Reviews (44)

"the book" for all executives and managers
It is not a book focus on "managing career transmission" as suggested by the title of the book. Actually it is the guide book on all management related topics on management effeciveness, leadership, negotiation and organizational behavior. Very clearly articulated, easy to read and down to earth. Another excellent example of Harvard's high intellegence assets.

Great Topic - kudos Mr Watkins!
My husband took the book out from the library for me and after reading the first few chapters I decided that this was a book to own. As you will keep going back to re-read the roadmap to help you on your new venture(s).
Most helpful!
Sound, practical advice for anyone climbing the corporate ladder. Great exercises and guidelines for conversations with new bosses as well as new underlings. Great help for those first 90 days and beyond. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Decision Making & Problem Solving    5. Executive ability    6. Leadership    7. Management    8. Strategic planning    9. Structural Adjustment    10. Management & management techniques   

Editorial Review

Climbing Mount Everest: dangerous. Hitchhiking in Colombia: very dangerous. Leading through change: perilous. Perilous but possible, say Heifetz and Linsky in their encouragingly practical guide to putting yourself on the line and negotiating the hazards of leadership. As the authors acknowledge, many leadership books are "all about inspiration, but downplay the perspiration." This one doesn't. Leadership is always a risky business, but those risks can be understood and reduced. Effective leadership comes from doing more than the technical work of routine management; it involves adaptive work on the part of the leader, and a willingness to confront and disturb people, promote their resourcefulness, and engage their ability to adjust to new realities. But adaptive change always encounters resistance. Heifetz and Linsky examine four forms of resistance--marginalization, diversion, attack, and seduction--before presenting a number of practical resistance-response skills to nurture and employ. Some are fairly obvious (like developing and maintaining perspective, and holding steady in the midst of change), and others more complex (like thinking politically when dealing with friends, foes, and fence sitters), but shimmering nuggets of insight and practical wisdom can be found in each. The dangers of leadership also spring from within, however, and the book's final section addresses ways to recognize and manage competing "hungers" and learn to distinguish one's roles from one's self. The authors' points are illustrated by the experiences of leaders from all walks of life, making this a useful and inspiring manual for anyone hoping to put themselves on the line and make a difference in the lives of others. Read more

Reviews (22)

If you're a leader . . . soak in this book
Let's face it: leadership is dangerous. As Heifetz and Linsky write in their introduction, "Each day brings you opportunities to raise important questions, speak to higher values, and surface unresolved conflicts. Every day you have the chance to make a difference in the lives of people around you. And every day you must decide whether to put your contribution out there, or keep it to yourself to avoid upsetting anyone, and get through another day. You are right to be cautious. Prudence is a virtue. You disturb people when you take unpopular initiatives in your community, put provocative new ideas on the table in your organization, question the gap between colleagues' values and behavior, or ask friends and relatives to face up to tough realities. You risk people's ire and make yourself vulnerable. Exercising leadership can get you into a lot of trouble."
Beneficial read
I captured some very useful leadership and management tools from this book.Well written and practical for today's busy leader.I gave it to my boss to read as soon as I finished.

Leadership on the Line
Very useful advice on issues that involve a lack of leadership in the workplace, and in life, in general. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Entrepreneurship    5. Leadership    6. Management & management techniques   

Reviews (58)

Highly readable, useful, and even inspiring
What happens when an organization needs to change (if it hopes to be successful in the future) but hasn't put much thought into what the process of change itself looks like?More than likely: failure.
Read it too late
This book is excellent for anyone going through or planning to make changes in any organization. The material is straight forward, concise, and right on target. I only wish I had read this book last year before attempting to make major changes in our organization

Very Helpful
I would recommend this book to any manager who is currently leading an organizational change effort. It's very practical. Kotter's Eight Steps are easy to follow. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Entrepreneurship    5. Industrial organization    6. Leadership    7. Leadership In Business    8. Organization Development    9. Organizational change    10. Strategic planning    11. Structural Adjustment    12. Business strategy    13. Organizational theory & behaviour   

Editorial Review

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Reviews (22)

Just what we needed!
This book hits the "heart" of what many managers miss in planning change initiatives.This helps us remember that change isn't all number and business decisions.It's the people.I was able to immediately apply some of the ideas and resteered a change initiative successfully. Now all of my supervisors are reading and learning.

Fundamentals for helping an organization undergo change successfully
This book is the textbook for how an organization can successfully lead with change.I have used the 8-step method with various organizations and successfully 'seen-felt-changed' for the better.

Best Change Management Book I've Read to Date
I'm now in a "Change Management" role with my work, and decided to read some texts on the subject to further my understanding of the topic.Of those books that I've read, this one has clearly been the most helpful.Kotter articulates the steps of change in a way that connected with me, and made it real with a number of relevant examples.It's not onerous to read (<200 pages) but equally isn't "lightweight."While I would never recommend reading only a single book on the topic,I would definitely recommend that this be one of the books you read!
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Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Entrepreneurship    5. Leadership    6. Organizational Behavior    7. Organizational change    8. Structural Adjustment    9. Management & management techniques   

Editorial Review

Business leaders who maintain that emotions are best kept out of the work environment do so at their organization's peril. Bestselling author Daniel Goleman's theories on emotional intelligence (EI) have radically altered common understanding of what "being smart" entails, and in Read more

Reviews (67)

read between lines
This book is worth to read. You will find plenty of interesting ideas and things u can use in u life, even if u are not manager and is not planning to be. U can advance to some level by reviewing and using some clear techniques.
Innovative & brilliant; yet...
In modern times perhaps no one has clarified the distinction between leadership (an influence relationship) and management (an authority relationship) better than the seminal work of the University of San Diego's Joseph C. Rost. With both fresh perspective and renewed vigor, though, Daniel Goleman and his colleagues have once again put a "face" on leadership... as if it actually has something to do with human relations!
Extra Credit - Class Group Book Review
Best selling author Daniel Goleman, who popularized a theory of emotional intelligence (EI) via his 1995 bestseller Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, has teamed up with colleague EI researchers, Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee to advance a new leadership concept - Primal Leadership.The authors focus on the four EI domains (self awareness, self management, social awareness, and relationship management), and link them to leadership success that affected several organizations' bottom lines positively by bringing out the best in people, a concept called "resonance".It is revealed that EI domains or competencies create leadership styles that reinforce resonance as well as those that create dissonance.Drawing from a decade of the authors' collective research and the real life experience of leaders in the trenches, a connection is made where leadership demands more than conventionally recognized intelligence, but emotional intelligence as well.The key to this is to use emotion to balance the reality of work and organization demands without unduly upsetting people to impact staff results.In a twist, the authors find that the encouragement to use EI originates internally.Furthermore, they offer a learning plan as a mechanism to sustain transformation rather than a performance outcome model.In the end, the book correlates its concepts to the organization as a whole to create the desired outcome of an organization with resonance that favorably influences the bottom line of the organization. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Business / Economics / Finance    2. Business/Economics    3. Emotional intelligence    4. Emotions    5. Entrepreneurship    6. Executive ability    7. Leadership    8. Management    9. Psychological aspects    10. Psychology    11. Management & management techniques   

Editorial Review

In their previous book, Read more

Reviews (21)

Overview, technique and implementation
An outstandingly well written book that decribes the balanced scorecard and provides excellent examples. An effective, practical guide for C-level executives and mid-level managers for implementing strategic scorcarding. I recommned this book for the breadth and depth of the explanation of the subject matter and concise implmentation examples.

If you can measure it, you can manage it
The Balanced Scorecard was initially designed as a financial and non-financial corporate performance measurement tool.Organizations focused on strategy have taken the Balanced Scorecard and transformed it into a strategic tool for measurement.These 5 key principles transform the Balanced Scorecard:
Highly Recommended!
The fact that executives keep trying new strategic initiatives despite their abysmal rate of failure is, like second marriages, a triumph of hope over experience. Or, it may indicate just how much pressure top managers face to improve their profits. By one estimate, nine out of ten companies fail to execute their strategic visions. Yet, CEOs - who witness a world in constant flux - continue to introduce change initiatives. Are they trapped in the operational definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result? Or, are they just ready for this book? Authors Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton offer wise counsel to help executives break the cycle of strategic flops. They advise executives to transform their companies into "Strategy-Focused Organizations" using the "Balanced Scorecard" and "strategic mapping" tools. With these initiatives, CEOs can ensure that every employee pays attention to strategy implementation. Kaplan and Norton, the all-star co-author team who wrote "The Balanced Scorecard" and "Strategy Maps", have done it again, in this well-organized but somewhat dry volume. We strongly recommend this book to any manager who is responsible for designing or implementing a strategic change initiative. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Corporate Planning    5. Entrepreneurship    6. Executive Management    7. Forecasting    8. Leadership    9. Management - General    10. Strategic Planning    11. Business strategy    12. Organizational theory & behaviour    13. Performance Measurement   

Reviews (3)

A look at leadership from the inside out
If you do a search of available Amazon books on professional and technical leadership you'll find about 60,000 entries. Many of these books will focus on the qualities possessed by great leaders or the characteristics one needs to be successful.
Very pragmatic, useful book - every manager should read it!
Alpha Male Syndrome is a very well written and very useful book. It breaks down the various types of alpha behavior in ways that make the information actionable - how to deal with an alpha boss or colleague, how to be a more effective alpha executive - and how to apply those lessons to improve your home life.
Best book every written about alpha males!
“The Alpha Male Syndrome” is an amazing book! Well-written, insightful, and real contribution to the field! Eddie and Kate have done an incredible job! As an executive and CEO Coach with publishing experience I know first hand just how difficult it is put on paper the important insights about Alpha Males and their issues in today’s corporate environment.The book certainly has the look and feel of a best seller.
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Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business Executives    4. Business Life - Fashion/Image    5. Business/Economics    6. Executive ability    7. Executives    8. Industrial & Organizational Psychology    9. Leadership    10. Management - General    11. Managing your boss    12. Organizational Psychology    13. Psychology    14. Management decision making   

Editorial Review

Unlike most other books, Read more

Reviews (7)

Partial recipe for resonant leadership
A good framework for Servant Leadership style. Authors drive the point home by hammering three concepts into reader's mind: mindfulness, hope, and compassion. However the book fall short on emphasizing the power of "serving others," which I believe is a vital ingredient for resonant leaders. Many useful real life examples.

Important book!
I very much enjoyed Drs. Boyatzis and McKee initial offering with Daniel Goleman, "Primal Leadership", so I looked forward to learning more about resonnant leadership. I certainly wasn't disappointed. I very much appreciated the author's attention to citations and footnotes, indications of valid and solid research -- something that is becoming increasingly rare in these days of making-it-up-as-you-go writings.
Mindfullness, brilliant!...
Intesting book - mindfullness, benevolence, compassion, optimism and hope are behaviors that allow leaders to display the very best of their game. If you are one individuals who aspire to be a SUPERB leader who helps, inspires and drives results, this book will certainly be a roadmoap to get there... ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Leadership    5. Leadership In Business    6. Political Process - Leadership    7. Social Change    8. Sociology - General    9. Management & management techniques   

Reviews (29)

I wish I'd changed my mind before purchasing this
Gardner's book is full of banal and often incorrect observations. It's hard to believe he has received over 20 honorary degrees from universities around the world if his ideas are this unoriginal. He chooses the staggeringly bad examples of Margaret Thatcher, George Bush and BP CEO John Browne as people who have successfully changed minds. He doesn't mention that Thatcher and Bush antagonized large sections of their countries' populations, completely failing to change their minds, in fact hardening their positions of opposition; in large part due to these leaders' own refusal to ever change their minds or consider alternative policies. Gardner lavishes praise on Bush for switching from isolationism to an interventionist foreign policy after 9/11, without any mention of the PNAC team that had already planned to invade Iraq even before 9/11.
Changing minds with one point of view
I found the first 50 pages or so to be intriguing, after that it became a grind to endure. Mr. Gardner makes very indirect references to the impact of the media on the vignettes that he recounts, yet seemingly asserts that the individuals involved acted in a vacuum.
Disappointing
Changing Minds is very disappointing - average to very poor writing, poor development of ideas, ideas that have been shown to be weak or invalid constructs, and very little substance.You will learn very little about how to change anyone's mind or your own.Reading this book and finishing it is a grind. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Applied Psychology    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Leadership    4. Management - General    5. Motivational & Inspirational    6. Psychology    7. Cognition & cognitive psychology   

Reviews (7)

Standing on the shoulders of Kouses & Posner
Broadbent and Kitzis have produced a remarkable work.I have found their work to be like a capstone, integrating many streams of thought that have gone before.Unfortunately, the work suffers from lack of awareness of the leadership literature."The Leadership Challenge" by Kouzes & Posner predates this work by more than 3 years, yet Broadbent and Kitzis, while seemingly familiar with "The Leadership Challenge" do not acknowledge their debt.Readers who enjoy "The New CIO Leader" will benefit from Kouzes and Posner's seminal and very readable work on leadership.
You Want To Fix The Mercedes or Drive It?
The times they are changing. The direction of change for Chief Information Officers (CIOs) has had different answers from different people. In their December 2004 book, entitled The New CIO Leader: Setting the Agenda and Delivering Results (2005, Harvard Business School Press, 338 Pages, ISBN 1591395771), Marianne Broadbent (Associate Dean of the Melboune Business School) and Ellen S Kitzen (Group Vice-President of the Gartner Group's Executive Programs) argue that the choice is yours. You can choose to be a new CIO Leader or be relegated to Chief Technology Mechanic. The authors do an outstanding job of discussing the seas change, until the book loses some of its luster from what appears to be their interpretation of Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies (CobiT).
Pedantic and boring
Buried in various places in this 287 page book are few intellectual gems which strikes a chord with reality. Otherwise, the authors of this book never seemed to have touched a server nor managed an IT department.
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Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business/Economics    3. Chief information officers    4. General    5. Information Management    6. Information resources manageme    7. Information resources management    8. Information technology    9. Leadership    10. Management    11. Technology & Industrial Arts    12. Management & management techniques   

Reviews (5)

Taking negotiation beyond us vs. them...
Most books on negotiation that I've read focus on the tactics you use when you're face-to-face with the opponent.But what if you take a step back and shape the negotiation before you even show up?That's the general direction of 3-D Negotiation: Powerful Tools to Change the Game in Your Most Important Deals by David A. Lax and James K. Sebenius.I can see where this would give you a step up in numerous situations...
Insightful & essential
As a very fast-moving entrepreneur, I have to negotiate constantly.I'm
Lawyers' Alert -- Buy This Book to Settle the Cases You Just Can't Resolve
During a recent conversation with former Disney General counsel Lou Meisinger about negotiating the resolution of commercial litigation, he suggested breaking impasse during the mediation of high-stakes litigation by "transforming the litigation into an opportunity to make a deal."
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Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Leadership    5. Management - General    6. Negotiating    7. Negotiation in business    8. Business negotiation   

Reviews (13)

Future of marketing...
Caveat - I see most things from a marketer's prospective, hence, I read this book in that context. I think the ideas of Prahalad and Ramaswamy are the future of marketing.If you take a look at a few of today's successful companies, including Amazon.com and eBay for instance, you will see that one of the reasons they have been so successful is because they worked with their customers.I think the book should be required reading for anyone going into the marketing field.

Nothing insightful that is worth the onerous read
The authors have created a massive text that does not add much to the earlier paper they had published. The book has mainly two messages - maximizing customer experience is the basis of value creation and firms have to be experience-driven rather than product-centric. (BTW, these are the author's buzz words not mine Breakthrough Thinking for higher IQ managers
The concepts presented in the book are deceptively easy to gloss over. I do not blame the reviewers at this site who did not 'get it'.
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Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Competition    5. Customer Service    6. Customer relations    7. Customer services    8. Economic value added    9. Forecasting    10. Leadership    11. Marketing - Research    12. Strategic planning    13. Business strategy    14. Sales & marketing   

Editorial Review

The lure of this book's promise starts with the assumption in its title. Possibility--that big, all-encompassing, wide-open-door concept--is an art? Well, who doesn't want to be a skilled artist, whether in the director's chair, the boardroom, on the factory floor, or even just in dealing with life's everyday situations? Becoming an artist, however, requires discipline, and what the authors of Read more

Reviews (65)

Open YOURSELF up to a world of possibility!
This book was recommended to me several times, and I'm glad I finally found the time to read it.
Great title - not as good on the content
I finished a book last night - The Art of Possibility. Great title but not as inspiring as I had hoped. It did have one quote that I liked. A great maestro, Herbert von Karajan jumped into a taxi and shouted to the driver "Hurry, hurry". "Very good sir " where to?" said the driver. "It does not matter" said von Karajan. "I am needed everywhere".
It's what you want it to be.
I respect all the positive reviews here, but have a different opinion. For me, this book was like being trapped at a 2 hour meal in a restaurant with a couple I didn't like. If you already see the world in very positive terms, this book will verify your view in glowing new ways. If you're not in a positive place and are trying to get out of it by reading books with titles like "The Art of Possibility", it's not for you. At all. Does it help when people invite you to "cheer up?" Didn't think so. Imagine that x 100. Annoying.
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Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business Life - Inspirational    4. Business/Economics    5. Careers - General    6. Leadership    7. Personal Growth - General    8. Possibility    9. Advice on careers & achieving success    10. Management & management techniques    11. Popular psychology   

Reviews (22)

How to lead forcefully, but without any noise
This philosophical essay about leadership is not about the kind of leader who makes it onto the front pages of newspapers or into the history books. Instead, it is about average people who labor in the middle to lower levels of bureaucracies, and who do the work that keeps their organizations moving forward. Author Joseph L. Badaracco, Jr., calls these people "quiet leaders." They make decisions that may not appear earthshaking, but that still must take many complex factors into account. Badaracco illustrates the kinds of ethical and moral dilemmas quiet leaders face by extracting guidelines from case studies. However, many of the stories he presents are so commonplace, and the lessons he draws are so self-evident, that the book is hardly the "unorthodox guide" it wishes to be. We recommend this to mid- and low-level managers who are looking for an alternative to traditional ideas about heroic leadership.

Too Machiavellian for my Comfort
I desperately wanted to like this book. The author has enormous credibility and writes extremely well, and his approach (based on typical Harvard-style case studies) promised interest and a practical turn of mind. Yet I finished the book feeling frustrated and very much at odds with much of what Professor Badaracco has written.