Perform Like a Rock Star And Still Have Time for Lunch! By Orna Drawas

The Truth About Leadership Book Review (Kouzes, Posner)

The Truth About Leadership is a straight talking, hard hitting autumn book release from Wiley Publishing.

Rather than romanticising about a ‘revolutionary and new’ set of leadership principles, Kouzes and Posner have taken the other road in this title. They reaffirm the idea that true leadership truths do not change over time; only the context of leadership differs.

This is a fact that’s hard to swallow against a backdrop of 20+ new leadership releases each season. If true, this neatly explains why ‘How to Win Friends and Influence‘ people and ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People‘ have remained so popular and effective after decades have passed since their release.

This ‘No Fads’ approach to leadership literature was refreshing, and gave a different reading experience to your typical book. The authors have derived these truths from over a million responses to their ‘Leadership Practises Inventory’ survey which has been used over a period of 25 years across 70 countries.

“We thought it was just as important in these changing times to remind people of what endures as it was to talk about what has been disrupted.” – Kouzes & Posner

This approach to authoring has created a book that is extremely sure of itself (these are the ‘truths’, not simply ‘findings’, remember), and delivers a clear if rather simple overview of leadership. The Truth About Leadership positions itself as an excellent first leadership book to read, and I think it succeeds in ticking all the boxes for an excellent starter book. If you want to learn the core, time-tested values of leadership, rather than a quirky spin upon leadership, why start with anything but the fundamental building blocks?

I recommend The Truth About Leadership as an in-road into the world of leadership. However, as an addition to a strong library of leadership titles, you may get the odd feeling that you’ve read this whole book before!

Still Surprised: A Memoir of a Life in Leadership by Warren Bennis – Book Review

‘Still Surprised’ is the long-awaited memoir from leadership legend Warren Bennis. Bennis, who can name US Presidents and CEOs among his coaching clients, has provided countless insights into human behaviour through academic research, and later, his teaching and writing. His books ‘Leaders‘ and ‘On Becoming a Leader‘ have both ranked with the FT’s 100 Best Business Books. Warren is currently the founding chairman of University of Southern California’s Leadership Insitute and a distinguished professor of business administration at the USC Marshall School of Business.

However, upon reading this book I sincerely believe that to introduce Warren Bennis in such a way is to still hold back some of the credit he deserves from a lifetime dedicated to leadership and management. A lifetime that is told in terms of several ‘good stories’ in this book. Warren immeadiately

Warren immeadiately shares the following with us upon opening his book:

“Alfred Hitckcock said that ‘Drama is life with all the boring bits cut out.‘ I think that’s what a good memoir is as well”.

With this in mind, Warren swiftly skips over his “dull” childhood and takes us to the moment he was sent off to train as a second lieutenant in World War 11. From that terrifying training period at ‘Fort Benning’, Warren begins to unwind the secret to how one man came to learn so much about leadership.

Warren jumped into the arena of Social Science at the perfect time. The industry was booming with optimism, and thanks to a close relationship with his small university’s president,  none other than Douglas McGregor (who theorised about theory x and theory y workers), he was soon mixing with management greats such as Abraham Maslow and Elton Mayo.

It seems that Warren Bennis’s interlect was only matched by his great fortune, as opportunities arose that took his career from one level to another.

‘Still Surprised’ is an enjoyable read. Warren writes with a quiet confidence that is intriguing yet comforting. Wary of being ‘over-modest’ as he senses other authors are, Warren quites with refreshing honesty and reasonable pace. In his own words, Warren says the he hopes his book will give the reader “a good picture of our world since about World War 11 up to the present, from Roosevelt to Obama. I’ve tried to capture the changing culture of our country, as reflected through my experience.”

If you want a brief peek into a world where the height of your success is based upon the boldness of your ideas, and where lively debate is the centrepiece of conversation, I invite you to explore Warren’s extraordinary world in a memoir that can only be described as inspiring.

‘Still Surprised: A Memoir of a Life in Leadership‘ is available for £10.82 from Amazon.co.uk or $18.45 from Amazon.com respectfully.

Getting Naked (A Business Fable) – Book Review

Getting Naked is the provocatively titled leadership book from Patrick Lencioni, the author that brought us The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and The Three Signs of a Miserable Job. The book sells itself as a ‘business fable’, and certainly sticks to that aim. ‘Getting Naked: A Business Fable‘ is told like a story. The ‘fable’ is medium-length tale narrated by a fictional partner of a management consulting firm in the USA called Jack Bauer. I found the length to be long enough to get ‘into’ the experience, but short enough that I didn’t feel the key messages were being laboriously repeated in every chapter.

The story begins as the arrogant yet insecure Jack is chosen to oversee the acquisition of a competitor with whom he openly holds a grudge. The competitor appeared so lazy, uncommited and blasé that their offices were referred to as ‘the playground’. None of this however angered Jack more than the discovery that this ‘childlike’ company had higher margins than his!

The book follows Jack as he reluctantly immerses himself in the culture of the other firm, and learns that big business can be done in a very different way, very successfully.

The theory of the book centres around vulnerability. In response to critical clients and demanding customers, most businesses set out to prove their competence and interlectual superiority. Patrick persuasively highlights that this is shockingly, the complete opposite of what leaders should be doing. He argues that his consulting firm, Table Group successfully won, wooed and retained clients extremely well due to the transparency and vulnerability he presented to them.

Patrick Lencioni writes with authority and makes some very excellent points. In my opinion, half were genuinely inspired, and half were the kind of behaviour we all know we should be doing, and therefore would benefit from being reminded of anyway! The book is most relevant to those who serve clients as a member of a professional services firm or similar, however I believe that the culture described in the book would be beneficial in any customer-facing organisation. The author neatly summarises the key message in the final chapters which adds further clarity and a surprising amount of detail.

If you’re looking for an outline of a fascinating culture that modern leaders should aspire to, I believe that you should treat themselves to this fable and see which practical tips you can apply from within its pages.

Management Book of the Year Competition from CMI

With the 100s of management books published each year it can be a daunting task finding the most helpful ones, so CMI and the British Library have teamed up to uncover the best that the UK has to offer as part of the first ever Management Book of the Year competition.

You might be interested to know that a survey carried out by CMI / British Library on professional reading habits found that, when it comes to topic choice, more people would like to read about how to achieve a good work/life balance (40 per cent) than how to get a pay rise (30 per cent). 31 per cent are interested in guidance on how to manage people while just 19 per cent would like tips on securing a promotion.

The competition aims to raise the profile of the great management writing being produced by UK authors. There are three competition categories: Practical Manager, Innovation and Entrepreneurship and Digital Management Book. Management Book of the Year is the UK’s first competition to have a category dedicated to texts in a digital format.

The shortlist will be announced at CMI’s annual conference in October, with the overall winner selected by a panel of expert judges and announced in January 2011.

You can head on over to the Management Book Of The Year website to nominate your favourites right now! Leave a comment below also so that the Leadership Expert community can see what you’ve recommended!

The Pursuit Of Something Better – Review

If you’re looking for a review of “The Pursuit Of Something Better” then you’ve come to the right place. I’m currently reading an advance copy, and will be publishing Leadership Expert’s official review within a week, so stay tuned!

Introduction

‘The Pursuit Of Something Better’ follows the story of  US Cellular – a regional telecoms company, through its journey to becoming home to one of the most vibrant and motivated cultures in the USA. As an underdog in the telecoms industry – US Cellular has to fight to survive in the modern world, but the employees fight for it, due to their extreme loyalty and pride.

On one day every year, the managers from across the organisation leave their positions to attend a conference that announces the results of something very dear to them – the annual employee satisfaction questionnaire. Grass-root staff rise to the challenge and the company ticks over just fine without them. The atmosphere at the conference is likened to that of a concert – not an annual review. What on earth has happened at this company to drive such enthusiasm?

Well, you’ll have to buy the book yourself to find out!

Review

Review is coming soon!

Purchase

This title was released on the 15th of August 2009.

You can pre-order this book on Amazon UK here

If you’d like to read a review of this book on other blogs, you can visit here and here.

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