A tough, eminently practical guide from a man who spent his life leading others.
An autobiographical leadership manual from a decorated Army general.
Readers will be familiar with the late, retired Lt. Gen. Hal Moore from his bestselling 1992 book, We Were Soldiers Once…and Young (and its excellent 2002 film adaptation). At the time of his death, he’d been working on a leadership guide distilled from his years commanding others in peacetime and at war; his children commissioned historian Guardia (American Guerrilla, 2015) to complete and polish the manuscript. The resulting short book is quintessential Moore: direct, blunt, uncompromising, and often wise. In it, he outlines basic principles of leadership (nothing radical—attention to detail, respect for colleagues, questioning of certainties, among others) and fleshes them out with ample personal anecdotes and engaging biographical segments that Guardia assembles from records of Moore’s life and service. The leadership axioms that pepper the book will be useful to readers in any kind of communal endeavor, although their crisp, no-nonsense flavor hints at their specifically military origins: “Respect your people,” Moore advises at one point. “Be loyal to them. Loyalty goes up AND down the chain of command”; “Stand up for principles,” he writes elsewhere, “choose the ‘harder right’ over the ‘easier wrong.’ ” Refreshingly, the author gives a good deal of attention to the behavior of leaders, including so-called “toxic” ones, for whom he clearly has little patience: “Contrary to popular belief, yelling at and berating your subordinates will not make them move faster nor will it inspire their loyalty,” he writes. “In fact, it may encourage them to begin plotting your demise.” Some precepts here may strike readers as a touch too military—some data analyst managers may not be willing to run four miles every morning before dawn, one suspects—but there’s also a consistent hint of understated humor throughout.
A tough, eminently practical guide from a man who spent his life leading others.Pub Date: June 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5483-0510-9
Page Count: 168
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Nov. 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
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