Resources Books

A Preparation Guide for the Assessment Center Method
This book is a great tool for not only preparing for promotional exams but also for becoming a better supevisor or manager. The examples and guidelines given are helpful in addressing every day situations. The acronym PACTSFID assists in ensuring every step in the process has been addressed. The author has an amazing writing style that makes this book an easy read. I refer back to it again and again.

Very helpfull!!! made the assessment center understandable for fire officer testing as well. Thank you!!

I bought this book after looking for something to assist me in a police lieutenant's exam. I picked this one over the other books after reading the positive reviews.
This book was well written and easy to follow. The way it is laid out makes it easy to skip around later after it has been read. The author was careful to keep the text in chronological order leading up to the day of the assessment center. The author gives the reader several easy to remember tools to assist on the day of the assessment center. I feel fortunate to have purchased this book because I think it was the main factor in my own successful assessment center. I would not buy anything else and I have recommended it to several people so far.
Just a side note; after finishing the book, i e-mailed the author with a few follow up questions. She replied the following day with a personal e-mail and a lot of additional examples. I doubt she will be able to do this for everybody, but it shows her dedication to her product.

This book gives you what you need. I made the first spot on my assessment center after scoring mid range in two previous ones.

Study it and know it!!

I have had the opportunity to do a lot of assessing, and have also been a candidate for promotion. I think this book is the best I've seen for helping a candidate get inside the process, really understand it and prepare for it. It would also be useful for assessors and those who are developing an assessment center without professional help. I'm going to use it as a general reference.

This is not a book to skim, because it is jam-packed with information, without the excess white space and big margins so many of these kind of books seem to have. I would suggest reading it one time for an overview, then slowly re-reading it from the very beginning. You will miss out on a lot of good material if you skip chapters or don't read them in order.

One of the things that stands out about this book is that the author uses many footnotes, quotations, and real-life examples, which always increases the credibility of a book for me. Not only did I find useful information, I found the titles of many other books I can use. It was obviously well researched, which I thought was impressive considering that you're lucky if you find even one or two validating footnotes in most of the other books on the subject. And the behind-the-scenes stories were so true, there is no doubt she has been there and done that.

This book is not only interesting to read...it would be worth reading even if you aren't taking a test...but I thought it was inspirational. Most books on promotional processes only talk about how to get promoted. This one talks about how to be your best after you are promoted, or even if you don't make it to the top of a list. I would like to read more books by this author.

What an impressive, Christ-focused primer on prison ministry. The author is an ex-offender who knows how to bring the Gospel to the incarcerated. Great refresher for those who have been at it for awhile and an even better introduction for those who are beginning to hear the call to go inside the razor wire.

I conduct a weekly bible study in the local state prison and before I went in I ordered this book and it was so very practical and put me at ease right away with the experience. Highly recommend

The first time I read "Prison Ministry" resulted in it being a major part of planting a seed in my heart for what is now one of my biggest passions. I've since read it two more times and each time words of wisdom have taught me something new or reminded me of some old.

Lennie Spitale is not hype or as Duncan Miller says in his review does not sensationalize but is sincere in his sharing and giving truthful insight to the world of prison ministry. If you, your church or someone you know is thinking of or doing prison ministry inside the walls or outside (mentoring former inmates, consoling families of incarcerated loved ones) I strongly recommend this book.

I too have met Lennie and he is as real as his book reads and the book is a reflection of Lennie's heart.

It gives you a wide range focus on the mindset of inmates from why they turn to crime and for some why it is so difficult to leave, how prison life effects them in regards to family and other loved ones and much more.

If you have a passion to serve the lost you'll learn from Lennie's own words that this nations prison are one of the most if not most plentiful harvests.

This book gives you incredible insight to the minds of men in prison. The book is written in such a way that those who are not involved in prison ministry can use it as an inspirational book. It reinforces in practical and understandable terms that we are all fallen from grace and we all require redemption.

I bought three books on prison ministry, have experience with one on one prison ministry and mentoring, and have attended the Prison Fellowship VIP (Volunteer In Prison) Training.

Lennie Spitale's book is the best I've read yet. It gives virtually all you will need to know if you are considering prison ministry, already involved in and form of prison ministry, or just curious about what life behind bars is like. Spitale is probably one of the most authoritative writers on the topic, having plenty of experience of life from both sides of the fence.

He was a rebellious child, joined the military and was jailed a number of times before discharge. After discharge from the military, he served many years in prison on multiple incarcerations before turning his life around and going straight. Since his release, he has spent at least 25 years in prison ministry, and founded an organization dedicated to preparing others for prison ministry and chaplaincy.

This book has all the information and warnings any prospective prison ministry volunteer could need, as well as all the heart breaking and compelling motivations to become involved. It is easily readable, neither deep mind bending theory nor shallow boring fluff. Of all the books on the topic I have read this one is the most value for money.

If you only buy one book on the subject, this is the one that will give most value.

I've read a lot of sustainable living books. Many are better than this on specific topics (green architecture or strawbales or urban gardeing or homesteading, etc) but NONE are as comprehensive as this on so many topics at once. I don't think it should replace the more specific books in your library, but to anyone who just wants to wrap their head around all of the different technologies and opportunities out there this is the best primer there is on the market.

This is great resource for real world implementation of alternative energy solutions. Provides a step by step resource to help make it a reality. Good starting point. I was surprised it covered more than just solar technologies to include:
- Wind
- Hydro
- and others.

While the DOE (Department of Energy) has a good informative internet site (that is free), I decided on the Real Goods book because I have been familiar with Real Goods for many years. While it cost me some dollars, it is nicely organized and some what complete.

I gave this book to friends for Christmas. They are in the process of building a "green" home, and have found the book very valuable!

This book is the absolute best for covering renewable energy on a residential-sized scale. It covers all things solar/renewable energy: converting solar energy to electricity, wind generators, solar water heating, solar water pumping, energy conservation, off-the-electrical grid and grid intertie applications. There's an appendix with charts, maps and worksheets that help you design your own solar home and energy system. It is well written, with the information easy to follow. There is just enough theory included so you can follow the technical descriptions of the system components. It's got 634 pages and there's not much wasted space. The chapter on "Natural Burial" is a little over-the-top, but I guess the editor is just trying to be comprehensive.
I have lived off-grid for over seven years and teach a renewable energy class at a nearby community college. I tell my students that if they are going to buy just one book on renewable energy, to buy this, the latest edition of the Solar Living Sourcebook.
Keep in mind, this is a catalog for Giam/Real Goods. Products and services are described and prices are listed. They would like you to do business with them. I have found that many of the products listed can be found cheaper elsewhere, but having the prices listed is a plus...you can put together a system and get a ball-park figure (a little on the high side) on how much the system will cost you. In my opinion, Real Goods is a reputable company, very service oriented, and very knowledgeable.
If you want more information on residential sized renewable energy systems, the magazine Home Power (www.homepower.com) is superb. They publish six issues a year, with a hands-on type format that makes you want to get out there and build something!
If you are interested in using solar energy to make electricity, but want the advantages of being tied to the grid, the book Got Sun? Go Solar by Rex Ewing and Doug Pratt is excellent. If living off-the-grid is more to your taste, check out The Renewable Energy Handbook by William Kemp.

Baxter's time was not too unlike our own. Despite there being a large theological agreement that there must be discipline within the Church, very few leaders in the church are willing to carry it out. Baxter reminds us, and convincingly so, that we must do so for not only the good of the soul of the individual, but for the rest of the Church, and even ourselves. Most of the book rotates around the subject of discipline in the pastoral ministry. It also contains many other details concerning the ministry that would be good for any aspiring, or current pastor to read.

The only reason I give the book 4 stars instead of 5 is because this version is the abridged version of what Baxter wrote years ago. However, there is nothing that would tell you this unless you read the preface. I was a little disturbed upon originally reading the preface that this was the case, and that the original work is closer to 700 pages (depending on margins and type settings). This book has a rather tiny font size, and very little margin, so even though it is only over 100 pages, if it were in the typical type setting you see in most books, it would probably be closer to 3-400 pages.

Also, the ancient Elizabethean english has been revised for the modern reader, which probably accounts for the shorter number of pages.

Don't let any of this distract you from getting this book though, there are still many redeeming qualities to it.

The Reformed Pastor was actually very different than I anticipated, being nothing about reformed theology or even theology at all. "Reformed Pastor" actually means reforming pastors, using the word the same way we would say "reformed hardened criminal." Hmmm. I guess that already tells you this book isn't one of those "feel-good" books.

Richard Baxter was famous for two things: being a tremendous pastor to a town in England, and getting constantly into trouble for being so blunt that he would make enemies of his friends. This book is about being a tremendous pastor, and it is very very blunt.

It is an extended lecture he proposed to give to a local ministerial association in 1656. The book uses as its foundation and framework Acts 20:28: "Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood." The book first deals with pastors "taking heed" to their own spiritual state and life, and then turns its attention to taking heed to all the flock.

As to the topic of taking heed to their own spiritual lives, Baxter starts at the beginning, with making sure the reader is truly a Christian, and progresses through disciplines, qualifications, and indwelling sin. He next emphasizes the reasons why a pastor must be rigorous in his own spiritual life. He expounds reasons such as how many eyes are on the man of God, how difficult the work is, and how the honor of Christ depends on it. He reminds his reader of many practical insights, such as "all that a minister does is a kind of preaching" and to avoid the error of men who "study hard to preach exactly, and study little or not at all to live exactly."

After dealing with the pastor's personal life, he tackles the pastor's responsibility to shepherd his congregation. His most radical recommendation, radical back then and almost unthinkable to American churches today, is for a pastor to personally visit and catechize people (for those unfamiliar with the term, it means to teach a list of several hundred questions and answers of basic theology). Specifically, he says a pastor should catechize each and every family, in the pastor's entire town, each and every year. In Baxter's town that meant 2000 people in 800 families, that he and his associate pastor took two full days every week to go through the whole town every year.

He bluntly states, "If the pastoral office consists of overseeing all the flock, then surely the number of souls under the care of each pastor must not be greater than he is able to take such heed as to here is required." Yea, and I'm sure the pastoral staff of most churches personally know every member of their flock. And yes, I know that we consider Sunday School teachers or small group leaders to be "overseeing the flock"- but how many of those leaders in our churches see themselves as shepherds, have been theologically trained and commissioned as overseers, one-on-one ask them regularly about their spiritual life, and are seen by the members of their class or group as having spiritual responsibility over them?

But it was a radical idea even back then, so much so that Baxter takes dozens of pages to specifically give all the reasons why every pastor should devote himself to this universal visitation and dozens more pages to specifically answer a whole series of objections to the work. In short, he says that he had found that an hour of focused questions concerning a person's spiritual state was often more helpful than years of listening to sermons for their spiritual growth. It's hard to argue with that conclusion, and harder to argue with the marked growth (in both numbers and spiritual maturity) that history shows that his church had under his pastorship.

As to objections to why not do it, he says that they all are variations on the theme of "I'm too lazy or greedy" which he viciously attacks as unworthy of any follower of Christ, let alone a pastor. To laziness, he asks "Are these works to be done with a careless mind, or a lazy hand? O see, then, that this work be done with all your might!"

To greed, he states that if a pastor has too many families in his church for him to visit individually, then he should hire another pastor out of his own salary to help him. He challenges, "What! Do you call yourselves ministers of the gospel, and yet are the souls of men so base in your eyes, that you had rather they eternally perish, than that you and your family should live in a low and poor condition?" Whoa there, Baxter must have never read Your Best Life Now!

The book is chock full with other helpful insights and wry comments, such as "All our teaching must be as plain and simple as possible." "Is it not a pity, then, that our hearts are not as orthodox as our heads?" "It is a contradiction in terms, to be a Christian, and not humble." "We must study how to convince and get within men, and how to bring each truth to the quick." "In the name of God, brethren, labour to awaken your own hearts, before you go to the pulpit, that you may be fit to awaken the hearts of sinners." And my list could go on and on and on. I have already discussed his specific instructions on personal evangelism in another article.

After reading The Reformed Pastor, I have to agree with Spurgeon, Packer, Dever and all the other big kahunas- this is absolutely essential reading for any man called to the ministry, to pin him against the wall and make him take stock of his ministry, his priorities, and his life before God, and to make him deeply consider about how best to "take heed over" himself and all his flock.

It would be silly to say that you NEED to read this book before entering into the ministry. God has used many a man who have probably never even heard of Baxter or "the reformed christian."
However, if you are considering purchasing this book, then I would say dont even think twice. Besides the "pastoral epistles" of Paul (1st & 2nd Timothy, and Titus) I know of no other piece of work that will prepare you and teach you the way that those who lead the church ought to be. I would recommend it to anyone who has a heart for the Lords work, not just pastors.
Richard Baxter was a man full of the Holy Spirit. The words in this book will illuminate your soul, and convict you to the point of crying out to God and running to the cross of Christ. It can be a very painful book in many areas because it will cause you to look at yourself and wonder if you are really walking the life that The Lord wants from those who lead his people.
Its very difficult to find the words to describe how incredible this book is. I have to read it in tiny little sections instead of by chapters because there is so much depth to it. and each small section will bring me to tears.
Physically, this book weighs about as much as any other paper back. Spiritualy, you wont be able to lift it off the ground, much less turn a page

This is no candy or soup for the soul, its solid and challenging real world meat for the work of the ministry. Baxter challenges us to a kind of ministry that exceeds human ability alone. Such a ministry drives us to our only hope for that ability and keeps us returning to the everlasting arms of our heavenly father.

I read this book because so many people have spoken of it as a classic. Having now finished it, I must say I am a little disappointed with the content. I expected profound and striking ideas. In these pages however, were no new principles I have not already learned.

The smallness of Baxter's content however, is far exceeded by the substance of his character. It is his character, his pastoral passion for ministry that makes this book the classic it has become. His single-minded devotion to God and his tender, shepherd's heart for his flock have inspired pastors for over 300 years.

This book is not an easy read. The English language has changed substantially over 300 years, and as a result the essence of Baxter's pastoral passion is undoubtedly distorted. Still, this volume IS a classic, and is a must-read for any pastor wanting to refine and/or restore his motivation for ministry.

Fred Wackerle is a well known Executive Search Consultant who has delivered a product that is based on years of experience working with Boards on CEO searches and succession issues. His book is a great expose on the interworkings of the CEO hiring process, the problems that exist and continue to go on in many organizations. The book clearly outlines the search process from five different perspectives, the Board Search Committee, the CEO, the potential candidates, the CHRO and the Executive Search Consultant. Using a sample company, Fred describes the issues impacting each participant, identifies the pitfalls and the corrective action required to eliminate the problems. The author accurately describes the right way to execute a CEO search for each of the five participants and includes the steps each must follow to conclude a successful search.

There is a definite need to inform, educate and hold accountable Boards of Directors for the proper selection of a CEO. "The Right CEO" outlines a process participants should follow is must reading for all Board Members and all participants involved in the CEO selection process.

Fred Wackerle has written a book that will become the conscience for all of us involved in CEO selection. He captures the essence of what really happens...he's been there. He reveals the myths of the CEO succession process and why today it is broken. The book is must-reading for anyone who cares about the future of corporate leadership. Having successfully recruited CEO successors, Fred has come to believe that many decision-makers in the CEO search and selection process - especially board members - are in the dark about what it takes to find top executive talent.

In this amazingly frank book, Wackerle illustrates the darker side of CEO selection and board governance by characterizing the key players in the typical succession process: the head of the search committee,a board member and Harvard Business School classmate beholden to the current CEO; the chief HR executive, now torn between serving two masters; an executive search consultant with questionable values and who may not have the experience to take on an assignment of this nature and magnitude; and finally, the CEO "wannabe" who is so naive about accepting the top job that he jeopardizes his entire career. The process is rife with conflicts and complexities.

Ever hear the cliche, "He wrote the book!"? Well, in the case of THE RIGHT CEO, it's not a cliche at all. Fred Wackerle really has written THE BOOK on this topic. It's the real deal, the definitive treatise if you will, on CEO selection. THE RIGHT CEO is filled with uncommon wisdom and genuine lessons of experience. Whereas some good books are written by people who research an interesting topic, then write about their findings or opinions; here's a book written by someone who really is an expert, who has "lived" the subject matter, and has plenty of facts, evidence and real people and stories to back it up. Now, if only THE RIGHT PEOPLE (like Boards of Directors)would read it...

Fred Wackerlee has been on the forefront of senior executive recruiting for many years. I have been waiting for this book and frankly I have not been disappointed. It is the best. Bravo Fred! He captures the intersancum of what happens in CEO selection & succession. He should know - he has been there and has the street smarts to see what is really happening. Fred knows the myths of the CEO succession process and why today it needs changing - especially with the malfeasance of the 90s. This book is a must-read for executives & academics who care about the future of free enterprise, corporate leadership, talent and stockholders.

Fred Wackerle's book, The Right CEO, is the work of a big picture, comprehensive mind centered on a subject of practical action that stands as first priority in today's leadership vacuum in the top management of our corporations. Most books by consultants bore us into a stupor or show off with charts and graphs and arcane language that do little to show us a proven way when we want guidance in an area of supreme importance to us. And we want that in as clear and brief a form as possible without selling out to simplistic solutions. This book has authority stamped all over it. The author has competed in a treacherous arena and emerged victorious-all without bragging about it.

No current CEOs considering their successors, no boards of directors responsible for those successions, no heads of human resources seeking to be stand up catalysts for those successions, no consultant called on to conduct the searches for those successors, and no potential candidates for CEO positions should enter this arena Wackerle has written about without his threadbare book in their hands.

Many books start out strong and fizzle as they move toward their conclusion. This book starts out strong and just gets stronger, weaving early points into constantly enlarged lessons that are a rich diet for the reader hungry to learn how a CEO search can be conducted expertly. The result of such a search is to land a CEO in the job who not only is the right person at the right time at the right company, but a CEO secure-at home in her own skin. Because she's at ease with herself, other people are at ease with her.

I said the book is practical-step-by-step straightforward without big words, but it's also wise and futuristic. The important thrust of Wackerle's message is that the work of a CEO search is collaborative, where the principals in the action conduct themselves in complete candor-yet matched by trust. That's a skill worth working at and mastering!

Allan Cox is author of Straight Talk for Monday Morning

This is a superb look at the nitty-gritty world of selling. Although the author does fill it with case studies, they are all useful and thought-provoking. My favorite bit of advice concerns what happens to all top salespeople: they get their territory cut. Why? To keep them from getting complacent, of course.

Joe has gone out of his way to cut to the chase. There is no self esteem building and you can do it rah rah rather Joe's frank honest and what it takes to stay on top, remain on top and what to do when you are caught in a no win situation. As an MBA this type of book should be a mandatory read but the reality of tenured professors that are effectively running a union job do not understand how duplicitous and unethically the real business world can be. I finish this book in a few hours and the insight will last me a career. It is also refreshing from the standpoint that Joe has a soul and is interested in seeing the world and some great sales jobs he has had launched that opportunity. If you surf this book is especially cool(which I do and I can relate to the author on many levels.) Another reviewer was turned off by some profanity of which I do not remember so don't focus on issues of crass.

Anybody. I repeat anybody who sells, or wants to become a sales person, has to read this book. This book will keep you in the "game" longer, by playing corporate business model to your advantage. All successful companies value their sales force. But most Sales Managers make you feel like a zero. By reading this book you can change that number and pave a brighter future. Read and Prosper.

This book is a "must have" for the new graduate or anyone who is considering a career or taking on an adventure in sales.

Finally, a fun-to-read book on sales with valuable and positive insights on getting-in, finding the right company, and getting-out when your company becomes the "wrong company."

Joe T has real-life examples and experiences that show you how to work for yourself and enjoy the adventure. He teaches you what to expect in sales and get the most out of your job and keep your sanity. Rather than providing, rehashed "supposedly new", methods of achieving one time sales success, this book provides a "big picture guide" that helps a salesperson's lifelong career. HIGHLY ENTERTAINING AND RECOMMENDED!!!

I went to B-School, got my MBA, and gained valuable education on the theory and practice of managing a successful business. What I was disappointed by, were the unexamined assumptions around the "corporate dream", which I found pervasive at all levels of the curriculum. Too complex to go into here, but essentially...

Most business schools are in the business of selling the corporate dream and training future managers in the arts of profit maximization, organizational efficiency, competitive advantage, and market penetration. Rarely do they ever address the human reality of corporate downsizing, except as economic data points relevent to the afore mentioned topics.

The Sales Adventure Guide is a practical manual on how to cut through the corporate BS, understand the true meaning behind management-speak, and know how to cover your butt when your job is on the line, through no fault of your own. It uncovers the tactics, often unethical and sometimes illegal, that HR and upper management will use to make you go away, meekly, without costing the company a penny.

The Sales Adventure Guide will help you probe underneath the company's glossy exterior and public face, by showing you how you can ask the right questions and find out important information about the organization you will be contracting your time to.

This book will teach you how to protect yourself, play the corporate game with finesse, and enjoy your life, rather than feel browbeaten at the company's ingratitude towards the days, months, years of your life you gave them - which you will never, ever get back.

Corporate loyalty is a myth, most companies will lay you off without a second thought. Read this book, understand that we are all contractors now.

I visited the Salton Sea to photograph birds and found it impossible to describe, telling friends they had to go there themselves to experience the place and the people. Now I tell them to read this book. From the creation of the Sea to the creation of Salvation Mountain, deBuys tells it's colorful history in a prose that fills you with the sounds and smells and people of the Sea and Imperial Valley. Anyone with an interest in man's unlimited folly, vision, corruption, and the coming environmental train-wreck in southern California needs to read this book.

*Winner of the 2000 Norris and Carol Hundley Award from The Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association.

*Winner of the 1999 Western States Book Award for Creative Non-Fiction. *Winner of the 1999 Clements Prize for the Best Non-Fiction Book on Southwestern America.

Bravo! Salt Dreams is the first of its kind to wrap up all of the issues surrounding the Salton Sea and Colorado River delta in one volume. The best since Cadillac Desert in its cinematic portrayal of a complicated host of issues. Awesome writing on the heroism of US Fish and Wildlife staff. My only criticism is that Congressman George Brown is slighted; Sonny Bono often called him "Mr. Salton Sea". Certainly, a book Mr. Brown would have loved.

Superlative read revealing the vast natural beauty of the desert and its inhabitants and man's irreversable errors in judging it as a fallen Eden. Together with Cadillac Desert it ranks as a southwest water classic. Beautiful writing and stunning photographs.

In this important work, Khurana focuses the spotlight on the high-risk dynamics of CEO recruiting - particularly in cases where a company has not been doing well, and its former CEO has been disposed of. He demonstrates that this drama is being played out with increasing frequency in the large corporations which play a major role in our economy.

He finds that a pattern has begun repeating itself in such situations: Boards of directors don't usually take action until a company situation has been deteriorating for a while, so even when they begin the recruiting process, they are already under pressure to take bold and decisive action. This impels them to begin by rejecting any current inside candidates who are felt to be part of the problem, thus incapable of breathing new life into the organization. Underlying this "explanation" is the fear that the press, investors, and the media might not applaud a less-than-spectacular candidate such as any merely competent insider. Such lack of enthusiasm by all these onlookers might well lead to further erosion of stock which has probably already suffered. Thus the directors embark on a quest for some outside candidate who might possess the magic powers to provide salvation. The rejection of inside candidates and the quest for some superstar who can pull a rabbit from the hat are, Khurana asserts, the first steps down a slippery slope that frequently end in tragedy. The book describes the descent and how it has and will affect American business.

This is a fine book that presents a number of fresh insights about a critical issue in the world of large corporations. It is written cogently, with erudition, by an author who is rightfully passionate about his subject. Of the hundreds of management titles published in recent years, this description wouldn't apply to more than a handful.

It is interesting to compare Khurana's findings with those described in the book, "Good to Great" by Jim Collins. Collins reports on a number of companies that outperformed their competitors by huge orders of magnitude. According to Collins the CEOs of these spectacularly performing companies (a) were, with one exception, recruited from within and (b) were definitely non-charismatic leaders, selected for their capabilities with no expectation that they would perform miracles or provide instant cures. These findings certainly lend support to Khurana's assertions. The fact that one of Collins "Good to Great" companies, Gillette, ended up as a Khurana case when its CEO was forced out of his position in 2000 suggests that any generalizations in this field must take into account the rapid changes in the world.

In a final chapter, Khurana attempts a description of some possible solutions to the problems he has identified. His main prescriptions are that the CEO job market be opened up and that some more professional recruiting and evaluation processes be created for CEOs. These are rather weak palliatives for the seemingly intractable trends Khurana has described. The book's strengths lie in its portrayal of the way the CEO labor market is operating, the insights into why it is working that way and its portrayal of implications for the future of large American corporations if the trends continue.

Moreover his findings raise two fundamental issues which, though clearly beyond the scope of this book, must be dealt with in any quest for amelioration.

First issue: When things are going well, boards of directors play very stereotypical and structured roles that rarely include in-depth managerial initiatives. The chances that a board of directors, could, once it becomes evident that a company needs new leadership, mobilize itself into an effective working group and then put in the time and energy to (1) decide why the company is in trouble (2) sketch some of the remedial actions that are needed to cure it (3) set out a rational professional search and bring in new CEO in circumstances in which he or she might succeed and (4) have the patience to permit a new CEO to effect a transformation, is virtually zero. Thus a realistic conclusion from the book's findings is that the chances of success in such a venture are so slight as to be not worthy of the attempt. And if that is the inescapable conclusion, then some solutions more drastic than Khurana's may be called for. One example might be consultants who are dedicated to filling in some sort of CEO role during a transitional year or two in such situations, working with the board to evolve a strategy. I am not recommending such a step - merely suggesting that some new thinking is required.

The second issue -- again assuming that the risks in CEO recruiting will continue to be unacceptably high -- concerns a board's responsibility for making certain that they are never forced to undertake the impossible search. Instead of focusing on what boards have to do to improve their techniques for replacing the CEO, it might be more useful to ask whether it shouldn't be a responsibility of boards to ensure this doesn't happen. What mechanisms need to be built in for boards to assess managerial performance on an ongoing basis and to take prompt action when performance is not satisfactory.

While these are important issues that need to be dealt with, I do not criticize Khurana for not dealing with them in his very fine book. He has done yeoman service in identifying the issues and, in that respect, has hit a bull's eye.

A brutally honest look at what is wrong with how CEOs are chosen in America today. I read an advance copy of this book and could not believe it was allowed to go to press. Dr. Khurana certainly has put his professional aspirations on the line to be so bold, but this is the kind of book that makes a difference in the world.

This book presents what I considered some amazing and enlightening information not normally available to ordinary people. We can read about the stupefying emoluments, titanic disasters, and spectacular firings of CEOs in the popular press, but it is hard to find out the inner workings of how these people got into these positions of influence to begin with. Many of the academic treatises on management I have read seem like distant observations from an ivory tower. Refreshingly, parts of this book sounded to me like the information came from furtive phone calls late at night.

Of course, part of the problem is that the foxes are already in charge of the chicken coop. I, too, would recommend this book to members of corporate boards responsible for the performance of top executives. There are plenty of brilliant executives who should be promoted based upon sound character and true leadership ability. Everyone knows that in many cases this is not happening, but Dr. Khurana has identified the defective process that underlies the problem. It is up to boards of directors to learn about and correct their mistakes.

The final page of the book uses an analogy from the Wizard of Oz about drawing back the curtain to shed light on the inner workings of power, and Dr. Khurana has done a good job of this. His book is to CEO succession as Sinclair Lewis' "The Jungle" was to the meat packing industry--it will turn your stomach and make you cry out for change if you read it.

The selection of a new CEO can be as mysterious as the election of a new Pope, the opacity raising questions about the efficiency and legitimacy of the decisions reached. Because external CEO searches are generally undertaken by companies in the throes of a real or perceived crisis, stakeholders hope the outside CEO will be their savior. Because single-handedly saving a troubled corporation is no ordinary job, boards bent on finding a corporate messiah are not interested in ordinary qualifications but a person who is thought to possess charisma. Enron's Skilling offers a dramatic and instructive illustration of the perils of charismatic corporate ladership. Corporations would do well to reconsider their models of leadership and ways of choosing leaders.

In the decade following McCoy's appointment as CEO, Chicago's Bank One Corporation acquired over 100 banks, moved from 37th largest bank to fourth, and stock increased 500%. In 1999 Bank One began to falter, the stock fell, integrating First Chicago was more difficult than expected, the conservative style clashed with the entrepreneurial culture and McCoy's management style, which was included in the Harvard Business School's required general management course, was seen to be a liability rather than an asset. A revolt gathered steam and a generous separation agreement was negotiated. Stock jumped 11% on the announcement but became volatile with media coverage of the high-profile search for the best person in the US to lead Bank One back to the top with the leadership as the overriding principle guiding the search. Dimon was top of the short list. "In late February, Dimon flew into Chicago to deliver a two-hour presentation to the Bank One search committee. By this time, he had decided he wanted the job. Dimon's presentation seemed to leave his audience breathless. He talked about his philosophy of management, covering such topics as his leadership style and the importance of clearly articulating to people their roles and responsibilities. He also spoke about the importance of instituting a more extensive stock-option plan to better align the incentives of the executives with those of the shareholders. Dimon's bluntness and self-confidence impressed the committee." He wasn't afraid to lead, he said all the right things, he had a plan, he was prepared to make the tough decisions that others wouldn't make. In one brief appearance that Dimon himself largely orchestrated he met Bank One's high standards of leadership. Dimon was appointed over insider Istock and stock soared 30%.

Bank One's CEO succession process followed a familiar script with little emphasis on the company's strategic position and whether the candidate's background was appropriate. If the new CEO is unable to deliver quickly, the wisdom of the selection is questioned. This is the first thread of irrational behavior in what should be a carefully considered process. The leadership school believes that CEOs play a critical role in a firm's performance, while the constraint school believes that internal and external constraints limit the CEO's ability to affect performance. A third school suggests that the pertinent question to answer is 'When does leadership matter?' rather than 'Does leadership matter?' as the leader's impact is highly case-sensitive. "As the Bank One story illustrates, however, it is not only the criteria directors use in choosing a new CEO that calls into question the efficiency and overall rationality of the external CEO market. So do many other features of the search itself." Not only was the initial boost to the stock price short lived, but the board was questioned on its control over the CEO after five directors, including the internal candidate for CEO, "volunteered" to retire from the board after five months. Whether the benefits would be worth the price agreed by the board would remain an open question for an unforeseeable length of time.

"How are we to account for these remarkable, ultimately disquieting features of the external CEO search: the overestimation of the CEO's role and the fixation on charisma; the somewhat Byzantine nature of the search process itself, simultaneously closed to many presumably qualified candidates and open to the influence of many external actors; and the questionable outcomes that this process often produces? This book is an attempt to answer this very question." Boards seriously underestimate the damage that outside succession entails and if the firm is already in trouble, hiring an outside CEO might threaten the survival of the organization itself. A remarkable feature of the Bank One search was that the board passed up an experienced, highly qualified executive who knew the company and its business well. The airplane interview technique in which the incumbent CEO conducts a surprise interview with successor candidates individually and asks who should lead the company assuming both are killed provides very interesting information about the chemistry of the group. Repeating the process three months later when candidates are better prepared but only the incumbent CEO is killed, provides further valuable information. All information is shared with those involved in the final decision. If the process is initiated early enough, the shortlisted candidates can be moved into testing situations that may help the final decision.

Kurana, Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Harvard Business School wrote this book based on a study of hiring and firing of CEOs at over 850 of America's largest companies. Anyone who is involved in the selection process of a CEO would be wise to study his findings.

I really enjoyed parts of this book, but the broader points he was trying to make fell flat. The thesis, that we should be wary of charisma and value competency more, is welcome to most people-perhaps everyone sufficiently detached-and his anecdotes provide interesting and powerful support.

For example, as a former banker I appreciated the point he made that big NYC bankers tend to be investment bankers, which is different than commercial banking, which is different than retail banking. It may seem like inside baseball to outsiders, but that's exactly the point: if you don't know the difference, you shouldn't be a bank director. Thus my conclusion would be that instead of telling current board members to be less foolish, it would be more practical to focus on reforming the way board members are chosen. In my experience, most bank board members were absolutely incapable of judging competence on the essential technical issues to sound banking (eg, how credit quality, spread, and volume are related), and choosing board members based on some objective criteria would seem to advance the search for a good CEO better than telling the current board members to not fall for the next empty suit.

But more broadly, is the flawed method of picking a CEO worse than before? Khurana's own data suggests that new CEOs don't matter much, which mean they aren't worse either. And the issue of arbitrariness is somewhat overstated, compared to a platonic ideal that has never existed. Picking any manager, such as a head of IT, raises the same example of cliquish, suboptimal groupthink. The same could be said for how collectives choose politicians, pundits or professors. In the words of Flaubert, "our ignorance of history makes us libel our own times. People have always been like this."

Lastly, he relies a lot on outdated sociological treatises (C Wright Mills, Weber, Whyte), and the idea of a WASP closed society. For example, at one point he mentions that in 1950 most CEOs where white, male, and Protestant, and the same is true today. But as pointed out it in Brook's Bobos in Paradise, you would be remiss not to mention the dramatic change over the past 50 years. For example, back then the Kennedy family were considered outside the establishment. Jews are now around 20% of Harvard's undergrad, and 13% of the Fortune 500 CEOs, even though 3% of the US population. The WASP elite have given way to a much more meritocratic elite, and the fact that it extends to the boardroom is partially a result of the new process for choosing CEOs. In predictable sociological fashion his straw man argument is the dopey institution-free economist, that conventional wisdom that Keynes and Galbraith effectively invoked, but which is now a tired parody of current economic thinking. In the end, there is nothing really deep here, just a fun book highlighting the current foibles of specific group of people trying to deal with incomplete information and coalition building.

Charisma and reputation have replaced management experience and industry expertise in the corner office. Certainly that's not news to anyone who has read the business press at any time in the past decade, but the trend is certainly important enough to warrant the comprehensive examination provided by Rakesh Kurana. Starting with an analysis of the increasing power of activist institutional investors, Kurana traces the process through which boards of directors have forsaken mature managers for media darlings in their CEO searches. In light of the spate of embarrassing and enraging CEO scandals, we from getAbstract recommend this book to all readers.

While this book is written for church leaders--any business or nonprofit leader or manager will appreciate the idea-thon of very practical stuff.

With a foreword by John Maxwell and high fives from Andy Stanley and Joel Hunter, this book also gets my five-star rating. The makes-you-want-to-read-it format has 99 chapters, but just 208 total pages. I dare you to scan the chapter titles and then put the book away. It's impossible. Test-drive these chapters: 2) Good Leaders Let Good People Go, 3) Count the Cost Before Hiring a Family Member, 8) If Someone Hasn't Left Your Church Recently, Your Vision Is Probably Too Broad, 19) Staff Ahead of the Growth, 29) Disgruntled Secretaries Drain Dynamic Leaders, and 31) Send Your Bankers Audit Reports and Birthday Cards Every Year.

Chapter 33 is "Sack the No-Huddle Offense." I'm a zealot for the value of weekly staff meetings. Stevens and Morgan correctly point out, "It takes discipline to gather regularly because there's never a good time to pull away from doing ministry to talk about ministry. The fact is, however, these team gatherings will help focus your efforts and allow your ministry to bear more fruit. Additionally you'll have the chance to bring encouragement and accountability to others on your team."

With 99 topics, the authors add quick-reading color commentary to most of the 20 buckets in my book, Mastering The Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Non-profit. Simply Strategic Stuff is good stuff.

Simply Strategic Stuff is by far one of the BEST books in church administration. Tim and Tony are the leaders in providing nuggets of Truth (with a capital "T"!) for church leaders to effectively run a church. How do I know? I am the lead pastor of The Pointe, a United Methodist Congregation, located in Albany, Georgia. Our church began weekly services in March 2006 and has grown in 11 months to an average of over 620 in weekly attendance. Managing a church that has grown so quickly has been a HUGE challenge, but utilizing the principles taught in this book have made all the difference. In fact, our staff is required to read 10 chapters (they are one to two pages each) each week and share how they will use one principle taught in this book in their area of ministry. A must read for every lead pastor and leadership team member. Don't miss out on an AWESOME book!

I've read hundreds of management books for my business consulting practice, but few have had the practical approach as this little book. The ideas are focused on churches, of course, but many of them apply to any organization. And not only are the ideas useful, the book is just plain fun to read. I kept telling my wife, "Here, you have to listen to this one!"

Great book! This is one of the most helpful books I have ever read on church administration.

Very practical and helpful, I will pull it off my shelf often to review and glean insight. It is full of practical wisdom from practitioners who understand effective ministry. Highly recommended.

if you have ever been frustated because your life seem devoid of purpose, then this is the book for you! Bishop Long clearly outlines the role that the Church should be playing as Ambassadors for the KIngdom of God, and declare in no uncertain terms that God indeed has a purpose for all of our lives that is connected to his agenda for these times. this book will serve as a motivating tool to move you from the position of being "overtaken", to the position of "taking over". A must read for people of all faiths".

Thanks be unto God for anointing Bishop Long to go where no preacher of God's word has dared to go to lift and expose the veil of christian mediocrity. He writes in the spirit of Martin Luther King,Jr. by challenging the Church to change. This book brings conviction and challenge to ensure that our children and grand-children can live the optimum Christian life. The "Great Commission" comes alive in the book. Bishop Long's book transcends all faiths.

Most churches are not operating based on biblical principals but on mans principles. That is not what God intended. Read this book and discover how to get your church and your personal christian walk in order before the next millennium. God isnt playing games with us anymore. It's time for us saints to come from behind the four walls of the church and do what God has called us to do. True ministry. Satan has had his way with our children, the generations to come, for too long. I cannot urge you enough, this is a MUST READ.

Bishop Eddie Long really came to the forefront when he wrote this book. God's anointing was all in this book. I thank God that there are still real men of God on the Battlefield. We need the unadultreated truth. God's word has been sugar-coated too long! Thank you Bishop for letting God lead you in the way he did regarding his church or lack of it.

"Taking Over" challenges the body of Christ to move forward with God into the next millennium, or get left behind in erroneous traditions.

Praise God for Bishop Long's boldness, transparency, and obedience to pen what thus said the Lord.