An expert examines the role of interim leaders as an important part of business strategy.
In this debut book, Grant draws on both research and case studies based on his own professional experience working with a variety of companies to make the case for the value of interim executives, or “gig leaders.” The author distinguishes between these interims and acting or consultant executives, seeing the former as high-level workers with specific skills who are hired under short-term contracts to accomplish certain corporate goals, a highly paid professional tier of the broader gig economy. The volume guides readers through evaluating the need for interims using Grant’s copyrighted SCILL model, which describes the five “attributes” of these executives (Savvy, Critical, Impact, Leadership, Legacy). And the author shows how to assess those leaders through GREAT (Gravitas, Resilience, Engagement, Attitude, Transformational) competencies. While the book largely discusses these roles in general terms (“An interim makes the most impact, however, when intentionally hired to deliver specific results that require a leader with experience and dynamism”), case studies offer more concrete examples of the positive use of interims, from refreshing a company’s technology infrastructure to implementing turnaround plans without the complications of long-term employee politics. Grant is clearly experienced and knowledgeable and makes a compelling argument in favor of employing this short-term workforce to execute clearly defined goals. The title’s intended audience is corporate decision-makers who will hire interim leaders. Although readers looking to follow this career path will read glowing descriptions of interims (“An interim has battle scars from crisis management and like a first-responder in a disaster zone, is objective, decisive, and has emotional stability shaped from years of being in the front line”), they will not find guidance on pursuing this road. But for its target audience, the volume is a useful tool for appraising the need for interims and establishing a framework for their success. Although recent research suggests that gig employment is less widespread than previously thought, the author presents a context in which it can be fruitful for both employers and employees.
A thorough and coherent discussion of how companies can make effective use of interim executives as part of the broader gig economy.Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-977200-66-2
Page Count: 229
Publisher: Outskirts Press
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Categories: GENERAL NONFICTION
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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
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A New York Times columnist and editorial board member delivers a slim book for aspiring writers, offering saws and sense, wisdom and waggery, biases and biting sarcasm.
Klinkenborg (Timothy; or, Notes of an Abject Reptile, 2006), who’s taught for decades, endeavors to keep things simple in his prose, and he urges other writers to do the same. (Note: He despises abuses of the word as, as he continually reminds readers.) In the early sections, the author ignores traditional paragraphing so that the text resembles a long free-verse poem. He urges readers to use short, clear sentences and to make sure each one is healthy before moving on; notes that it’s acceptable to start sentences with and and but; sees benefits in diagramming sentences; stresses that all writing is revision; periodically blasts the formulaic writing that many (most?) students learn in school; argues that knowing where you’re headed before you begin might be good for a vacation, but not for a piece of writing; and believes that writers must trust readers more, and trust themselves. Most of Klinkenborg’s advice is neither radical nor especially profound (“Turn to the poets. / Learn from them”), and the text suffers from a corrosive fallacy: that if his strategies work for him they will work for all. The final fifth of the text includes some passages from writers he admires (McPhee, Oates, Cheever) and some of his students’ awkward sentences, which he treats analytically but sometimes with a surprising sarcasm that veers near meanness. He includes examples of students’ dangling modifiers, malapropisms, errors of pronoun agreement, wordiness and other mistakes.
Analyzing his craft, a careful craftsman urges with Thoreauvian conviction that writers should simplify, simplify, simplify.Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-307-26634-7
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 14, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2012
Categories: GENERAL NONFICTION
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