A dependable though parochial reference for leaders looking to safely shepherd their flocks.
Ololo (The Quest for Distinction, 2013) offers leadership advice based on a God-oriented approach to life and business.
A shepherd leader, writes Ololo, needs a vision of where his flock should be going and then needs to lead them there safely. He supports this notion by drawing heavily from Scripture and the metaphorical shepherd frequently alluded to throughout both the Old Testament and the New Testament. In the first chapter, Ololo describes the traits that separate leaders (shepherds) from followers (sheep). Shepherds, Ololo contends, are servant-leaders who keep both their vision of the path ahead and the safety of their flock as their primary responsibilities. Sheep, on the other hand, would do well to submit to their shepherd’s will. Ololo extends the scriptural parallels further to align with the pacesetting leadership styles defined by psychologist Daniel Goleman. (Business management students may recognize similar categories as defined by Kurt Lewin and others.) The remaining chapters describe how each of these leadership styles can be applied to various areas, from business to parenting to government, without losing the shepherd or servant mindsets. Ololo ably showcases his knowledge of Scripture, and his carefully chosen references clearly illustrate his primary ideas: “Christ, the Chief Shepherd, in John 14:12, in a pacesetting manner, performed miracles and encouraged his followers to have faith and perform greater miracles than he had performed.” However, nonevangelical Christians, as well as non-Christians, may chafe at the text’s male-oriented language since there’s little effort made to address or portray women as leaders. The sheep metaphor may also be unappealing to readers who’d prefer to retain their individuality.
A dependable though parochial reference for leaders looking to safely shepherd their flocks.Pub Date: April 19, 2013
ISBN: 978-1470075514
Page Count: 268
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 22, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
An unfocused, blistering rant about sexual issues near and dear to the author’s heart. Bright, a regular columnist for Salon magazine and a popular writer and lecturer on sex (Susie Bright’s Sexual State of the Union, 1997), wants to argue here that “sexuality is the soul of the creative process, and that erotic expression of any kind is a personal revolution.” Readers unfamiliar with Bright will find it difficult to glean a clear message here except that it’s essential to be public about all aspects of one’s sexuality. Her “erotic manifesto” demands that we talk about sex, that we understand “the personal meaning of erotic expression: the creativity it demands, the challenges of sexual candor, and the rewards of coming clean about desire.” Those who would rather keep certain aspects of their lives to themselves are liable to feel under attack here (“Was the issue privacy, or was it sterotyping, having your identity defined by others?”, she asks an elderly lesbian aunt who refused to discuss her sexuality with Bright). Bright’s abrasive and forthright, if not confrontational, style (“a woman dieting is a woman not having orgasms”) may turn off readers who don—t see sexuality as the foundation of all creativity in their lives. Only for those who are already Bright fans. (Author tour)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-06-251554-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An awesomely aggrieved tract on the perceived problem of gratuitously swinish superiors, which reveals far more about its author (A Knight in Shining Armor, 1991, etc.) than about the amorphous wrongs he purports to address. Offering only anecdotal evidence drawn largely from the work of other scholars and the business press, Hornstein (Psychology/Teachers College, Columbia Univ.) reaches the seemingly obvious conclusion that bosses who mistreat subordinates are a menace both to their victims and to a socioeconomic order whose vigor depends on productivity. In a format featuring checklists like the ``Eight Daily Sins'' (including coercion, cruelty, deceit), he attempts to put errant executives in a variety of pigeonholes, e.g., blamers, dehumanizers, manipulators, and rationalizers. With but passing acknowledgment of the fact that the workplace has become a more demanding venue as corporate America faces up to global competition, the author examines the many ways in which employees may be oppressed (or imagine themselves to be). Cases in point range from public scoldings through do-better lectures dispatched via E-mail, intimidation, electronic surveillance, and sexual harassment. Reviewed as well are the possible consequences of abuse: on-the-job violence, sub-par performance, and error-inducing anxiety. Toward the close of his whiny screed, Hornstein discloses that at age 14 he worked as a delivery boy for a shopkeeper who persisted in referring to him as ``dreck'' (Yiddish for trash). Earlier, the author recalled that his mother-in-law had been persecuted, probably on religious grounds, by a large communications company during the 1930s. In this personally pained context, he closes by offering innocuous tips for dealing with insufferable superiors and encouraging community sanctions to discourage, even outlaw, barbarous behavior within organizations. An us-against-them exercise in pop anti-authoritarian sociology that, for all its lack of analytic depth and other deficiencies, could strike responsive chords among latter-day malcontents.
Pub Date: March 5, 1996
ISBN: 1-57322-020-5
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
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