Tag Archives: leadership books

TheManager’s Leadership Book Review

Posted on by
1

Don’t Bring It to Work – Breaking the Family Patterns That Limit Success, by Sylvia Lafair, PhD

I absolutely love it when an expert in a non-business field brings their knowledge to the business world. Whether it’s a former all-star athlete turned successful businessman (ala Julius Erving), or a rehabbed musician turned stock trader (ala Guns N’ Roses’ bassist Duff McKagan), they almost always provide interesting and important perspectives on how we conduct business, and how we lead and manage others.

One of the biggest problems in business today is that we already have all of the answers and we feel don’t need any new blood changing the way we do things. I’ve always been fascinated by the closed minded who fail to embrace or even believe that someone from the outside – armed with a fresh perspective – can make a positive impact. The fact that so many continue believe this despite the myriad of examples of outsiders who successfully bring change is nothing short of astounding. Dr. Sylvia Lafair is one such example of an outsider successfully delivering change.

Lafair, a former family therapist who now serves as the president of Creative Energy Options, Inc., brought her expertise to the business world and with it a unique point of view about office politics, leadership and workplace roles and relationships. From working with dysfunctional families to years of providing leadership training and insights into workplace behavior and relationships for corporations like Microsoft, Dr. Lafair operated in the greatest leadership laboratory of all time: The real world. In the process, she also penned a great read that captures the very essence of what’s holding so many leaders back: Their reliance on destructive family patterns. Her book, Don’t Bring It to Work, shows us that our behavior cannot exist independently from our interpersonal relationships, despite the facade we think we portray.

Charity Isn’t All That Begins At Home

If you buy in to Lafair’s premise, then virtually everything that’s holding you back at work is closely related to the role(s) you play at home. Whether you are a persecutor or pleaser at work, chances are you play this role in your personal life, as well. In fact, according to Lafair, you are basically compelled to play the same role at work that you do at home – you are simply more comfortable this way – unless you can be made aware of your behavior, understand it and then transform yourself by taking appropriate actions. (By the way, if you don’t buy in to this premise, then you’re likely a rebel at both work and at home; which means, of course, that Lafair is still right.)


Certainly, it’s not that uncomplicated; and bravo to Lafair for not trying to insinuate that we simply live in these roles and those are our only issues. Equally important to the role you play are the roles of those around you. If you are not aware that you are a slave to your personal patterns, then you are likely to have conflict with those who do not fit into your “ideal.” As Dr. Lafair puts it: “When our colleagues and bosses don’t match our expectations, we realize this in a matter of seconds, and just like that, the seeds of conflict are sewn.”

Unlike the typical easy-read coping tomes such as The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and Who Moved My Cheese, this book requires real dedication from the reader. In other words, it is not for the casual passerby who just wants to polish this or that about their behavior at the office. Just like real change, this book requires work.

The Recommendation

There is no doubt that I recommend this book, I do. My dilemma is whether it is more leadership, self-help or team dynamics. The truth is that Don’t Bring It to Work can help your personal and professional development much in the same way as Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits does. Just as 7 Habits applies as much to your home life as it does to your work life, so does Don’t Bring It to Work. And, just as Covey’s work is as much about leadership as it is about personal improvement, so is Lafair’s.

The mix of real world examples with a sometimes textbook feel (likely from the massive amount of footnoting early on) is actually very well done. I especially applaud Lafair for her inclusion of a recap called “Takeaways” at the end of each chapter. Because the concepts are sometimes very deep and the material sometimes very new to the reader, having this brief recap at the end of the chapters is very helpful.

While many can benefit from this book, I especially recommend if for two specific people: First, for the young manager who is tiring of seeing his colleagues promoted at greater frequency; and second, for the self-actualized leader who cannot seem to find anything wrong with her style or approach, yet her team is still a mess.

(To order Don’t Bring It to Work, visit Amazon.com.)

NY Times Business Hardcover Best Sellers – July 2009

Posted on by
1

New York Times – Hardcover Business Best Sellers – July 2009

Okay, how long can this thing last?

What will certainly be recorded as the most successful business book written in 2008, Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers continues to dominate the best seller rankings for the eighth consecutive month. With success like this, Outliers truly stands to become an outlier itself. (For those who’ve read it, you may be asking whether Outliers would have performed so well had it been released in a bull market. Gladwell would likely argue in the negative.)

Given the unbelievable run normally reserved for motivational and self-help titles, we decided Outliers was due both a second read and a dedicated review this month. We even considered changing the title of this regular post to Outliers and the Other Hardcover Business Best Sellers.

What is the Best Book Released in 2008?

In January, we called Outliers “one of the best books released in 2008.” We can now definitively say after our reread that it is not one of the best books released in 2008… Outliers is the best book released in 2008; and second place isn’t even close.

Like similar mega-successful eye-opener Freakonomics, Outliers is not a “how to” book. In fact, it is unlikely that the book provides many readers with any practical knowledge that will easily translate into future success (for them). The only probable application of the lessons learned in Outliers is with future generations. Some readers of this book will certainly use the education gained to hyper-focus their progeny with 10,000 hours of hockey practice or computer programming. (Certainly this was not Gladwell’s intent.)

Outliers, like Freakonomics, is an interesting, enlightening and educational read. Its success during a recession is remarkable (since it provides little to no useful advice) and a testament to just how well Gladwell develops and presents its central theme and ideas. Gladwell knows his audience and he delivers what they want. He superbly delivers his educated observations in an entertaining and informative way.

Yes, But Will Pseudo-Intellectuals Enjoy Outliers?

Just like Freakonomics, Outliers has its detractors; and they are likely one in the same. Despite its success – or, more likely, because of it – there are those who declare they hate this book. (Hate is such a strong word, but it’s warranted here. Those who don’t find either of these books to their liking don’t simply recommend against them, they claim to literally and utterly despise them.)

Without detailing the most common complaints against a great read that (as of today) has spent 245 days on Amazon’s Top 100 list (currently at Number 15), let’s oversimplify it and say that those who dislike this book are mostly jealous, failed writers. Take this excerpt from an unbelievable 2,370-word diatribe masquerading as a review railing against Outliers on Amazon.com: “… McDonaldized salmagundi of information is itself is [sic] an inadequate account of the thesis proffered by Gladwell.”


Where do we start with this overly pretentious, unloved thesaurus user? His silly and revealing typographical errors? (Perhaps his book would be published if he would just proofread a little.) The length of his unreadable review? (This entire post is just 1,015 words long; 57% shorter than his Amazon attack.) His self-satisfying misuse of the made-up term “McDonaldized?” (I’m sure by his misapplication of the word coined by George Ritzer he means Outliers was written for mass consumption – shame on Malcolm for wanting to sell a couple of books.) Salmagundi? (Wasn’t that the guy who wrote The Satanic Verses?)

Okay, enough about the naysayers; other than to mention they remind me a lot of the fat guy in the Def Leopard T-shirt who told me in 1986 that “U2 sucks, man.” He was wrong, he knew he was wrong, but he couldn’t bring himself to like what others liked. His loss.

Alas, Outliers is not Perfect

Although it is the best book of 2008, Outliers is not The Old Man and The Sea and Gladwell is not Hemingway. Those expecting Hemingway or Salinger or Hugo are going to be sorely disappointed in Gladwell’s work; and in the work of the other 200,000+ authors who published books in North America in 2008.

…

Why do we read? People read for a number of reasons, though most would say they read to be entertained and/or informed; and Gladwell’s Outliers is entertaining and informative. That’s why it could very well remain Number 1 for twelve straight months. (Unless we just jinxed it.)

…

(While we said this article would be a review dedicated to Outliers, it would be disingenuous if we failed to brag that the cleverly titled 10-10-10, by Suzy Welch fell out of the Top 15 after just two months on the list. Way back in May, the AskTheManager.com editors bet that this tome and fellow May 2009 Top 5 read The Ultimate Depression Survival Guide, by Martin Weiss were headed straight for the bargain bin. Weiss’ drivel did not disappoint, and made it to the table-of-shame in June. It seems it took Welch’s formulaic pages a whole month longer. Look for either title on the clearance rack this month only if you’ve run out of good books to read.)

The Top Five – NY Times Business Hardcover Best Sellers July 2009 (to view the entire list, follow this link):

This
Month 		Last
Month
1 OUTLIERS, by Malcolm Gladwell. (Little, Brown, $27.99.) Why some people succeed — it has to do with luck and opportunities as well as talent — from the author of “Blink” and “The Tipping Point.” 1
2 HOW THE MIGHTY FALL, by Jim Collins. (Jim Collins/Harper­Collins, $23.99.) Companies fail in stages, and their decline can be detected and reversed 10
3 SHOP CLASS AS SOULCRAFT, by Matthew B. Crawford. (Penguin Press, $25.95.) A philosopher and mechanic argues for the satisfactions and challenges of manual work.
4 HOUSE OF CARDS, by William D. Cohan. (Doubleday, $27.95.) The fall of Bear Stearns and the beginning of the Wall Street collapse. 5
5 THE TOTAL MONEY MAKEOVER, by Dave Ramsey (Thomas Nelson, $24.99.) Debt reduction and fiscal fitness for families, by the radio talk-show host. 4


The Tazie Effect – Turning Life’s Defining Moments Into Personal and Professional Greatness

Posted on by
Reply

TheManager’s Leadership Book Review

In what may become a regular feature of AskTheManager.com, we tackle the sometimes thankless task of reviewing the work of a published author. While you could argue that we’ve provided book reviews in the past with our Ten Best Leadership Books or our Ten Best Decision Making Books lists, this time it’s different… this time it’s about a single book: whether we love it or hate it, you’ll know where we stand.

The Tazie Effect, by Heather Whittaker

The first thing you realize when you are about to crack open The Tazie Effect is its incredible lack of girth. Just 66 pages separate the beginning of the first chapter and the end of the last – and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Too often leadership books are written for the glorification of the writer, not the education of the reader. The Tazie Effect focuses concisely on nine specific areas where leaders can develop their craft. More pages would be unnecessary.

Written with the belief that we can learn much about leadership from a six-pound blind dog who is called, among other things, Tazie Roo, The Tazie Effect attempts to weave solid leadership advice with examples about how this pooch lives her life. This, unfortunately, is where the book barks up the wrong tree. (Fortunately, this is the only place where it falters.) The connections between this little dog and the leadership advice doled out by Ms. Whittaker are tenuous at best. At worst, those who don’t love dogs the way the author does might be turned off by the amount of attention paid to and credit given this pup. In some ways it’s like the tail wagging the dog.




Stop Dogging this Book!

Okay, now let me throw the author a bone… Once I got past the precious Tazie Roo’s inability to teach me real leadership skills and simply read the material provided, I was impressed. Ms. Whittaker is clearly a gifted leader and a gifted writer, and her book deserves the attention it will surely receive.

Whittaker weaves in real world (human) leadership examples very well and provides lessons that any leader – young or old – can easily understand and incorporate into their work lives. Her words are well chosen and the advice she provides is solid. The Tazie Effect is void of unnecessary magic bullets, tips or tricks, and instead focuses on long term, life changing principles in the simplest form.

While The Tazie Effect is not the next One Minute Manager, I can see the value organizations will likely place on this book as a housebreaking tool for new managers and as a reinforcement of the skill sets of their senior leaders. (You can’t, obviously, teach an old dog new tricks.) It also seems likely that progressive companies could build their leadership development programs around its concepts, using the book as a cornerstone of their efforts.

The Recommendation

If you are a canine-loving leader who can’t resist speaking baby talk every time you come face-to-face with a four-legged friend, then this book is definitely for you. If you’re like most managers in the American workplace, and you’re more concerned about what happens to you than to some little dog, then this book is… still for you.

Let’s face it, with so much psychobabble BS passing itself off as leadership development; it’s nice to find a quick, effective read that meets the needs of its intended audience – even if they’re not all dog lovers. With that, I can confidently and doggedly recommend this book to anyone looking to improve their leadership skills.

(To order The Tazie Effect, visit Amazon.com.)

Save Your Money: It’s Time to Stop Trying to Improve Time Management

Posted on by
1

Time Management Tools That Work – No Such Thing

If you’re a regular reader to this blog, you know we don’t put much stock in time management tips, tricks or techniques. We believe, like Stephen Covey, that you cannot manage time, you can only manage self. Any attempts, in fact, to manage time are just fruitless efforts that get you no closer to your goals.

Time management is about execution, organization and personal efficiencies. Sadly, you will not begin to execute simply by following a few time management tips; organization will not suddenly become second nature because you learned to use the calendar feature on Microsoft Outlook; and just because you can efficiently complete tasks doesn’t mean you are completing the correct ones or in the proper order.

True Time Management is about Effectiveness

Prior to the technological onslaught of time management tools, managers could be divided into two distinct groups: effective and ineffective. In the 1980s, a business leader who needed something done – and done right – knew which of his executives could handle the task. Back then we described this person as organized.

So what’s changed? As we examine our fellow managers today – those armed with a PDA synced to their Outlook, their CardScan machine, a CRM tool and their computer desktop – we notice very quickly that we can divide them into two distinct groups: effective and ineffective.

In the 1980s, truly effective salespeople – those who seemed to always win Salesperson of the Month – used index cards to keep track of their customers and prospects. This was their CRM tool; this was their version of Salesforce.com. They were slaves to their paper planners (yesterday’s Microsoft Outlook) and they never missed a meeting. Why were these salespeople so much more successful than their peers? Didn’t everyone have access to index cards and paper planners?

Why Technology Hasn’t Moved the Effectiveness Needle

While the tools technology has provided have slightly shifted the bell curve of effective leadership to the right, it’s no surprise to us that these tools have done little in the way of narrowing the curve. We are no more effective as leaders today than we were twenty, thirty or forty years ago.


To stick with the salespeople analogy: we find it almost criminal that today’s technological tools (whether CRM software or a CardScan machine) go largely underutilized by the unsuccessful salespeople people, while being exploited to their fullest by the Salesperson of the Month.

Salespeople, you see, more than any other group, stand to gain the most from employing technology in their daily work. So why don’t more of them embrace the very technology that has been proven to help them make more money?

People are Lazy, Procrastinating Do-Nothings

While we can think of a few choice descriptively redundant terms for the ineffective salesperson or manager, the truth is that personal effectiveness is not something that can be burned onto a CD and loaded on your laptop. Effectiveness – the essence of time management – must become part of your DNA.

The effective salesperson in 1984 who mastered the use of index cards had the desire and DNA to be successful. It’s likely he was not a “natural born salesman” and therefore had to work at it. Knowing this, he strived to add anything to his arsenal that would give him a leg up – even if it meant more work.

This element of human nature is still present twenty-five years later – we see it in the successful salespeople who learn every nook and cranny of the company’s CRM tool and go out of their way to master new technologies – but we still see these qualities in just a few salespeople on any given sales team. Technology has done nothing to move the effectiveness needle.

So it’s Hopeless to Attempt to Improve My Time Management?

Well, yes and no. Would you describe yourself the way Waffle House describes hash browns? That is, are you scattered, smothered, covered, chunked, topped, diced and peppered? If so, then you need a lot more just than technology to improve your time management (something you should start calling your “effectiveness”). May we recommend you internalize (that means read until you fully understand and live) 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen R. Covey? (There’s a reason this book was voted the best leadership book ever written by the editors of AskTheManager.)

Alternatively, would you say that you’re generally effective; that you do a good job of cleaning your inbox; that people can count on you to get things done and that you’re only looking for something to help you recover a few minutes a day? If this describes you, congratulations, you are one of the lucky few who are either hardwired to perform or you’ve worked hard to achieve effectiveness. For you, we’d like to recommend something that’s helped us organize our contacts: the CardScan Personal v8 Card Scanner. This tool is great for the already organized and worthless to the lazy, procrastinating do-nothings.

The first step is recognizing you are a lazy, procrastinating do-nothing – this could save you a lot of money.

NY Times Business Best Sellers – Hardcover August 2008

Posted on by
1

Here are the Top 5 on the NY Times Business Hardcover Best Sellers list for August 2008. To see the complete list (and to see a great choice at Number 7 this month) follow this link.

 

At number 7 this month is a terrific read on the most perplexing problem in business today: execution. Specifically, Six Disciplines® Execution Revolution: Solving the One Business Problem That Makes Solving All Other Problems Easier by Gary Harpst deals with businesses’ inability to execute strategy. A real bargain at $7.12 on Amazon.com this week. To learn more about this book, follow this link.




 

Interested in reading a business book that the editors of AskTheManager.com feel should be included in the list of the Top Ten Leadership Books of All Time? To see our list, follow this link.

 

Freakonomics. is still on this list this month, though it’s dropped to Number 8 (from Number 3). Although it’s not a leadership development or management training book, Freakonomics is both a fun read and an eye-opener into real world economics. More social commentary than leadership, Freakonomics is the now being made into what will surely be a must-see documentary by independent producer, Chad Troutwine. To read more about the documentary, which is currently filming, follow this link.

 

This
Month

 

Last
Month

1

WHEN MARKETS COLLIDE, by Mohamed El-Erian. (McGraw-Hill, $27.95.) Investing advice for a time of global economic change.

2

2

THE 4-HOUR WORKWEEK, by Timothy Ferris. (Crown, $19.95.) Because life isn’t all about work. (†)

1

3

WOMEN & MONEY, by Suze Orman (Spiegel & Grau, $24.95.) How women can achieve financial security. (†)

10

4

THE TOTAL MONEY MAKEOVER, by Dave Ramsey (Thomas Nelson, $24.99.) Debt reduction and fiscal fitness for families, by the radio talk-show host. (†)

6

5

DEBT CURES “THEY” DON’T WANT YOU TO KNOW ABOUT, by Kevin Trudeau. (Equity, $25.95.) How the credit industry is rigged against you, and how to fight back by changing your financial habits. (†)

8

 

NY Times Business Best Sellers – Hardcover July 2008

Posted on by
Reply

 

Here are the Top 5 on the NY Times Business Hardcover list for July 2008. To see the complete list (and to see a great choice that’s been at #15 for two months in a row) follow this link.

 

At number 15 again this month is the great read from Marshall Goldsmith called What Got You Here Won’t Get You There – How Successful People Become Even More Successful! TheManager highly recommends it. This book will show you twenty workplace habits that you need to break in order to reach the highest rungs on the ladder. It’s an especially great read for anyone who is already successful and thinks they have all the answers. (Sound like anyone you know?) What Got You Here also ranks #6 on AskTheManager.com’s list of the Top Ten Leadership Books of All Time. To see the complete list, follow this link.

 

A real surprise on this month’s list is one of the five best business books ever written, Freakonomics. Although not a leadership development or management training book, Freakonomics is both a fun read and an eye-opener into real world economics. More social commentary than leadership, Freakonomics is the now being made into what will surely be a must-see documentary by independent producer, Chad Troutwine. To read more about the film, follow this link.

 

This
Month

 

Last
Month

1

THE 4-HOUR WORKWEEK, by Timothy Ferris. (Crown, $19.95.) Because life isn’t all about work. (†)

2

2

WHEN MARKETS COLLIDE, by Mohamed El-Erian. (McGraw-Hill, $27.95.) Investing advice for a time of global economic change.

 

3

FREAKONOMICS, by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. (Morrow, $27.95.) A scholar uses economics to explore the incentives that drive such disparate groups, including crack gangs, sumo wrestlers, school teachers, campaign fund-raisers and real estate agents.

 

4

THE DRUNKARD’S WALK, by Leonard Mlodinow. (Pantheon, $24.95.) How we misunderstand the significance of chance in our daily lives.

 

5

NOW, DISCOVER YOUR STRENGTHS, by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton. (Free Press, $30.) How to identify and develop your talents and those of your employees. (†)

6