Executive Decision Books

Drucker defines "Executive" widely -- an executive is basically anyone who makes decisions regarding how to spend one's time in order to further the goals of the organization. By this definition anyone can benefit from reading Drucker's musings: Project Coordinators, low and mid level managers, VPs and CEOs. Drucker's explanation of the difference between manufacturing workers and "knowledge" workers is illuminating. Essentially, anyone not "on the clock" has to manage him/herself, and therein lies the challenge. This book is both a business book and a self-help manual in one, and is the best I've read in either genre.

I read this as an MBA student and it helped a lot throughout my formative years in the business world. Reading it now (12 years later) as the owner of my own business makes me appreciate this classic even more. It's a great book to have at your side to make the most of the most valuable resource: time. As in Drucker's on Innovations and Entrepreneurship, its fundamental lessons are solid foundations to build a career/business on. Read it, learn it, live it and you will get more out of life.

As an author and an intellectual, the late Peter F. Drucker was a true business sage. Recognized as the father of modern management, Drucker forecast numerous pivotal trends, including decentralization, privatization and the development of the information society. He introduced the concept of the "knowledge worker," a term he employs widely in this fascinating book. His internal study of General Motors, Concept of the Corporation, greatly influenced how businesses conduct their affairs. Each Drucker book is a genuine business classic, including this one. getAbstract believes it will help you think productively about what you do. No one writes more intelligently or presciently on management and its functions than Drucker. All executives, even those who are already effective, will benefit from reading this informative, enlightening book.

I have taught this book in a dozen university courses. It remains a classic for understanding effectiveness in organizations and specifically "how to manage oneself".

Even after 40 years, the book remains relevant. Most of my students, predominantly in their 20s, feel that the book is relevant for today. The examples are a bit dated and the use of the male pronoun throughout is awkward. Nonetheless those minor flaws are far outweighed with systematic writing and practical insight.

For Drucker, effectiveness is habit, a set of practices that can (and must) be learned. It is neither a skill, nor is it knowledge. Instead it is a set of simple practices which simply must be engaged in regularly. Drucker frees us from the idea that effective people are born, have a talent or temperament for effectiveness.

Effectiveness is "getting the right things done". This is very different from efficiency, which is merely "doing things right". Effectiveness is the key to the growth of the entrepreneurial economy.

The five habits of effectiveness are: 1) knowing where your time goes, 2) focus on outward contribution, 3) build on strengths, 4) concentrate on a few areas that produce outstanding results, and 5) make effective decisions.

Drucker walks through these habits in a highly engaging writing style. He explains and illustrates the habits and provides practical information based on his experience with dozens of executives over decades.

While many of Drucker's books are excellent, this is possibly the one that is most widely applicable for anyone who seeks to become more effective and to manage themselves for effectiveness.

You know you read the writing of great thinker when the line of text in front of you is simple and yet powerful. Peter Drucker writes like that. The Effective Executive is one of those books that wake up your intellect: simple, unpretentious, direct, based on experience and well practiced art of detecting underlying principles hiding behind our mundane tasks.

Effective managers, according to Peter, follow eight principles:
- Ask "what needs to be done?"
- Ask "what is right?"
- Develop action plans
- Take responsibility for decisions
- Take responsibility for communicating
- Focus on opportunity rather than problem
- Run productive meetings
- Think and say "we" rather than "I"

I like for instance how he describes the taking of responsibility for decisions: a decision has not been made until people know: the name of the person accountable for carrying it out, the deadline, the names of the people who will be affected by it, and the names of the people who will be informed. Simple, isn't it?

A penetrating observation is that in large organisations people tend to be absorbed by what happens inside its boundaries and by perfecting a process regardless of the outside world. The removal of the executive from the customer base is fatal in the long run.

Other thought that I liked is that the effective executive does not make decisions by consensus, but by what is right, even if the decision is not popular. The executive makes a few decisions, but powerful, rather than many razzle-dazzle decisions.

I have this book handy, so that when I have time, I choose to read randomly a page or two. It's like doing meditation. It is simple, elegant and very sharp. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the subject.

Alpha Male arrived from the seller in about a week. I couldn't believe how little I paid for a brand new book. The condition of the book is excellent and the ordering process was a snap.

If you know anything about personality types from either Socionics (Rod Novichkov) or MBTI then you'll know who the Alpha Male is exactly (ESTJ or ISTJ personality types). This book shows you logical ways of dealing with people of these personality types. It's good reading.

Making a great team out of a group of driving and opinionated managers and professionals is hard; they need to trust and rely on each other when in fact it is more comfortable for them to stay apart. The Alpha Male Syndrome is a rare and valuable book that offers real solutions to these difficulties.

Very good book for those who want to understand what's going on in the management team. All managers should read this book. A must

Two management consultants have jointly written this book about alpha males who occupy some 75% senior management positions in America's business world. According to them, alpha males are indomitable, tenacious, and persevering enough to reach the apex of their career. They inspire awe and respect but could move people to fear and trembling. Despite having great career success, the downside of their traits and behaviours such as the `laws of the jungle' attitude, interpersonal impatience, and difficult controlling anger can have devastating effect to their health, marriage, and other people surrounding them.

Both writers marry hard data on some 1,500 executives and base on their abundant coaching experience with senior executives from Fortune 500 firms to figure out why such top dogs become pit bulls that snowball problems and expose their vulnerabilities. In short, alpha males are various in terms of their different traits they possess such as commander, visionary, strategist, and executor. Some are inclined to act like visionaries that often dream up exotic ideas but hate naysayers. Others have an uncanny ability to deal with crisis but tend to exercise their authority through intimidation and domination. Both writers conclude that Trump's `apprentice' mentality would do more harm than good. In today's business environment where trust, respect, and collaborative dialogue between corporate bigwigs and coworkers are vital for business survival and growth, both writers offer alpha males a list of `awareness of self and others' tools that could guide them beyond the `alpha triangle' trap and move themselves and their people to effectiveness.

This book is a comprehensive study of alpha males. It is also a landmark management study that not only fills need for alpha males but also provides an impetus for further research on this subject. Revealing the importance of tapping human potentials in teams to high performance, alpha males should learn how to involve the whole team that harness their intelligence, vitality, and drive without wreaking havoc on working relationships. They have to put aside their `zero-sum' jungle mentality as well as personal glory in pursuit of the alchemy of human connections. This book is accompanied by a website that contains an online alpha assessment to testify whether you are an alpha male or not and also your alpha strengths and risks. It helps readers undertake a self-awareness exercise in order to understand and modify their tendencies and risk areas. Chapter 8 provides alpha males with a repertoire of tools to practice emotional and physical reset such as stress relief and endorphin increments in order to achieve high-level health and wellness.

This book is highly recommended for readers who are interested in understanding more about the upside as well as downside traits of alpha males. It is also a highly recommended book for alpha males who aspire to leverage their strengths and subdue their flip-side risks for the best interest of shareholders and their people.

This book has a magical combination of real life stories interwoven with principles and facts based on research. Not an easy mix to achieve. Hats off to these authors!
Evonne Weinhaus,
Co-author of Stop Struggling With Your Teen
& Stop Struggling With Your Child

It's good to hear that employing a clear, open business policy can boost the bottom line and upgrade management. With all the recent corporate scandals, a management approach based on "what you see is what you get" is refreshing - and it works. Transparent management can increase employee morale, retention and productivity. Transparent leaders are better at their jobs and make a difference in people's lives. Using case studies and self-assessment surveys, authors Barbara and Elizabeth Pagano help potential leaders evaluate and hone their honesty and their leadership styles. The case studies in this easy to read, if slightly repetitive, volume help convey the authors' key points, which center on honesty, awareness and open communications. We recommend this value-enriched book to aspiring leaders, managers and executives who may be surprised to learn that transparent leadership is one of those intangibles that can produce concrete results.

I really enjoy the stories in The Transparency Edge. It is a great reminder that we can choose to be better leaders in everything we do, everyday. Leadership concepts are hard to grasp generally. And illustrating these with personal experiences make these issues come alive for readers. The Paganos' conversational style also makes reading easy. I recommend this to those who are starting/doing 360 feedback. Such a feedback process can be rather disconcerting, as my first-time coachees have confirmed, and it is helpful to have a resource like Transparency Edge to act as a guide for reflection and new actions.

This book does a great job of breaking up credibility into a few tangible categories and listing specific examples of how to apply the right touch to each of them -- being open without overdoing it, offering praise without coming across as insincere, etc. I was impressed front to back on the way that the authors dissected each dimension, provided insightful anecdotes, and supported them with metrics.

The biggest thing I didn't like is that it uses the "motherhood and apple pie" approach to convincing you of the value of most dimensions. There's sort of an implicit assumption that everything the book says sounds good, and therefore you must do it, resulting in... profit? If they'd not only pointed out studies that showed how many people were bad at certain things but were also more consistent in showing how each of their dimensions contribute to productivity of staff, profitability of the company, or some other company-specific metric, it would've been nice. I'm not saying that I necessarily disagree with them; rather that I don't like seeing people espouse behavior changes just because they "feel right."

Additionally, it's pretty clear they run a high-level executive consulting business. At times, it seemed too CEO / senior-VP focused, with the assumption that not only do you have reports, but that your reports have tiers of reports. Finally, the number of times that they mention the specific services they provided and specific role they played made it feel less like a self-help book and more like an advertisement for them.

Still, a good book and to be recommended, but I'd take it with a grain of salt at times. It triggered a little bit of cynicism more than once, though I'm sure that they'd be willing to work with me on that :-)

As someone who has inhabited a pretty competitive corner of corporate America for over 20 years, I can honestly say this book was like a lifeline.

With the huge generation of baby boomers all entering the business scene at the same time, I think a lot of us have felt tremendous pressure to conform to what seemed some pretty harsh norms. Being professional and getting ahead was all about being efficient - not taking the time to explain what was going on; being strong, which means never appearing vulnerable; being tough - which means focusing solely on the more easily quantified sales and profit implications of a decision, and shutting out the human factors.

I work in the communications/consulting business and, at every company I've worked for, senior management would get up every year at the annual meeting and say something like - "What sets us apart and gives us our competitive advantage is how we care about our people," and "The most valuable asset in this company goes home every evening." And everyone would just look at each other and roll their eyes, because nobody believed them!

If they cared so much, why didn't they tell us candidly the reasons behind some of their apparently uninformed and careless decisions? Even bad news would be better than all the confusion and speculation in the ranks when no-one knew what was going on. Why did they do all this management training, yet still knowingly tolerate bosses who brutalized their subordinates? Why did they ask for our suggestions - and even ask us to put extra time in volunteering for various corporate task forces - only to break their implied promise of change by ignoring everything we came up, and proceeding with business as usual?

As I moved up into management myself, I understood better what some of the pressures are that push the people in charge into some of these behaviors, and there were times when I found it hard to reconcile my own choices. I saw it as having to make a trade-off between what I thought was the right thing to do (i.e., my responsibility to my personal values), and doing the right thing for the company (i.e, my responsibility as a professional).

What The Transparency Edge does is show beyond a doubt that standing true to your values makes good business sense. Yes, it's harder to do sometimes, and yes, sometimes the benefits are long-term rather than immediate. But leaders have a responsibility to the long-term welfare of the company, which includes maintaining their own and their company's reputation, as well as creating the motivation for people to follow their leadership. Both of those goals are impossible to achieve without personal credibility. And personal credibility is built through conscientiously respecting the nine principles in this book.

Pagano demonstrates that, without question, the reason to behave transparently is not only because it's right, but because it's smart. What a breath of fresh air - it's about time!

This is a good book, but I'd say it's a bit thin on detail and information. It is basically composed of many feel good success stories.
There's no knowledge here that I found to be of of the ordinary or particularly helpful, but's a good easy read.

The main character in Dale Dauten's magnificent story, The Max Strategy, is Max Elmore, an old man with infectious enthusiasm, insatiable curiosity, and wisdom gained from a lifetime of management consulting to leaders across a spectrum of organizations. Max meets the book's fictional author during an extended delay at O'Hare Airport, and during their ensuing conversation, one of the topics Max discusses is 'becoming a flukologist':

"Burton Malkiel (A Random Walk Down Wall Street) dreamed up an imaginary coin-tossing contest. A thousand contestants in a line; heads was a winner, tails a loser. So the thousand people toss their coins and about five hundred get tails and lose. The five hundred with heads toss again. After seven tosses there are just eight coin tossers left. By this time crowds start to gather to witness the surprising ability of these expert coin tossers. The winners are overwhelmed with adulation. They are celebrated as geniuses in the art of coin tossing - their biographies are written and people urgently seek their advice. After all, there were a thousand contestants and only eight could consistently flip heads."

"Naturally, if you aren't smart and hardworking and all that, you're going to fail ten times out of ten. But if you do all the right things, guess what? You fail nine times out of ten. Think how many great novels you've read that never became best-sellers. Think how many actors you see in local or regional theaters who are as good as those on Broadway. Their problem isn't talent or work ethic; it's that they aren't expert coin tossers."

"Remember this: The coin tosser who gets the most 'heads' is the one who gets the most tosses. Given enough chances, chance is your friend."

"Yes, a fluke is a fluke. But you could use a fluke in your career, no? So maybe we should learn their secrets and become 'flukologists.'"

"If you innovate instead of imitate, and work every day to be different from yesterday, you'll improve your odds: You no longer will fail nine times out of ten. You'll fail eight times out of ten."

"Real achievement is a kind of lottery. You enter by being competent and hardworking. Most people get one shot in the lottery, playing at one-in-ten odds. I'm trying to show you how you can enter again and again, at two-in-ten odds. Here's the logic. Most people try to be like the successful people in their field. The result is that everyone does what everyone else is doing. If a great new idea comes along, sure, they adopt it. So does everyone else. You see what is happening to each of them? Each is trying to be exceptional, but ends up going about it by being just like everyone else. The upshot? They have, at best, a one-in-ten chance of producing results in the top ten percent of their profession."

"If you want to be extraordinary, the first and hardest step is to stop being ordinary."

"People try to conform to success, but to be successful is to be a non-conformist. Let's put it this way: You don't become a Picasso by taking a Picasso print and running it through a Xerox machine."

"You can't get to better without first getting to different. Every blessed day. Believe me, it'll wear you out. No, I'm not suggesting the easy way out: this is the exhausting way out. But it's also the exciting way out, the alive way out."

This week, I'm teaching at the Wow Institute in Henniker, New Hampshire. 75 fundraisers from across North America have come seeking ideas to make them better. If we're successful, participants will learn to become innovative flukologists and expert coin-flippers who reject 'ordinary' and are committed to pursuing 'different' every day. It's the risky path, but it's also the only path to 'better,' the only path to 'extraordinary.'

(from www.crawdaddycove.com)

A very very good book. The great thing about this book is that once you start reading is, you will not let go... The book tries to reinvent our thinking from the normal rut. Definately a good read. You might not agree with the author at certain junctures, but then he comes up with very good examples.

This book was my introduction to Dale Dauten and remains one of my favorite business books because of the novel way the author finds to make practical advice memorable.

The book is organized as a conversation between a successful entreprenuer and a stranded burned-out businessman at snowed-in O'Hare airport. Max Elmore,our hero, helps his new friend see the nature of innovation and the connection between innovation and business success.

For the person who wants the reputation as an innovator (and ain't that what makes life fun?) this is a little book that can be read and understood in a few short hours.

If you have the courage to devote the additional time to completing the exercises outlined in the book you can expect to uncover some interesting experiments that might lead you to some new methods and new thinking.

If you are interested in innovatation and experimentation as an employee or a business owner, the few hours reading this book will be richly rewarded.

Couldn't put it down. I would recommend this book to anyone that has DARES to dream... It puts success in "simple" terms and not anything like the corporate books I have read in the past- that advises mostly on the "rules" on how you "should" do things....I LOVED IT! I'll probably re-read in about 6 months...

This book + CD will make the Succession Planning a funny task to perform. It is a tool rather than a theory. Arm your arsenal with it and achieve a superior position in Succession Planning.

I bought this book to help with my transition to a director's position at a nonprofit organization. It contains very useful and concrete ideas, in addition to case studies from different organizational types (i.e., an example of succession in public agency, a non-profit organization, etc.). I would definitely suggest this book for anyone thinking of systematizing succession.

easy to understand and absorb great intro reference

Rothwell's book is one of the more comprehensive and well researched books covering this growing topic. It includes a wealth of information following all of the major steps of the Succession Planning process. The book contains useful worksheets and task process flows that allow a reader to rapidly introduce the core concepts into their organisation. A great resource.

The need for succession planning is reaching crisis proportions, yet few organizations are willing to face the crisis and do something about it.

There's nothing magic here---just a realistic, comprehensvie, flexible approach to get the job done. The strenghts in this book:
- Finding the right devleopmental activity for the right level of management
- Design, gain support, and implement, and maintain your succession process.
- Lots of extras, including assessments and a plan to devleop a mentoring program.

A great value.

A wonderful read indeed provided by a learned practitioner. Blythe shares her bountiful experience and imparts a wisdom which is so self-evident to most and yet so elusive to many. The book is mandatory reading for my graduating daughter majoring in finance so she may learn to keep her compass set on true north as she enters the business world.

I can vouch for the genuine success in business of the author of Fitting In, Standing Out. The author states that she was 14 when she knew what she wanted to do, but actually she was only about 8 or 9 when she first had her dream of being a CPA of an extraordinary nature. She was truly one who let nothing stop her to achieve her goals.

The only thing missing from her tale is that there were so many that had to fight for women's rights first to allow her dream to come true, and they should also be acknowledged. The author also overlooked the support from family she received to help her achieve her goals and that the truly successful person maintains a balance of both career and family.

The FISO factor is an imaginative way to approach a way to succeed in the corporate world.

Blythe's book has become the centerpiece of how I fit leadership and personal development into a tight circle - when I look at all the leadership, consulting and other books; they fit into one of the FISO Factor Catalysts. This makes FISO the foundation, the leadership platform as Blythe states, of personal success. I've now recommended this book to over 100 people without hesitation. Life long learning dictates continuing to read new books and developing ones' self and FISO with the six catalysts is the center of the mind map. When you have read your Zig Ziglar and Stephen Covey, sit down with this book as you develop your mission statement and you will be rewarded. But remember, to successfully execute your mission statement, you will need the skills to fit in and stand out - the FISO Factor.

Author Blythe McGarvie presents a thoughtful, intelligent analysis of the paradox of leadership success - the simultaneous needs to "fit in" and "stand out" She teaches the prospective executive how to build a strong platform of leadership, resting firmly on this seemingly contradictory foundation. McGarvie explains that to be accepted and allowed to thrive, you must learn how to integrate or "fit in" to your company's culture and structure. Then, you must also "stand out" by visibly exhibiting your strengths, intelligence and talents, so you can move up the ladder. Drawing on her extensive executive experience, she breaks the "FISO Factor" down into six basic elements including fiscal savvy, honor, perceptiveness, networking, thirst for knowledge and worldwide citizenship. We recommend this well-reasoned, thought-provoking leadership development program to anyone who is searching for the keys to unlock the executive suite.

I must say that this publication has become the sole reason for the efficasiousness we are experiencing in my company's financial decision making. I was not sure how behavioral finance can help me and my company, but after reading a few chapters it all came together. I am positive that our margins will increase by 25-35% over the next 3 years. If I had a boss, he would give me raise for applying this book to our company's financial lifestyle. But I am the boss, so I will give myself a raise! Seriously, thank you Dr. E. Ted Prince for developing and sharing such genius work.

Socrates said "know thyself." This book gives you the power to do it. Mr. Prince's financial signatures are the keys to understanding how your personality directly affects your financial behavior. And this applies not just to the financial ramblings of major corporations, but how you handle finances in your personal life as well. Well written and easily relatable. A fascinating read!

This book is an excellent read for anyone who wants to better understand the key factors for building and maintaining a successful business. By examining the key traits and behaviors of executives, which combine to form the concept of "financial signature", Prince leads the reader to understand exactly how this signature impacts his or her organization. He also uses real-life examples to more clearly illustrate the concepts, including the successes and failures of many famous leaders in today's business world.

Beyond merely presenting these concepts, Prince further teaches the reader exactly how to determine his or her own financial signature and how to apply, and potentially adjust this signature, in order to be a more effective and successful leader. Anyone in a management position will benefit tremendously from this book, as it will teach all readers how to better understand their own management styles and more effectively align their actions with the overall goals of their organizations.

Having recently started a small business, I found the concepts in this book to be extremely valuable. As I was reading the book, I could see my own financial behavior laid out in the many detailed examples of CEOs and other business leaders. The concept is relatively simple: adding value versus spending money. The brilliance is in being able to find out where you fit in. This book has actually helped me to see where my danger points lie and how to correct them.

Finally there has been research done to accurately predict something in the financial world. And what better field to be accurate in than human behavior. It is obvious we make the most errors, and our money is always in the hands of someone else, who is relying on someone else, who is relying on the CEO. I must say that this book has opened my eyes greatly into a path I never knew existed.

Was I tempted to give this book a five star rating? Most certainly. D.A. Benton's latest book is definitely a winner, and worth at least 4.75 stars, but I thought I'd round down for this particular review; primarily to get noticed by some of the CEOs of Corporate America, or those on the brink of becoming a CEO somewhere.

Let's face it. The current hierarchial structure in most large corporations today isn't cutting the mustard. They have little or no clue about the nuances of employee engagement, and don't know how to actually "lead" their employees. They delegate all that sort of stuff to a staff of drones who in turn feel the best way for them to stay in favor with the head-honcho is by micro-managing the management staff in the field.

This type of situation is the best way for an organization to fail, and we've seen a lot of that going on in recent months (eg, General Motors & Chrysler). The good news is we've got another book on the market which can help straighten-out this current mess; but it's got to be read by the vast majority of power brokers scattered throughout the world (especially in America where most of the trouble seems to be coming from).

Consequently, at least for the time being, my review will be posted as being somewhat critical of this book, even though it's really not critical at all; except my criticism of big business in general.

To take it one step further, I'll be adding this book to my "Listmania", uh list; this particular one is my favorite Business & Motivational" books. The only problem is, I'll have to kick one off the list, since it's already at full capacity (40). No problem, since this book ranks in my personal top five now (go check out my "Listmania" now). Bye.

Debra has a real gift for taking a complex topic and turning it into both an entertaining and yet personally challenging adventure. There is much here from her earlier work but with a slightly different twist, including lots of challenges like "If you choose to... (because it is your choice)" and solid, tested, and trusted recommendations in nearly every paragraph.

This book from Debra Benton, the New York Times Best Seller author, does a fascinating job of telling us what a CEO is supposed to be, and what is meant by leadership.

Debra is the premier world class executive coach and educator who has created a monumental and real basis to judge CEOs. Her trademark extensive research and intensive fact finding interviews with CEOs and others, insight, and clear and easy to understand writing has made a masterpiece that out does her own previous work.

In my opinion, we are all CEOs of our own lives, therefore CEOs of our work and career. This book helps us regardless of where we stand in the corporate organization charts. It shows us the way up in clear and concise steps. This book empowers us to understand what it is to be a CEO and how to lead at any level of the organization.

You do not have to be a CEO to benefit from this book. This book is written for all of us who are working.

In view of all the negative images of CEOs broadcast in media in 2008-2009, this is a timely and productive insight to tell us what is right and what is not right. It helps CEOs understand and implement highest levels of integrity and profitability as two interdependent processes and procedures.

In fact, the entire media is telling us what a CEO and leadership at any level of organization is not supposed to be. This book single-handedly tells us how to be an outstanding CEO, and more importantly, how to lead. As a senior management consultant in Silicon Valley, CA I found the material in this book to be the authoritative confidence builder that many CEOs, leaders, management, and workers have been looking for to find better success in the work place.

Debra Benton provides the right material to create and improve your leadership skills regardless of what position you hold in your organization. You will find practical and useful information on how to become a better leader. Also, this is a must read for any parent who wants to develop their childern's leadership skills.

One of the greatest lessons is that each of us must take charge of life or life will take charge of us. Debra Benton once again delivers the primer on the knowledge and practical steps one must take to be in charge of one's own career and its success. CEO Material not only is for CEOs and those in the making, but for everyone who wants professional and personal success. And, at heart, every person wants to be his or her level best. Benton has written another indispensable book for grasping how to move ahead, differentiate yourself, and happily lead.

It's easy to pick out what makes a particular brand distinct and valuable... Apple, Costco, Wal-mart all have a definite public perception that drives their operation. In the book Leadership Brand: Developing Customer-Focused Leaders to Drive Performance and Build Lasting Value by Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood, the authors contend that each company also has a "leadership brand" that helps drive that public perception and that enables the company and employees deliver on those expectations.

Contents:
Branding Leadership; The Case for Building a Leadership Brand; Creating a Leadership Brand Statement; Assessing Leaders Against the Brand; Investing in Leadership Brand; Measuring Return on Leadership Brand; Building Awareness for Leadership Brand; Preserving Leadership Brand; Implications for Personal Brand; Criteria for a Firm Brand; Firms with Branded Leadership; Notes; Index; About the Authors

Ulrich and Smallwood do a good job in changing the way that an organization's leaders are normally viewed. Using the "brand" concept, building and promoting leaders is based on an underlying element that lends a continuity to how the company performs and delivers in the marketplace. These types of leaders are the ones that allow a company to consistently lead their market niche over a long period of time. It's obviously not a "quick-fix" solution to a company that's failing. You don't just decide "here's our leadership brand, so lead in this way" one Monday morning. Using the measured approach outlined here, it's possible to start to attract and promote the type of person that will complement the core message of your company.

Legendary organizational theorist James March once called leadership a "bogus concept." His disparaging label definitely applies to the fuzzy material masquerading as leadership on the shelves of most bookstores. In Leadership Brand, Ulrich and Smallwood avoid this trap. Their "brand" metaphor is useful in at least two ways. First, it links leadership development to a business concept most people understand: brand development. This makes the ideas more concrete. Second, it follows logically from Ulrich and Smallwood's recent emphasis on intangibles, the non-financial assets that account for nearly half of a publicly traded company's market capitalization. Powerful brands epitomize intangible value, but leadership is perhaps the king of intangibles, since it drives all other organization capabilities. Linking the two concepts -- leadership and brand -- is a nice touch. Ulrich and Smallwood are developing an impressive stream of related work, of which Leadership Brand is the latest and perhaps best exemplar.

Customers associate Wal-Mart with wide product selection and low prices, Federal Express with prompt, reliable service, and Apple Computer with innovation and elegant design. These qualities define this trio of companies in the marketplace. They make them special. They are their all-important brands. Similarly, today's companies also should develop special "leadership brands" for their executives. Such brands should embody what makes these companies truly distinctive, and thus mark them - and their style of corporate management - as singular and meritorious. Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood are two of America's most respected experts on business leadership. Here, they explain why a company's leadership brand really matters. We recommend this study of the inherent logic and intrinsic value of acknowledging and promoting your company's particular style of leadership - its leadership brand.

Here's the Quick Review of Leadership Brand: Developing customer-focused leaders to drive performance and build lasting value by Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood.

HOW THIS BOOK IS DIFFERENT:
Concentrates on leadership as a company endeavor, not as a matter of individual growth.
The authors attempt to get you to analyze your company's leadership from the outside in.

STRENGTHS:
This is truly about leadership development in the company.
The chapter on "Assessing Leaders Against the Brand" is worth the price of the book.
Good research and citations.

WARNINGS:
You may have trouble reading this book from cover to cover.
What's here is far too programmatic to be practical taken whole.
The concept of "Leadership Brand" may get in your way.

BOTTOM LINE:
If you're interested in leadership development, this book should be on your shelf.

Now for the detailed review.

There's not much new about leadership. But every new leadership book attempts to give you something unique, a new way to look at the subject, new things to try, or old things to try in different way. Every book tries to shift your thinking.

Leadership Brand by Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood attempts to shift your thinking from studying leaders to studying leadership and toward influencing how leaders connect the company to customers and other "outsiders." They work through the metaphor of a "leadership brand," which they tell us is "the identity of the firm in the mind of the customers made real to employees because of customercentric leadership behaviors."

That quote tells you that this book will stretch your thinking about leadership development in your company. It also tells you that the authors are overanalyzing and, yes, branding the process they describe. Here's a quick chapter outline

Branding Leadership - the authors introduce their concept of Leadership Brand

There are six chapters that lay out the process in step-by-step fashion.

Creating a Leadership Brand Statement
Assessing Leaders Against the Brand - worth reading if you read nothing else
Investing in Leadership Brand
Measuring Return on Leadership Brand
Building Awareness for Leadership Brand
Preserving Leadership Brand

Implications for Personal Brand

There are two Appendices

Criteria for a Firm Brand - worth reading for an overview of things to do
Firms with Branded Leadership

HOW THIS BOOK IS DIFFERENT

Leadership Brand concentrates on leadership as a company endeavor, not as a matter of individual growth. That makes it different from most leadership books, but similar to recent books like The Leadership Pipeline.

The authors also attempt to get you to analyze your company's leadership from the outside in. This is a powerful concept and one you can use in any company.

If you start thinking about leadership development by thinking about the results that need to be produced, you will see things that you won't see with the "competency" or "trait" approach. You will also be able to identify the ways that leadership at your company needs to be different than leadership at other companies.

STRENGTHS

This is truly about leadership development in the company. It will help you develop a leadership development program or modify what you've got.

The chapter on "Assessing Leaders Against the Brand" is worth the price of the book. This chapter is filled with tools and references that will help you assess leadership and leadership development whether you use the authors' program or not.

I love leadership books that are well-researched. Because the authors describe their thinking and support their points with research, you can judge whether you agree. You can also adapt a point or suggestion more effectively to your own situation.


WARNINGS

You may have trouble reading this book from cover to cover. The prose is absolutely tortured at times.

What's here is far too programmatic to be practical taken whole. Like so many programmatic books, this one lays our multiple, detailed steps and makes it seem like you go through them, bang-bang-bang in a linear fashion.

The fact is that the kind of changes the authors are calling for require changes in multiple company systems and in the culture. It's a generational process that will take years, not months.

The concept of "Leadership Brand" may get in your way. It did for me.

I never understood how a "leadership brand" was different than the culture and values of a company. Ultimately I just substituted "culture and values" in my head every time I read "leadership brand." That seemed to work fine.

BOTTOM LINE

If you're interested in leadership development, this book should be on your shelf.

In the Preface, Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood make this affirmation: "We believe that leaders matter, but leadership matters more. We have all experienced a gifted leader who engaged all of us -- our hearts, minds, and feet. Dynamic leaders enlist us in a cause, and we willingly follow their counsel. But leadership exists when an organization produces more than one to two individual leaders. Leadership matters more because it is tied not to a person but to the process of building leaders." By no means do Ulrich and Smallwood question the importance of individual leaders. On the contrary, they assert (and I agree) that one of the most important obligations of being a leader is to strengthen or at least sustain a process by which to identify, hire, develop, and then retain high-impact leaders at all levels and in all areas throughout her or his organization.

With regard to this book's title, Ulrich and Smallwood offer another affirmation: "We believe that all organizations have a leadership brand, either explicitly crafted and deployed or implicitly perceived and randomly perpetuated...[Therefore] leadership brand is the identity of the leaders throughout an organization that bridges customer expectations and employee and organizational behavior." I've noticed that in recent years, several of the same companies (e.g. Berkshire Hathaway, FedEx, GE, Johnson & Johnson, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, and Toyota Motor) appear on the annual lists of those Most Valuable as well as those Most Highly Admired. These exemplary companies all have high-impact leadership that consistently produces superior results. I've also noticed that the U.S. military services and their academies are also renowned for the high quality of their leadership development programs. However different these organizations are in most respects, they do share this in common: Each has devised a high-impact leadership program that is appropriate to their specific needs and objectives.

As Ulrich and Smallwood correctly point out, a brand combines an identity with a reputation among various constituencies. "Leadership brand is the identity of the firm in the in the mind of the customers, made real to employees because of customercentric leadership behaviors. In other words, leadership brand occurs when leaders' knowledge, skills, and values focus employee behavior on the factors that target the issues that customers care about." The challenge for any organization (whatever its size or nature) is to formulate a program ensuring that everyone in that organization embraces the values, gains the knowledge, and strengthens the skills needed to drive performance and build lasting value.

After briefly explaining the "what" in Chapters 1 & 2 (i.e. what leadership brand is and why it is important), Ulrich and Smallwood devote the remaining chapters to "how," answering questions such as these:

3. What is a "brand statement"?
3. How to prepare one?
4. How to assess leaders against the brand?
5. How to invest in the leadership brand?
6. How to measure its ROI?
7. How to create and then increase awareness of it?

Note: My own opinion is that creating and then increasing awareness of the leadership brand should precede measuring its ROI. That is, I would reverse the order of what are now Chapters 6 & 7.

8. How to preserve it?
9. What are the implications of a leadership brand for a personal brand?

Then in two appendices, Ulrich and Smallwood review the criteria for a firm brand and include the last of several self-diagnostics, "Diagnosis for leadership brand"). Then in the second appendix, they briefly discuss their research on the top firms for managing quality, suggesting that some function as "feeder firms" because they "feed the demands for next-generation leaders in other firms." For example, Hewlett-Packard, Johnson Controls, and Kraft. Non-profits include the Drucker Foundation, UNICEF, and the U.S. Marine Corps.

With regard to the U.S.M.C., Jon Katzenbach is quoted in a footnote to Appendix B: "Their mantra is simple and compelling and I first heard it articulated by Brig. General John Ryan (ret.) as follows: `We want all of our leaders - at every level -to focus on only two things: First, mission accomplishment; you will accomplish your mission no matter what...Second, and of equal importance, you will take care of each and every one of your Marines - let me repeat that that, you will take care of each and every Marine in your unit.' I have often thought that if all aspiring young leaders focused on these two things they could go a long way down their journey to becoming admirable leaders at whatever level they gravitate to."

I especially appreciate the provision of self-diagnostics as well as various "Tables" that organize key points within the context of a given chapter. They include Figure 3-1, "Creating a leadership brand statement" (Page 53), Figure 4-3, "Collaborative behaviors" (Page 94), Figure 7-1, (Pages 166-167), and Figure 9-1, "Creating a personal brand" (Page 212). Reader-friendly devices such as these facilitate, indeed accelerate frequent review of key points later.

Credit Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood with providing in a single volume just about as much information and counsel as most organizations will need to devise and implement or strengthen a process by which to produce the high-impact leaders it needs. In my opinion, becoming a "leadership brand" is only one result of that process. Moreover, everyone should be involved both as a student and as a mentor. Exemplary companies are proud of their current, hard-earned reputation as a "leadership brand" while keeping in mind that the high quality of their leaders will continue only if they constantly nourish and strengthen the process by which they are developed. For that reason, I strongly recommend that all decision-makers in a given organization read this book, then discuss it with other members of senior management. It would be a serious mistake to try to apply everything that Ulrich and Smallwood recommend but equally irresponsible to have no development process whatsoever. As they suggest when concluding their book, "the journey to leadership brand begins with the self." Bon voyage!

Those who share my high regard for this brilliant book are urged to check out Judgment co-authored by Noel Tichy and Warren Bennis, Ram Charan's Know-How and his more recent Leaders at All Levels, Roger Martin's The Opposable Mind, The New American Workplace co-authored by James O'Toole and Edward Lawler, Henry Chesbrough's Open Business Models, Frans Johansson's The Medici Effect, James Kilts's Doing What Matters, Dean Spitzer's Transforming Performance Measurement, and Enterprise Architecture As Strategy co-authored by Jeanne W. Ross, Peter Weill, and David Robertson.

I read this book as the reviews seemed to offer high marks, and I can definitely say I wasn't disappointed. The chapters break down the key elements of teamwork and how you can apply them to projects, meetings, and even the daily grind. I found the section discussing responsibilities within teams particularly helpful as it can prevent overlap among team members. I would recommend this book for those who are looking to gain a greater birds-eye view on teamwork principles.

Expecting a good read from the other reviews here (all highly positive), I found most of the book's comments to be fairly obvious with little significant insight.

Overall a good book on the subject of teamwork and full of good content. I was told this title was an "activity" book which it is not. If you're looking for a book full of team exercises and games, this is not a match. Aside for that, the authors do a fairly good job.

The Team Approach provides a realistic approach to teamwork. One which will help promote change toward greater team performance, flexibility and involvement. Skills are learned that are practical for everyday application. If your organization wants to have a competitive edge so as to produce better results, achieve quality, lower cost and deliver better customer service - the Team Approach is a must read.

To me, this book not only gave me dense knowledge about teamwork, it also inspired me to the extreme. It has lots of motivating quotes and real stories. It was written from real experience, not only knowledge. I really liked it and enjoyed reading it.