Big Shoes: How Successful Leaders Grow into New Roles [Kindle Edition]

Sander A. Flaum (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Sander Flaum wrote Big Shoes: How Successful Leaders Grow into New Roles in 2009 in response to the dearth of leadership accountability evidenced around the world. His plainspoken, engaging style has helped many new leaders and managers faced with leadership challenges to think through their first 100 days on the job and the days following with an eye to building organizations and careers they can be proud of.

Big Shoes is a what-you-need-to-know-now guide to being a leader in any business or nonprofit climate—from the downturns of today to the upturns of tomorrow. Packed into 120 fast-paced pages, Sander Flaum regales readers with authentic leadership case studies, relevant academic research, and the insightful life lessons gained from the author's vast personal experience as a CEO and professor of leadership studies at Fordham University. Big Shoes offers valuable guidance for tackling the important moves of your career and walks you through the steps you need to be an A+ player.

Sander‘s first book, The 100-Mile Walk: A Father and Son on a Quest to Find the Essence of Leadership (AMACOM, 2006 ), co-authored with his son Jonathon, was awarded the Hazan-Polsky Prize for outstanding business books. Reviewed by The New York Times and Business Week, The 100-Mile Walk is used by numerous business schools to encourage cross-generational dialogue about business challenges and business perspective.

Sander Flaum is CEO of Flaum Partners, a consultancy based in New York and focused on transformational thinking for the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. Additionally, Sander is Adjunct Professor of Management at the Fordham Graduate School of Business, where he founded and chairs the Fordham Leadership Forum. Sander also serves on the boards of the Fordham Graduate School of Business, Monterey Institute of International Studies and Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University.

Previously, Sander was Chairman / CEO of Robert A. Becker, EuroRSCG, a top tier healthcare advertising and marketing communications company where he led a global team that introduced six blockbuster $2 Billion healthcare brands. In 2002, Medical Advertising News named Sander its Man of the Year. In 2008, Sander was honored with The Ohio State University Alumni “Professional Achievement” award.

About the Author

Sander A. Flaum is CEO of Flaum Partners, a consultancy focused on innovation and transformational thinking for the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. Additionally, Sander is Adjunct Professor of Management at the Fordham Graduate School of Business, where he founded and chairs the Fordham Leadership Forum. Sander also serves on the boards of Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University, Fordham Graduate School of Business, and Project Sunshine.Sander chairs the board of the American Institute of Stuttering. In 2008, Sander won the Ohio State University Alumni "Professional Achievement" award. Previously, Sander was Chairman / CEO of Robert A. Becker, EuroRSCG leading a global team that introduced six blockbuster $2Billion healthcare brands. In 2002, Medical Advertising News named Sander its Man of the Year. Sander's first book, The 100-Mile Walk: A Father and Son on a Quest to Find the Essence of Leadership (AMACOM), was written with his son Jonathon and awarded the Hazan-Polsky Prize for outstanding business books.

Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 115 KB
• Print Length: 134 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: LeaderShape Publishing (September 22, 2009)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B002Q0Y24M
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #557,196 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

More About the Author

Sander Flaum is CEO of Flaum Partners, a leading healthcare consultancy focused on transformational thinking for the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. Additionally, Sander is adjunct Professor of Management at the Fordham Graduate School of Business where he founded and chairs the Fordham Leadership Forum. Sander chairs the American Institute for Stuttering and serves on the boards of Fordham Graduate School of Business, Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University, The Monterey Institute of International Studies and The James Cancer Hospital at The Ohio State Medical Center.

Prior to launching Flaum Partners in 2004, Sander was Chairman and CEO of Robert A. Becker, EuroRSCG where he led a global team of marketing strategists that introduced six blockbuster $2 billion healthcare brands. In 2002, Medical Advertising News named Sander its Man of the Year and Becker its Agency of the Year. In 2008, Sander was honored with The Ohio State University Alumni "Professional Achievement" award and in 2010 the University honored him again with its Pace Setters "Business Leadership" Award.

Before coming to the consultancy side, Sander served 18 years with Lederle Laboratories (which was merged into Wyeth and then Pfizer in 2009). During his tenure with Lederle, he served as marketing head of prescription drugs, vaccines and generic products. In all, he has directed 80 product launches and restagings.

Sander has authored over 90 articles on marketing, management, and leadership. He writes a monthly column on leadership for Medical Advertising News and the American Management Association's MWorld. Sander completed his first book in 2006, co-authored with his son Jonathon - The 100 Mile Walk: A Father and Son on a Quest to Find the Essence of Leadership (AMACOM) for which the authors were awarded the Hazan-Polsky Prize for outstanding business books. He was honored by Fordham University Business School to be its Commencement Speaker in 2001 and again in 2010.

In 2009, Sander wrote Big Shoes: How Successful Leaders Grow into New Roles to respond to the dearth of leadership accountability being evidenced around the world. His plainspoken, engaging style has helped many new leaders and managers faced with leadership challenges to think through their first 100 days on the job and the days following with an eye to building organizations and careers at which they can be proud. Amazon.com gave Sander's book a five star out of five review.

Sander received his undergraduate degree from The Ohio State University and earned his MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University (magna cum laude).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Nothing special, March 8, 2010

By 

Brian A. Schar (Menlo Park, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Big Shoes: How Successful Leaders Grow into New Roles (Paperback)

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At first, I was encouraged by the slim size of this book. Far too many business books are bloated expansions of a tired set of slides given at hundreds of seminars, and when I picked up "Big Shoes," I knew it wasn't going to be one of those books.

Instead, it was another type of tiresome business book that I've seen far too many times. "Big Shoes" is long on buzzwords and platitudes, and short on nuts and bolts. I thought this might be a book with practical down-to-earth pointers for real people who are interested in building leadership skills in a new role, or in preparation for a new role. In contrast, this book seems oriented to new CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, limiting its audience significantly. Further, its prescriptions for "how successful leaders grow into new roles" boil down to things like "have a vision for the first 100 days" and "work hard those first 100 days to get buy-in and adjust your staff to make sure that vision happens." Great. We also get contradictory advice, such as a multi-page screed against multitasking (as if your CEO or board will appreciate you not returning their emails), contrasted with a paean to social networking.

"Big Shoes" also is a marketing piece for the author's consulting company, the achievements of which are touted in a self-congratulatory manner throughout this book. No wonder he tells future CEOs that execution teams for projects need to be outside consultants brought in specifically for the task.

"Big Shoes" lost all credibility with me when it approvingly cited TV's "The Apprentice" as providing a good example of leadership. I've worked in a number of industries in several capacities, and I can tell you I've never seen people in real-life business act that badly. Well, not if they weren't getting escorted out of the building the next day. To suggest that the kind of reality-TV backstabbing and bad behivior of "The Apprentice" is an example of leadership is absurd.

This is a quick read, and it's possible that someone might benefit from perusing it for a few minutes at the library. Nonetheless, for me it's too unfocused, anecdotal, and unconvincing to help me. I'd recommend a pass.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Big lessons in a small book, November 2, 2009

By 

John Chancellor "Mentor coach" (Spring Hill, TN) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Big Shoes: How Successful Leaders Grow into New Roles (Paperback)

Big Shoes approaches the question of leadership growth slightly different from most other leadership books I have read. Sander Flaum takes a chronological approach to the issues that confront a leader.

He divides a leader's career into stages and then discusses the issues that most leaders will face in that stage of career development. He also gives suggested approaches about how to best handle all the issues which will come up.

The first stage is the "You are hired. Now what?" Here Flaum gives advice on how to hit the ground running. He takes a detailed look of the things a new leader should be doing during the first few months on the job.

Once you are past the honeymoon stage, you must "craft a winning culture." Here is where the leader must sell his strategies to the people he is leading. This requires a leader to sharpen their people skills. You cannot push your agenda on the staff. You must get buy-in.

The next phase for effective leaders is to start developing new products and strategies to get out in front. You cannot afford to just maintain course. Your competitors are always in hot pursuit. So the great leader is always looking for ways to stay ahead of the pack.

Then the leader needs to hone his leadership instincts. Change is happening at an ever increasing pace. The effective leader is continually improving their skills.

The final phase of a leader's career is preparing his replacement. According to Flaum, "Great leaders do more than repair companies and keep them rolling. They prepare their companies to be successful long after they are gone."

Each phase is illustrated with stories and examples - some from the author's own career, others from lesson he has observed.

While the book gives some great insights about what it takes to be a good leader, it also gives some insight about the price a leader must pay. Flaum relates how his busy schedule cost him a life long friend. Everyone looks at the CEO with a certain amount of envy. But there is a price to pay for being at the top.

The book is very short, easy to read and has some very good lessons. It does not contain the typical worksheets, exercises and extended source references found in so many "leadership manuals". It is more the personal philosophy and insights of Sander Flaum based on his every extensive experience.

A good read.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Practical, Insightful, Book About Leadership, March 6, 2010

By 

David Bennett (United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Big Shoes: How Successful Leaders Grow into New Roles (Paperback)

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I am a teacher, and have been asked to explore entering administration, so I hoped this book would help me make the transition successfully. Basically, Flaum states his insights about leadership in a chronological and logical manner, starting from the point of hire, and ending with a chapter asking whether an executive can truly have time to rest.

I will begin by listing some of the positive aspects of this book. First, I found the chronological approach helpful. Rather than just being a series of inspirational, but vague, principles, Flaum takes us "on the ground" and gets into the heart of how to lead. Second, he recognizes the poor quality of recent "leaders" that have run their companies into the ground, in the process hosing their customers, and still leaving with golden parachutes. In other words, he writes from a realistic perspective, critical of the recent business scandals, and urges future leaders to avoid being greedy. Third, the book contains many excellent insights that I highlighted and will certainly use in the future: thank employees regularly, make sure donors know how their money is helping people, enter the job with a strong plan and actively implement it the first 100 days, ignore or let someone else handle the day-to-day distractions, and so forth. These ideas (and more) are explored in more detail in the various chapters.

There is some advice in the book that gave me pause. The first concern I have is that Flaum criticizes George W. Bush for "listening" too much during his early presidency. Flaum argues that good leaders act, and Bush listened too much, not clearly stating his plan to the public. However, Bush entered his presidency without a mandate, and when he did stop listening, and began advancing his agenda unilaterally, his popularity as a leader plummeted. While I see Flaum's point, I think it is a good idea to listen even while actively making necessary changes. The next concern I have is probably an issue I have with the corporate world in general, but basically, Flaum assumes that a leader will live and breathe his or her business. While lamenting the high rate of family problems among CEOs, I don't think Flaum thinks radically enough about how to change this. Perhaps the whole idea of hiring someone willing to give his or her life away to a business is one reason our leaders are perceived as out-of-touch, and why so many eventually become corrupt. Living and breathing a business all day, with little interaction with "the real world" could easily make a person, and business, out of touch with reality. Finally, the book is definitely geared toward business, and while many of the insights apply to non-profits and other leadership opportunities, it is not directed specifically to my situation. In fact, a lot of it seems to be geared toward people that want to be CEOs.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, and discovered some great insights about leadership, even if I was visualizing the movie "Office Space" (a movie that satirizes corporate life) while reading some of it.