A flashy and well-researched, if at times self-promoting, commentary on modern leadership.
A corporate consultant outlines effective 21st-century leadership principles in this nonfiction book.
“The work of leadership isn’t just about building organizations,” writes Grossman; “it’s about building people who then create something extraordinary together.” Drawing on the “collective wisdom” of his clients and colleagues in the business sector, as well as data amassed by the Harris Poll on behalf of his consulting agency, the author argues that the most effective modern leaders balance “emotional intelligence with analytical thinking.” In other words, they combine an empathetic, encouraging approach with strategic thinking focused on efficiency. While the book’s ample selection of anecdotes from CEOs across numerous businesses lend a personal touch to the work, what stands out most is the poll data taken from more than 2,000 employees. This research indicates the persistence of antiquated “command-and-control” leadership styles, with only one-third of employees willing to call their organization’s leadership “exceptional.” Grossman convincingly uses the Harris Poll data to identify six traits characteristic of exceptional leaders and devotes an entire chapter to each, including leading with gratitude, fostering an inclusive culture, and “communicat[ing] with context.” (The author reports that leaders designated exceptional by their employees were more than seven times more effective at “adjusting their communication to meet employee needs.”) Grossman conveys his research-backed claims in an enthusiastic writing style that makes for an absorbing read rich with real-world examples and commentary from the author’s corporate cohorts. The book boasts a wealth of visual elements, such as colorful fonts and high-resolution, full-color illustrations, diagrams, and photographs; occasionally, the work feels like a stimulating collection of streamlined infographics. It also reads at times like an extended advertisement for the author’s consulting agency, the Grossman Group, since the text is full of trademarked phrases, references to the author’s other books, and QR codes linked to additional products and services.
A flashy and well-researched, if at times self-promoting, commentary on modern leadership.Pub Date: March 24, 2026
ISBN: 9798900260860
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Amplify Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 18, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
IN THE NEWS
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.
“Quality of life means more than just consumption”: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues.
It’s no secret, write Banerjee and Duflo (co-authors: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way To Fight Global Poverty, 2011), that “we seem to have fallen on hard times.” Immigration, trade, inequality, and taxation problems present themselves daily, and they seem to be intractable. Economics can be put to use in figuring out these big-issue questions. Data can be adduced, for example, to answer the question of whether immigration tends to suppress wages. The answer: “There is no evidence low-skilled migration to rich countries drives wage and employment down for the natives.” In fact, it opens up opportunities for those natives by freeing them to look for better work. The problem becomes thornier when it comes to the matter of free trade; as the authors observe, “left-behind people live in left-behind places,” which explains why regional poverty descended on Appalachia when so many manufacturing jobs left for China in the age of globalism, leaving behind not just left-behind people but also people ripe for exploitation by nationalist politicians. The authors add, interestingly, that the same thing occurred in parts of Germany, Spain, and Norway that fell victim to the “China shock.” In what they call a “slightly technical aside,” they build a case for addressing trade issues not with trade wars but with consumption taxes: “It makes no sense to ask agricultural workers to lose their jobs just so steelworkers can keep theirs, which is what tariffs accomplish.” Policymakers might want to consider such counsel, especially when it is coupled with the observation that free trade benefits workers in poor countries but punishes workers in rich ones.
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-61039-950-0
Page Count: 432
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
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