A scathing but reasoned indictment of leadership errors accompanied by a detailed plan to fix them.
Two management consultants propose a sensible process to revolutionize organizational leadership.
In this debut, consultants Bicking and McKenzie characterize a lack of effective leadership as a “drought,” because “when the flow of new thinking is shut off or curtailed, the thirst for innovation eventually kills the organization.” The book’s first section explores, in blunt detail, some of the glaring reasons why business and political leaders fail. In the second section, the authors reveal “six distinct leadership principles” that they say “should never be violated.” These, which include a “shared vision of a desired future” and a “team-first mentality,” are described in six separate chapters. This structure enables the authors to provide a significant amount of detail about each principle in short bursts of expertly crafted text, enhanced with specific examples and suggested exercises. They embed several useful tools in the content; for example, there’s a thorough, 10-step protocol for creating a “shared vision,” and the “developmental delegation plan” is equally comprehensive. Many insights are provocative and deserving of consideration. The authors suggest, for instance, that “When trust is breached…the organization moves into a state of decay”; thus, they encourage leaders to “admit mistakes and take responsibility for bad decisions as soon as they come to light.” The book’s valuable third section offers useful suggestions for managing conflict and covers such things as listening skills and asking good questions. The final chapter delivers a detailed leadership case study; some may perceive this as a thinly veiled sales pitch for the authors’ consulting practice, but it does effectively illustrate how one may apply the book’s six principles. The appendices are a welcome addition, as they include decision-making, leadership, and coaching models along with a personal values assessment. Extensive references, organized by chapter, are also provided.
A scathing but reasoned indictment of leadership errors accompanied by a detailed plan to fix them.Pub Date: Nov. 27, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5320-2796-3
Page Count: 154
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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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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