A seasoned executive and a psychologist who specializes in corporate coaching team up to advise newly-promoted senior managers on adjusting to their roles at the top of the ladder.
Wyche (Good Is Not Enough, 2008) and Booth divide their book into two sections, with Wyche drawing on his experience in managing several large businesses to share the crucial skills a leader needs to develop, while Booth addresses strategies for success and the personal aspects of being an executive. The book draws a clear distinction between the top level of management, its target audience, and mid-level managers, explaining that the two areas require different sets of skills for success. With its blend of advice and anecdotes, the book does an effective job of convincing the reader that executives need to turn their attention from the details of business operations to big-picture strategies, and to develop confidence in their judgment and decision-making without isolating themselves from useful criticism or accurate information, and it does so while largely avoiding the unpleasant jargon associated with many books on management. The authors stress the importance of making a distinction between personal and professional relationships, motivations, and actions, urging readers to maintain a sense of themselves that extends beyond the office. This is particularly relevant in the final chapter, which advises executives to prepare to leave their positions long before it becomes necessary to do so, arguing that one of the strongest forms of leadership is knowing when to walk away. The book goes beyond platitudes and overused generalizations, offering solid and substantial advice for becoming an effective leader and managing organizations for success. Wyche's willingness to share stories of his shortcomings as well as his successes—how he inadvertently turned grocery store bakeries into red velvet cake factories, or how a low-level employee taught him that his communication methods were ineffective—provides useful object lessons in addition to a fully-developed portrait of an executive who learned much of his leadership technique on the job.
A well-written guide to developing leadership skills that draws effectively on the hands-on experience of one co-author and the insights and coaching techniques of the other.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2013
ISBN: 978-0615738222
Page Count: 210
Publisher: Kandelle Enterprises
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Categories: GENERAL NONFICTION
Did you like this book?
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
Categories: GENERAL NONFICTION
Did you like this book?
Noted jazz and pop record producer Thiele offers a chatty autobiography. Aided by record-business colleague Golden, Thiele traces his career from his start as a ``pubescent, novice jazz record producer'' in the 1940s through the '50s, when he headed Coral, Dot, and Roulette Records, and the '60s, when he worked for ABC and ran the famous Impulse! jazz label. At Coral, Thiele championed the work of ``hillbilly'' singer Buddy Holly, although the only sessions he produced with Holly were marred by saccharine strings. The producer specialized in more mainstream popsters like the irrepressibly perky Teresa Brewer (who later became his fourth wife) and the bubble-machine muzak-meister Lawrence Welk. At Dot, Thiele was instrumental in recording Jack Kerouac's famous beat- generation ramblings to jazz accompaniment (recordings that Dot's president found ``pornographic''), while also overseeing a steady stream of pop hits. He then moved to the Mafia-controlled Roulette label, where he observed the ``silk-suited, pinky-ringed'' entourage who frequented the label's offices. Incredibly, however, Thiele remembers the famously hard-nosed Morris Levy, who ran the label and was eventually convicted of extortion, as ``one of the kindest, most warm-hearted, and classiest music men I have ever known.'' At ABC/Impulse!, Thiele oversaw the classic recordings of John Coltrane, although he is the first to admit that Coltrane essentially produced his own sessions. Like many producers of the day, Thiele participated in the ownership of publishing rights to some of the songs he recorded; he makes no apology for this practice, which he calls ``entirely appropriate and without any ethical conflicts.'' A pleasant, if not exactly riveting, memoir that will be of most interest to those with a thirst for cocktail-hour stories of the record biz. (25 halftones, not seen)
Pub Date: May 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-19-508629-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
Categories: GENERAL NONFICTION
Did you like this book?
© Copyright 2021 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
