W.I.N. Newsletter Special - This Week's Book Recommendation
Published: Sat, 11/20/10
Colwell and Chip Huth. I finally got around to reading it and
discovered
some great insights into courage and leadership.
Courage: The Backbone of Leadership By Gus Lee and Dianne
Elliott-Lee
In this guide to doing the right thing, Lee presents a self-help
approach to solving hard-edged problems. The key to effective
leadership, he argues, is "principled conduct under pressure"--in
short, courage. While courage is hardly the one-size-fits-all magic
bullet that Lee envisions, much of his advice is valuable,
particularly that dealing with communication, the thorniest
management issue of all. The book is built around extended
anecdotes about executives facing tough personnel decisions and
having to confront their habits of "avoidant communication," and
Lee's reconstructed dialogue is engaging, realistic and
instructive. He also offers periodic references to his own,
genuinely inspiring transition from myopic, alienated wimp to
successful executive, lawyer, executive coach, consultant and
bestselling novelist (China Boy, etc.). Granted, this business book
has many of the problems typical of the genre: the constant
invoking of the book's title, whether or not relevant to the point
being made; the regular introduction of acronymed concepts and
clumsy coinages; the inspirational speeches and the occasional
royal we phrasing ("We now see the difference between high, medium
and low core values"). But any book that offers a road map to
handling unpleasant workplace conversations is welcome--even if the
choices in your everyday life don't require as much courage as in
Lee's scenarios. (Feb.)
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Inc. All rights reserved.
Take care.
Brian Willis
Winning Mind Training
www.winningmindtraining.com
Warrior Spirit Books
www.warriorspiritbooks.com
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