A well-developed approach to humanistic leadership.
An impassioned plea for embracing empathy.
Organizational transformation coach Pallapa writes in this debut: “When you lead with empathy, you are empowering humanity in the face of adversity.” Pallapa lays the groundwork for this argument with a broad discussion of the negative impacts of the global pandemic, proposing that empathy could be an enduring “prescription” for relief. The material in Part I includes an overview of several contemporary global challenges largely influenced by but not limited to the Covid-19 pandemic and also provides a kind of road map for navigating post-pandemic stress. While the content isn’t unique, numerous anecdotes and examples are sure to be illuminating and reassuring to readers. Part II provides a deeper dive into the types of empathy, notes the differences between empathy and sympathy, and explores how to lead with empathy. Of interest in this part is the author’s focus on “emotional intelligence (EQ)” as the driving force behind empathy. Two other engaging sections with illustrative examples outline the effects of random acts of kindness on empathy and how to instill empathy in children. In Part III, Pallapa widens the scope to include organizational leadership. This final section distinguishes this book from others of the genre. Pallapa authoritatively delves into why there are too few empathic leaders and how to exhibit empathy as a leader to both employees and customers. There are numerous deftly described ideas in this section. The author identifies the special challenges of leading a remote workforce and provides compassionate advice for improving “psychological safety.” Pallapa’s refreshing, unwavering optimism is best demonstrated by the “five positive trends” he puts forth (such as remote work becoming more acceptable and an increase in leaders’ empathy for their employees) that represent an antidote “to the dark clouds of these stressful and challenging times.”
A well-developed approach to humanistic leadership.Pub Date: Dec. 9, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-119-83725-1
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Wiley
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Not only the definitive life, but a tour de force by a master.
One of history’s most prolific inventors receives his due from one of the world’s greatest biographers.
Pulitzer and National Book Award winner Morris (This Living Hand and Other Essays, 2012, etc.), who died this year, agrees that Thomas Edison (1847-1931) almost certainly said, “genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration,” and few readers of this outstanding biography will doubt that he was the quintessential workaholic. Raised in a middle-class Michigan family, Edison displayed an obsessive entrepreneurial spirit from childhood. As an adolescent, he ran a thriving business selling food and newspapers on a local railroad. Learning Morse code, he spent the Civil War as a telegrapher, impressing colleagues with his speed and superiors with his ability to improve the equipment. In 1870, he opened his own shop to produce inventions to order. By 1876, he had money to build a large laboratory in New Jersey, possibly the world’s first industrial research facility. Never a loner, Edison hired talented people to assist him. The dazzling results included the first commercially successful light bulb for which, Morris reminds readers, he invented the entire system: dynamo, wires, transformers, connections, and switches. Critics proclaim that Edison’s innovations (motion pictures, fluoroscope, rechargeable batteries, mimeograph, etc.) were merely improvements on others’ work, but this is mostly a matter of sour grapes. Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone was a clunky, short-range device until it added Edison’s carbon microphone. And his phonograph flabbergasted everyone. Humans had been making images long before Daguerre, but no one had ever reproduced sound. Morris rivetingly describes the personalities, business details, and practical uses of Edison’s inventions as well as the massive technical details of years of research and trial and error for both his triumphs and his failures. For no obvious reason, the author writes in reverse chronological order, beginning in 1920, with each of the seven following chapters backtracking a decade. It may not satisfy all readers, but it works.
Not only the definitive life, but a tour de force by a master.Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-8129-9311-0
Page Count: 800
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
For Gorman, creating customers is an act of cultivating delight–-a motto that most businesses would do well to follow.
Gorman, who runs a boutique creative-brand agency, offers a refreshing return to business basics, when competition was a novel concept and businesses actually put the customer first.
Not that Gorman is trotting out old business saws in a fuddy-duddy way; his style is energetic, and his delivery is keen and clean. He is not about to forsake branding, but he will tell you to forget the fancy dancing, the retro music and the airy cleverness. His emphasis is on delivering satisfaction to the customers—consistently–-with the ultimate goal of making them friends for the long term. Granted, it's not a revolutionary concept, but in the Age of Hype, it's certainly salubrious. Profits cannot be a guiding principle; business owners must understand the values, tastes and preferences of their audience, and then create a brand that becomes "the story that people will tell when asked to recommend your product or service to someone else"–-and one that exceeds expectations. In other words, create an identity and be all you say you are. Tag lines, logos, websites–-these are all brand articulations, and though Gorman acknowledges their importance, they are not value articulations and they can't carry the product if the consumer's experience isn't pleasurable and enthusiastic. Gorman even goes a step further: The product must be a delight. (He includes many amusing anecdotes, but the best involves him tipping a saxophone-playing spaceman in the subway.) Gorman also offers intelligent advice about making oneself attractive to prospects, about clarity of message, about elegance and about the importance of word-of-mouth for verifying quality (with a nod to George Silverman)–-though it would have been helpful to get a few examples of controlling and sequencing word-of-mouth marketing.
For Gorman, creating customers is an act of cultivating delight–-a motto that most businesses would do well to follow.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-9749169-0-0
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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