A concise and engaging business manual for readers looking to improve leadership skills.
A debut guide for executives explores genuine leadership.
In this business book, Scott shares lessons learned in the course of a successful career running his own consulting firm. The work’s central thesis is executives must understand the difference between being a boss—an authority figure issuing orders and overseeing predetermined outcomes—and a leader (“Exponentially more powerful than authority because it involves choice”), a collaborative process resulting in maximum performance for all involved. The author writes about his own leadership failures as much as his triumphs, and does a good job of using them as teaching moments, providing a detailed portrait of how readers can learn from his mistakes. The manual’s advice includes tips for implementing active listening, creating effective communication, and enhancing leadership skills through journaling. The volume makes a compelling case for those practices to readers who might be inclined to dismiss them as too touchy-feely. (Scott is a high school dropout who served in the Navy before moving into the corporate world, and his personality is evident in an anecdote about his motorcycle and the occasional well-placed profanity.) His enthusiasm for meetings (“Meetings are where we lead!”) shows how frequent, face-to-face communication can be a valuable decision-making tool rather than a waste of time. The chapter on running meetings as a leader is particularly well done. The book’s pithy exhortations (“Define your snooze-button moment”; “Encouraging everyone on the team to be a leader is good for the team”) provide the audience with simple and concrete lessons throughout the text. Scott acknowledges in the opening pages that his view of leadership will not click with all readers (“Here’s what I want you to do: right now, leave this book on a bus or a train for someone that understands business is about people”). But for those who appreciate his tone, the work is a useful and thought-provoking guide to developing leaders at all levels of an organization.
A concise and engaging business manual for readers looking to improve leadership skills.Pub Date: April 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5445-0224-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Lioncrest Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 14, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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