Customer Reviews

As One

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I have never read a more thorough book on leadership. I was especially impressed with the authors use of the SOM (self-organizing map) to produce the eight models of As One behavior; which were...

1. Landlord & Tenants

2. Community Organizer Volunteers

3. Conductor & Orchestra

4. Producer & Creative Team

5. General & Soldiers

6. Architect & Builders

7. Captain and Sports Team

8. Senator & Citizens

Furthermore, each model was carefully explained with examples and descriptions of six key characteristics that made each type distinct from the others. I would recommend this book to anyone seeking to understand leadership better and to hone his or her own leadership skills.

Even someone new to leadership could benefit from As One. It's written in a way that offers clear insight into the many forms of leadership and what they can accomplish when organization wide cooperation is achieved. This is laid out in eight chapters on eight different archetypes of leadership. At the end of each chapter there are poignant questions and information gathering tools that will help determine which archetype is the best for you to follow. Not only does this book clearly help you pick a default archetype to adhere to in order to reach your desired goals, it also goes so far as to suggest a secondary leadership archetype to follow for specific priorities that are not covered by the default archetype.

While reading this book I saw some key flaws in the leadership style that the organization I work for is implementing. The product we manufacture is based purely on creativity. It requires creative minded people and creative solutions constantly. However, it seems we have adopted the General & Soldiers leadership style in chapter five instead of the Producer& Creative Team in chapter four. I can see the reason for this is because we greatly desire "efficiency and fast deployment", however it seems to falter because of discrepancies over who is really in charge and tends to leave our creative minds feeling rushed and accomplishments seem to go unacknowledged. This breaks down not only the moral of our organization, but leaves us all struggling to reach goals we don't really feel are ours which steers us away from the collaborative effort that As One teaches. Hoping I can share these key concepts at work to revive our sense of teamwork and begin moving cohesively towards what we really desire.

There is so much to be said about what this book offers. Where to begin? Perhaps my purposes are best served by providing a series of five key points:

1. Mehrdad Baghai, James Quigley, and their three collaborators share what was learned from the a two-year Deloitte Flagship Project whose purpose was to examine the challenges of working together "As One." The project's scope was global, nourished and supported by best resources available from the US, UK, Canada, Netherlands, Australia, South Africa, and Japan.

2. Key questions are addressed. For example: What does it take to work As One? To succeed As One? To overcome barriers As One? To cope with failure As One? To become stronger As One?

3. Baghai and Quigley used an advanced forensic data analytic technique called a self-organizing map (SOM). Various maps (they use eight) "find relationships in data where the number of variables makes the analysis complex, and, they divide complicated data into groups of similar items so that you can understand what makes them similar.

4. There are eight leader & followers archetypes: (landlord & tenants, community organizer & volunteers, conductor & orchestra, producer & creative team, general & soldiers, architect & builders, captain & sports team, and senator & citizens. A chapter is devoted to each of the eight. Baghai and Quigley thoroughly explain how leaders and followers can coordinate individual action with a group's collective power.

5. Material about each of the two-part archetypes is organized within this format: Exemplary Individual, Exemplary Business, Key Characteristics of Leader and Team, "Is X the right model for the reader?", and "How to become a better X?" For example, Chapter 4 (Pages 126-159):

Archetype: Producer & Creative Team

Individual: Jerry Bruckheimer ("The Man with the Golden Gut")

Business: Cirque du Soleil

Key Characteristics of Leader and Team: Open culture, hands-off producer

Is it the right model?: Four reasons it could be great and four reasons to think twice

How to become a better producer?: Answer seven Qs such as "Does your culture effectively encourage openness and constructive criticism?"

No brief commentary such this can possibly do full justice to what this book offers. Its scope and depth of coverage as well as the eloquence with which Mehrdad Baghai and James Quigley present the material are unsurpassed by any other single source of which I am aware and I have read and reviewed hundreds of books about leadership and teamwork. Moreover, the book's design, lay-out, and abundance of illustrations are of the very highest quality. Its list price is $40 and well worth it but Amazon now sells it for only $16.00.

This book really covers a wide variety of the aspects of leadership. From communication to hierarchy and on to making sure you have assembled the best team possible, As One fully explores all the necessary components that make a team successful.

As One is a valuable resource for anyone interested in exploring different avenues of leadership. The eight different archetypes of leadership that the authors describe here are very distinct and powerful. They especially brought this to light with the use of famous leadership scenarios such as Gandhi (Community Organize and Volunteers), Jerry Bruckheimer (Producer and Creative Team), and Omar Bradley (General and Soldiers). These are just a few examples of the examples shown to illustrate these fundamental differences.

Full of inspiring examples and motivating lessons from throughout history, As One takes an in depth look at eight different archetypes of leadership. The book begins with an understanding of the old way the best form of leadership was determined and an explanation of this new approach on the subject. There are then eight chapters on differently archetypes of leadership with plenty of examples and stories to highlight their specific features. At the end of each chapter there is a detailed summary and questionnaire section, which seeks help one decide if this would be the right archetype for their needs. Although it read a bit like a textbook, this book was interesting and well organized.

This new view on leadership is delivered in a practical yet passionate way. Baghai and Quigley go beyond the typical leadership training ideals and provide insight into the specifics of how to find the best type of leadership style to meet your goals as well as how to unify your workforce to achieve them.

This is a book that is bound to bring great results if applied. It serves as a clear road map to improving leadership skills and bringing everyone into alignment and working with a greater sense of purpose. , As One does an exceptional job of illustrating the possibilities when, under the righty type of leadership, the strength of many people working in a collective fashion is realized.

getAbstract strongly recommends this expansive, beautifully produced, hugely entertaining book about leaders and followers. Management consultant Mehrdad Baghai and former Deloitte global CEO James Quigley, writing with top Deloitte managers, relate widely diverse stories to show how leaders interact with followers. They draw eight leadership models of collaboration - each of which is proven to work in the right circumstances, and each of which can be applied to organizations today.