above and beyond the call of duty" (p. 16).
Unlike other books on leadership which focus on the leader's behavior, this book claims that the follower's behavior in response to the leader is what truly defines effective leadership. The four criteria of follower behavior include followers:
1. Apply discretionary effort towards the leader's goals;
2. Voluntarily sacrifice self-interest for the leader's cause;
3. Reinforce or critique others to encourage conformance to the leader's teachings; and
4. Establish guidelines for their own personal behaviors based upon what they perceive the leader
would approve or disapprove.
The book covers 19 chapters in an easy-to-read 200 pages. I found chapter three on discretionary effort, chapter five on leaders and managers, chapter nine on measuring follower response, and the Antecedent-Behavior-Consequence (ABC) Model of follower motivation in chapter 11 to be of particular interest. The Appendix includes a very useful checklist highlighting 50 things to do for increasing leadership impact.
The writing is crisp and matter-of-fact, almost free of academic jargon that can confuse readers. It's clear through the examples and terminologies the authors use that they are incorporating lessons from their personal experiences as military leaders into this model. The book's coverage of the leader's application of positive reinforcement to create momentum for change is valuable since organizations typically rely on negative reinforcement and then wonder why the right behaviors aren't demonstrated consistently. Negative reinforcement reduces the likelihood of negative behaviors but doesn't encourage acceptable behavior--positive reinforcement does.
Recommended for business consultants, corporate managers, or professors interested in understanding the importance of follower behavior in defining effective leadership and how to inspire discretionary effort in achieving organizational mission, vision, and values.
Armchair Interviews says: Another look at leadership.Measure of a Leader: The Legendary Leadership Formula For Producing Exceptional Performers and Outstanding Results Overview

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Peaks and Valleys: Making Good And Bad Times Work For You--At Work And In Life Review

Peaks and Valleys: Making Good And Bad Times Work For You--At Work And In Life
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Peaks and Valleys: Making Good And Bad Times Work For You--At Work And In Life ReviewThe first Spencer Johnson book I read was Who Moved My Cheese. This book follows the same formula. The reader is told a story. At points in the story the author stops and explains a self-help message, learned by one or more characters, which is relevant to the reader. A series of self-help messages (which are relevant individually or as a group) lead to a conclusion about how to make life better.
This story focuses on a man who is troubled by life. A friend tells him a story about a man, also troubled by life, who lives in a valley and makes a trek up a peak to see a wise man. The man also makes other treks up and down other peaks and valleys.
In this story the man learns that peaks and valleys are part of life. The key to living a richer life is how you perceive and address the peaks and valleys and what you learn while you are traversing the peaks and valleys.
I have found the information in Spencer Johnson's books often times to be intuitive. For instance one message in this book is "You can have fewer bad times when you appreciate and manage your good times wisely."
Yet Spencer Johnson also addresses truths that I often want to forget. One message is "The pain in a valley can wake you up to a truth you have been ignoring."
Finally Spencer Johnson always manages to come up with a couple of things I had not really thought about. For instance one message is "The path out of a valley appears when you choose to see things differently."
As mentioned these messages correspond to events in the story. Spencer Johnson is most effective when the events in the story lead the reader to the message. In fact, when he is at this best the author does not even need to state the message because the reader will get the message without having to read it.
If you liked Spencer Johnson's works before you will be pleased with Peaks and Valleys. If you have never read anything by him and you are looking for a story which leads you to key truths about life, without a bunch of analysis, then you will enjoy this work.
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Total Leadership: Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life Review

Total Leadership: Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life
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Total Leadership: Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life ReviewI took two intercontinental flights recently and took the time to go through the "Total Leadership" program. And, before I begin my review, I want to say that over the past ten years or so I've seen an absolute avalanche of "leadership" books come out - most of them gimmicky and useless. This is not one of them and in fact I believe the title may deter people from purchasing this; do not be one of them.
"Total Leadership" is about finding your way when you have multiple responsibilities tugging you in different directions. Until now, I've often felt family pulling me one way, only to find the more time I spend with them the more I resent the time it takes away from work. Similarly, on business trips for example, I fight with feelings of guilt for being away from my family. And that's not to mention the the toll all of this takes on my health, when I'm too busy to exercise or just watch the game with friends. I'm here to say this book can help, like finding the long lost manual and finally figuring our how to do new things with a product, this book acts as a guide to finding a semblance of control in your life. It's not about sacrifice, and it's definitely not found in the idea of "balance", this book advocates a powerful third way: overlapping your domains and drawing boundaries.
What makes this book especially effective are the exercises the author puts the reader through. The reader is asked to define the issue, starting with the multiple responsibilities and challenges s/he faces, then it moves on to defining your domains, where is it that you spend your time? Most of the readers (including myself) would find four areas: self, family, work and community. Then, with domains defined, you can identify stakeholders in each domain and begin the process of finding ways "to live your life in accord with what really matters to you." The reader is asked to discuss his/her vision for a future life (post-change) with trusted individuals s/he has previously identified. A particularly effective step is then speaking with others about living your life differently, such as: your boss, significant other and friends, and getting their opinion and feedback on your plan, and as difficult and challenging as this may be it ends up providing the most powerful incentive to change through accountability and stakeholder buy-in. In many cases, I found that as much as I was building bridges between domains in my life, I was also creating boundaries (for example, no longer do I check my blackberry or the Internet between the hours of 6pm - 9pm.) But some of the biggest changes are personal ones that are for me and my family, other readers will likely find similar decisions they make without necessarily sharing them.
This book is not about easy decisions, or difficult ones, its about drilling down to what's most important in your life and building from there.
Ultimately, this book is required reading once, in my opinion, you are put in a position of responsibility. It is effective in maintaining a mindset conducive to responsible living, it provides a non-cookie cutter approach and it creates change in your life through practical exercises.
For these reasons, this reviewer highly recommends "Total Leadership."Total Leadership: Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life Overview

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The Gifted Boss Revised Edition: How to Find, Create and Keep Great Employees Review

The Gifted Boss Revised Edition: How to Find, Create and Keep Great Employees
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The Gifted Boss Revised Edition: How to Find, Create and Keep Great Employees ReviewI have worn out several of these little books, how can you not once you start reading. This is yet another one of Dauten's Diamonds!!The Gifted Boss Revised Edition: How to Find, Create and Keep Great Employees Overview

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The On-Time, On-Target Manager: How a "Last-Minute Manager" Conquered Procrastination Review

The On-Time, On-Target Manager: How a Last-Minute Manager Conquered Procrastination
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The On-Time, On-Target Manager: How a "Last-Minute Manager" Conquered Procrastination ReviewI have always enjoyed Ken Blanchard's management books because they deliver simple and straightforward management principles in an easy-to-learn style. For example, The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey is a classic of proper delegation.
Unfortunately, the Last Minute Manager was not up to the usual standards of this series. The book was not compelling and did not really teach the reader a solution to the problem of procrastination.
*The basic problem was that the book did not have a simple system to teach. Though the system was called The Three P's these were really headings for a complex variety of questions, ideas and principles that made the execution process more complex than it needed to be. The fact that the third "P" started with C was a bit jarring. The book claimed this was a mnemonic device but I see it more as an symptom of the fact that the whole model needed more work.
*The main character is a doofus. I didn't find myself cheering for his success, I simply found myself annoyed with him. The descriptions of him as "Bob the last-minute Manger", "Bob the suddenly-surprised Manager", "Bob the newly-focused Manager" etc were also annoying.*The book had too much theory and not enough tactics. It presented you with high levels questions and ideas about your priorities but it was light on examples of how to use them. For example it shows you a "triage" form but we never see Bob use it.
*There were no examples of how Bob the-highly-annoying Manager used his new found skills to improve his work or productivity. The book did not clearly tie the process in the book to the problem of lateness, poor-quality, and stress.
There is definitely room for a Blanchard book on the problem of time management. I'm afraid that I can't recommend this one. Instead I recommend "First Things First" by Steven Covey for those struggling with this issue. It is much more work to read, but I think it solves the problems that afflict Bob in this story in a more straightforward manner.
Finally there is a pet peeve. Why do all these management book use married men as examples of people who need to be fixed? I agree that the problem of choosing a sex for someone with a problem is vexing, and its most likely that married men will be the least likely to complain. That said, I think there is room for some originality in this realm. The work world has a much wider constituency than married men named "Bob". I hope we see it reflected in future books.The On-Time, On-Target Manager: How a "Last-Minute Manager" Conquered Procrastination Overview

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Women Lead the Way: Your Guide to Stepping Up to Leadership and Changing the World Review

Women Lead the Way: Your Guide to Stepping Up to Leadership and Changing the World
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Women Lead the Way: Your Guide to Stepping Up to Leadership and Changing the World ReviewWomen Lead the Way is a powerful analysis of the status of women in the world. But it is truly groundbreaking in one way that many previous books of its type are not:
it provides a concrete guideline as to how EVERY women, regardless of where you are in your life - student, homemaker, career woman, or retiree - can impact the status quo and contribute to the advancement of women. Each reader should pay special attention to the "This Week I Will..." boxes. Easy tips on how each of us can make a difference.Women Lead the Way: Your Guide to Stepping Up to Leadership and Changing the World Overview

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The One Thing You Need to Know: ... About Great Managing, Great Leading, and Sustained Individual Success Review

The One Thing You Need to Know: ... About Great Managing, Great Leading, and Sustained Individual Success
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The One Thing You Need to Know: ... About Great Managing, Great Leading, and Sustained Individual Success ReviewBuckingham's book is very good overall; the practical anecdotes he provides of people actually DOING the "one thing" are compelling, and his style is entertaining, and yet no-nonsense.
In giving us "the one thing," Buckingham emphasizes the need for what he calls the "controlling insight" to provide a means not only for getting on to the field of play, but "how to win and keep winning the game."
Armed with this description, he unveils what, based on his considerable experience and research, he considers the controlling insight about great managing, great leading, and sustained individual success.
Here are the "one things" for each:
Managing: "Discover what is unique about each person and capitalize on it."
Leading: "Discover what is universal and capitalize on it."
Sustained individual success: "Discover what you don't like doing and stop doing it."
Along the way, Buckingham provides some excellent points of focus, including a very important differentiation between managing and leading that too many of his contemporaries have overlooked: "When you want to manage, begin with the person. When you want to lead, begin with the picture of where you are headed."
Predictably though, much of the argument for each of the three controlling insights is predicated upon strengths theory, which Buckingham and Clifton popularized with "Now, Discover Your Strengths." In the management chapter, the anecdotes more or less focus on individuals who are able to identify the strengths of their people, and put them to the best possible use. In the sustained individual success chapter, he takes strengths theory a step further, advocating not only discovering your strengths and cultivating them, but eliminating, or managing, those areas in which you are weak as a primary (where "Now" made it more secondary) pursuit.
It is primarily for these chapters that I say some of the material is recycled. However, when you have the research to back up the claims, as Gallup (for whom Buckingham no longer works) certainly does with the StrengthsFinder instrument, you can hardly deviate from it very far.
Another way in which the material is somewhat recycled, though, is in its similarity to Collins' "Good to Great." Buckingham praises the work of Collins in some points, but takes minor swipes at it in others. This is a strange irony in the book, as Buckingham's arguments are very similar to those of Collins, just phrased differently. For example: Collins' "level 5 leadership" entails what he calls "The Stockdale Paradox"--a willingness to look at the brutal reality of the situation, but remain hopeful and determined that one will overcome it. Now, from Buckingham: "When I say leaders are optimistic I mean simply that nothing--not their mood, not the reasoned arguments of others, not the bleak conditions of the present--nothing can undermine their faith that things will get better."
Buckingham's slightly different definition of words like optimism (which could easily be defined as hope) and humility cause him to see Collins in a slightly different light, in spite of the fact that their findings are almost exactly the same. I found myself slightly disappointed by this, but I would recommend this book nevertheless, as it is an excellent compendium of insights overall from a man that few would dispute has become a global leader in these areas.
One humorous note: I'm fairly certain Buckingham has signed a two book deal with Free Press, so I'm anxiously awaiting the second book, especially as he has already given us "The One Thing You Need to Know." :-)The One Thing You Need to Know: ... About Great Managing, Great Leading, and Sustained Individual Success Overview

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The Truth about Leadership: The No-fads, Heart-of-the-Matter Facts You Need to Know Review

The Truth about Leadership: The No-fads, Heart-of-the-Matter Facts You Need to Know
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The Truth about Leadership: The No-fads, Heart-of-the-Matter Facts You Need to Know ReviewAlthough I live and work in the leadership industry and am an author, I have to confess that I am not a huge fan of leadership books. They tend to be preachy without justification, and too many are written by thinkers who have never done, or doers that don't think. The Truth About Leadership is just the opposite, an evidence based, practical book written by highly experienced thought leaders, boiling down leadership to its essence. That's not to say it's just a "basic" leadership book or a primer--even those of us who have been leading for a while will benefit from reading it. It really is a brilliant little gem.The Truth about Leadership: The No-fads, Heart-of-the-Matter Facts You Need to Know Overview

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Leadership from the Inside Out: Becoming A Leader for Life Review

Leadership from the Inside Out:  Becoming A Leader for Life
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Leadership from the Inside Out: Becoming A Leader for Life Review"While reading this book you may think, 'Is this book about leadership, or is it about personal development?' It's about both". Kevin Cashman writes, "As much as we try to separate the leader from the person, the two are totally inseparable. Unfortunately, many people tend to split off the 'act of leadership' from the person. We tend to view leadership as an external event. We see it only as something people do. The view of this book is different. Leadership is not simply something we do. It comes from somewhere inside us. Leadership is a process, an intimate expression of who we are. It is our being in action. Our being, our personhood, says as much about us a leader as the act of leading itself. Paul Walsh, Chairman and CEO of Pillsbury, recently told me, 'The missing link in leadership development is growing the person to grow the leader'. As we grow, so shall we lead...As we learn to master our growth as a person, we will be on the path to mastery of Leadership from the Inside Out" (pp.18-19).
Within this framework, Kevin Cashman identifies seven pathways to mastery of Leadership from the Inside Out. He says that "These pathways to mastery are not stages of development arranged in a sequential or hierarchical order. Rather, they are an ongoing, interrelated growth process in which the pathways constantly are illuminating one another" (pp.28-29).
1. Personal Mastery / Leading Through Authentic Self-Expession: It is the onging commitment to unfolding and authenticaly expressing who we are.
Principles: Take total responsibility, practice personal mastery with others, bring beliefs to conscious awareness, develop awareness of character and persona, listen to feedback, consider finding a coaching process, and be flexible.
2. Purpose Mastery / Leading by Expressing Our Gifts to Create Value: It is the ongoing discovery of how we express our gifts to add life-enriching value to the world.
Principles: Focus on how to make a difference, get in touch with your values, act "on-purpose", be purposeful in all domains, encourage others to find purpose, seek the goal, learn from "failure", and be flexible.
3. Change Mastery / Leading in the Flow: It involves embracing the purposeful learning contained in the unending, creative flow of life.
Principles: Be open to learning, practice present-moment awareness, integrate immediate focus and broad awareness, trust yourself, develop resiliency through mental-emotional stretching, practice the change mastery shifts, and take the leap.
4. Interpersonal Mastery / Leading Through Synergy: It is the dynamic blending of personal power with synergy power to create value and contribution.
Principles: Build relationship bridges, balance personal power with synergy power and contribution power, build awareness of intention-perception gap, personal mastery and interpersonal mastery are intimately connected, become aware of your structure of interpretation, and practice the five touchstones (know yourself, listen, express, appreciate, serve) to authentic leadership.
5. Being Mastery / Leading Through Being: It is connecting with the silence and peace of the innermost depth of one's character to support more dynamism, effectiveness, and contribution.
Principles: Take your own journey into being, resolve life challenges by going to a deeper level, consider learning to mediate, and integrate more reflection into your life.
6. Balance Mastery / Leading by Centering Our Life: It is the dynamic centering of our life to build resilience and to enhance effectiveness and fulfillment.
Principles: Choose wisely, be on-purpose, rest and reflect more, exercise for enjoyment, simplify your life, and loosen up.
7. Action Mastery / Leading as a Whole Person: It is the ongoing commitment to creating value through enhanced authenticity and self-expression.
Principles: Seek the most essential first, approach growth and development as an integrated, lifelong process, take total responsibility, value consistency over intensity, set aside worry, doubts, and negativity, don't just walk the talk, become the talk, and build awareness through inside out journaling.
Finally, Kevin Cashman argues that "Certainly the principal purpose of Leadership from the Inside Out is to give people tools for personal growth and transformation leading to leadership growth and transformation. But its true potential contribution is more than that. Its purpose is more than just helping a bunch of seperate individuals to grow...Growth is fulfilling as it touches and enriches the lives of others" (p.203).
I highly recommend.Leadership from the Inside Out: Becoming A Leader for Life Overview

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Still Surprised: A Memoir of a Life in Leadership (Jb Warren Bennis) Review

Still Surprised: A Memoir of a Life in Leadership (Jb Warren Bennis)
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Still Surprised: A Memoir of a Life in Leadership (Jb Warren Bennis) Review
I have read and reviewed most (if not all) of Warren Bennis' books and most of his articles. This book is different from anything he has written previously because Bennis allows his student to accompany him on a journey back in time. Written with the considerable assistance of Patricia Ward Biederman (who was also centrally involved with earlier works such as Organizing Genius, Transparency, and The Essential Bennis), this volume combines a wealth of historical information with Bennis' comments on those he believes to have had the greatest influence on both his personal and professional development as well as reminiscences on those experiences, events, successes and especially failures, defining moments, and cultural forces that serve as a frame-of-reference for the evolution of his personal and professional relationships.
Bennis was born on March 5, 1925, and grew up in Westwood, NJ. However, he does not follow a chronological sequence when developing his narrative. In the first chapter, "The Crucible of War," he focuses on his World War Two experiences in the U.S. Army at age 19, "the rawest second lieutenant in the U.S. Army." Following the conclusion of the war, he realized that he didn't want his old life back and probably could not have had it even if he wanted it. "I wanted to invent a new one." The next chapter focuses on his years as a student at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. The contrasts between the indescribable horrors of the battlefield and the pastoral innocence and serenity of a liberal college campus are especially striking. Although deeply grateful for the experiences both worlds provided (especially what he learned from mentors such as Captain Bessinger and Douglas McGregor) but ever restless, Bennis and his newlywed wife (the former Lucille Rose) relocated to the Boston area where he continued his formal education at MIT.
To this point and indeed until the conclusion of the book, the reader tags along as a companion to whom Bennis confides without hesitation but with selection of what (then or now) most interests him as well as what perplexes, irritates, and even angers him. At times, at least to this reader, he seems 85, at other times the age he was in a given situation or stage of his journey. The nature of the memoir is that it consists of what the memory recalls, to be sure, but also what it selects to share. Bennis remembers more than he shares, for obvious reasons, but the accumulative effect is one of candor. He maintains an informal, almost conversational tone with his reader without seeming disingenuous or self-serving.
He discusses his year abroad studying at the London School of Economics, his renewed association with MIT and the intellectual community in Cambridge, his involvement with the National Training Laboratories and its T-groups, the Institute for Management and IMEDE in Lausanne, the State University of New York at Buffalo, the University of Cincinnati, and the University of Southern California; also time on the faculties of Harvard and Boston University, the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIM-C), INSEAD and IMD. He also discusses his service as chairman of the Advisory Board of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University's Kennedy School, as a visiting professor of leadership at the University of Exeter (UK) and as a senior fellow at UCLA's School of Public Policy and Social Research.
If there were a Mt. Rushmore monument for the business world, Bennis would probably be among the honorees (surely joined by Peter Drucker and hopefully by one of my intellectual heroines, Mary Parker Follett). Although Bennis shares a number of personal details, such as those concerning his various marriages, I have no interest in them as a reviewer of this book but mention those disclosures merely to suggest that -as is also true of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln - Warren Bennis is an imperfect human being.
As the title of this review suggests, I very much admire his insatiable curiosity that continues to explore and his sense of wonder that continues to encounter delight. With book in hand, and as an eager companion, I hope to share at least some of the new adventures that await this pilgrim who is "still surprised."
To those who share my high regard for this book, I also recommend other memoirs such as Peter Drucker's Adventures of a Bystander, Andrew Grove's Swimming Across, Alfred Sloan's My Years with General Motors, and John Whitehead's A Life in Leadership.Still Surprised: A Memoir of a Life in Leadership (Jb Warren Bennis) Overview

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Dont Be That Boss: How Great Communicators Get the Most Out of Their Employees and Their Careers Review

Dont Be That Boss: How Great Communicators Get the Most Out of Their Employees and Their Careers
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Dont Be That Boss: How Great Communicators Get the Most Out of Their Employees and Their Careers ReviewMark is a master at providing practical real life examples of what good communication sounds like and more importantly what bad communication sounds like. Whether you are talking to the barista in the coffee shop, an employee who is underperforming due to personal issues, an employee who is giving you a snow job or an employee who is an A+ and needs to stay motivated in a bad economy, "Don't Be That Boss" will teach you effective communications strategies for each. Even if you think you are a good communicator, "Don't Be That Boss" will make you better and you will see immediate improvements in productivity among your employees - I have already used several strategies to great effect.Dont Be That Boss: How Great Communicators Get the Most Out of Their Employees and Their Careers Overview

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First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently Review

First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently
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First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently ReviewI found this book valuable as it was based on research with over 80,000 managers, not just one person's personal experience. As a manager, the 12 questions that define a great place to work helped me step back and identify what type of environment I am creating for my employees --- or failing to create. Reading the book has led to some very open discussions with my direct reports on those issues. I especially liked the six questions for a review that turn a brief look at past performance into a discussion about what the person needs to do to move forward. I included those questions in my reviews this year.
In our department's people development, we often focused primarily on where people need to improve. The authors gave a different perspective on leveraging strengths and managing around weaker areas.
I also liked the definition of "manager" vs. "leader". Too often management skills are seen as inferior to leadership, yet this book showed that they are separate skill sets. I've got a ways to go with both skill sets, but now have somewhat of a blueprint for how to move forward. This book has helped me look at what I am doing to impact the quality of our work environment.First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently Overview

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Strengths-Based Leadership Review

Strengths-Based Leadership
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Strengths-Based Leadership ReviewRath and Conchie have provided us with a helpful tool for fine-tuning our own leadership capacity. Using statistical factor analysis of data in Gallup's database, the authors detail how balanced leadership teams have strengths within four Leadership Domains: Strategic Thinking, Relationship Building, Influencing, and Executing. The authors relate that while individuals are rarely balanced, teams always should be. Leadership Teams operating in these four domains work both to serve the four primary needs of their constituencies and to execute their primary organizational responsibilities.
Using a recent Gallup review of data from 10,000 followers, the authors also report that followers report surprising agreement on four of their primary needs: trust, compassion, stability, and hope.
Leaders who use the code that comes with the book to take the online Strengthsfinder assessment (www.strengthsfinder.com) to determine their Top 5 Strengths are provided with a customized Strengths-Based Leadership report that help them understand their Top 5 Strengths and a Strengths-Based Leadership Guide that provides detailed advice on how to use each of their Top 5 Strengths to meet the four primary needs.
Leaders who read this book will have a deepened appreciation of both their own leadership abilities and of the degree to which they lead best when they work in team. The four Leadership Domains and the four primary needs of followers provide leaders with a rich paradigm for considering new approaches in attacking organizational priorities.
Highly recommended.Strengths-Based Leadership Overview

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