A formulaic study of common-sense commercial leadership.
Debut author Hamrick describes what he sees as the ideal leader of an organization.
The author unusually attempts to rehabilitate the term “dictator,” which is commonly associated with self-serving despotism. Specifically, the author advocates a more positive interpretation of the phrase “benevolent dictator” as a person who serves his followers and organization selflessly but does so without forgetting his leadership role, and the hard choices and responsibility that comes with it. Hamrick illustrates this tougher vision of servant-leadership with his “Benevolent Dictator Pyramid”: The benevolent dictator is at the bottom of the organizational structure, a firm’s foundation, while those he leads are perched at the top, where they enjoy the closest relationship to customers. The benevolent dictator creates a culture of accountability and empowerment that inspires subordinates to take the initiative for the good of the organization, and even occasionally engage in “intelligent disobedience” to adapt to sudden changes: “quick decisions made by courageous followers will be in line with the organization’s thinking.” In clear, accessible language that’s free of gratuitous technicality, the author explores the principal preoccupations of this leader, as he defines it, and much of the counsel surrounding these is sound. However, the preoccupations themselves will be very familiar to anyone acquainted with leadership literature, as they include such common notions as innovation, adaptability, accountability, effective communication, and vision. The use of the term “dictator” seems largely a gimmick, as Hamrick employs it so expansively that it includes Jesus Christ and readers’ own parents. Also, given the emphasis on the empowerment of employees, it’s not clear why the book asserts that leaders should present themselves as “omnipotent”; again, it seems like a hyperbolic use of a term to dress a familiar teaching in catchier clothes: that a leader should inspire confidence. Despite such rhetoric, much of the author’s advice is shopworn and conveyed in clichés: “Leaders should not shy away from conflict. They must acknowledge any problem head-on, as it will not go away.”
A formulaic study of common-sense commercial leadership.Pub Date: May 25, 2021
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: BookBaby
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2021
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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A passionate and accessible guide to humanizing the workplace.
Helbig and Norman present a game plan for making leadership more responsively human.
In this expanded update to The Psychological Safety Playbook: Lead More Powerfully by Being More Human (2023), the authors provide “practical strategies for responding to resistance, sparking change, embodying the change we want to see, and moving forward deliberately,” specifically in a business setting. They suggest ways to encourage what they call “changemakers” through the use of five key “plays” from their playbook: Communicate Courageously, Master the Art of Listening, Manage Your Reactions (“shift from automatic reaction to conscious response to stay better connected to yourself and others”), Embrace Risk and Failure, and Design Inclusive Rituals. The goal is to ensure that organizational cultures promote psychological safety, guided by leaders who “walk the talk” by emphasizing their own humanity at every turn. (“We must be the first to share our own failures with our teams, which will start to make it possible for others to do the same.”) This call for example-setting is sounded throughout the book as Helbig and Norman urge their target audience (leaders and would-be leaders) to go beyond mere instruction and instead embody the qualities they want to see in their subordinates, such as continuous learning, active curiosity, and self-reflection. Each chapter includes a detailed “Recommended Reading” section and text with extensive numbered and bulleted points formatted to make the core concepts more immediately digestible. The authors effectively employ clear and empathetic prose to assure readers that psychological safety is slow to build and quick to break, observing that such safety requires steady attention and delivers outsize payoffs as a result. They refreshingly ground a great deal of the material in psychology and neuroscience, pointing out, for instance, that research has demonstrated that the parasympathetic nervous system responds to honest appreciation, which improves creative thinking. Some wistful readers might consider some of the authors’ suggestions beyond the reach of their own organizations, as when group facilitators are advised to “gently intervene when someone dominates the conversation,” but hope springs eternal.
A passionate and accessible guide to humanizing the workplace.Pub Date: May 19, 2026
ISBN: 9798993550503
Page Count: 170
Publisher: Crazy Idea Press
Review Posted Online: April 23, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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