Customer Reviews

George Washington's Leadership Lessons: What the Father of Our Country Can Teach Us About Effective Leadership and Character

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This is a terrific book that serves an important purpose: to teach by example. In the first part of this 3-part book, the authors break down the art of leadership into 15 traits and virtues that leaders must manifest, and then, in a very unique way, they cite incidents, quotations, and anecdotes from the life of George Washington (sourced in most cases from Washington's own writings) to illustrate how the Father of America employed each character trait.

The second part of the book is a look at Washington's "Rules of Civility," along with annotation for select rules illustrating how it was employed - or ignored - in modern times.

The third part of the book will really be an eye-opener for lots of people: it is a lengthy, meticulously researched look at George Washington as an entrepreneur. Many people are not aware that Washington had an enormous fishing enterprise at Mount Vernon, or that he was a distiller, or an aggressive real estate investor, or that he routinely experimented with crops to improve productivity.

There's no denying George Washington was a leader. He was, after all, the United States' first President. But now, with GEORGE WASHINGTON'S LEADERSHIP LESSONS, we are given a comprehensive look at just how he exercised his leadership, and how we can learn from his efforts. Recommended.

Great leaders can feel the right moment for action and George Washington is certainly one of them. Leading American revolution, a cornerstone of democratic revolution lately in Europe, George Washington established certain rules that are "ten commands" for any leader. Great leader to learn from and excellent book for easy reading.

For anyone who has mused "what is missing from Americans" today, this book is it. It is a small portrait of the common sense and value sensed lifestyle of our colonial betters. Other reviews muse this to be a simple book but that is the issue. For all the advanced thought of complex philosophical theory of man's "wisdom", the world is a mess because none of our great "geniuses" agree on anything.

A meaningful life is not so complex few people CAN understand it,
it is so straightforward few WILL understand it.
Leave the philosophers in closed rooms where they can do the least damage.

Washington's leadership precepts are so valuable to instill at an early age as to be required reading for every American grammar school.

See for yourself

I picked up this book on my recent visit to Mount Vernon. I am interested in the inner workings of history's great leaders, and just what made them tick.

This book provides a well-written, concise overview of George Washington focusing on his leadership qualities and their relevance to our modern society. It is, in essence, a highly-condensed biography of Washington arranged topically. As the author states in his preface, he is trying to counteract what he perceives in our society as a deplorable decline in interest in history in general -- and in Washington in particular. He has written a book that he hopes will prick the interest of the masses and start a revivial of interest in our first president.

Not surprisingly, the author is overwhelmingly positive in his opinion of his subject -- but who isn't when it comes to Washington? However, he does touch on some of Washington's more human foibles -- he married Martha for her money when he really loved someone else, he owned slaves, he was exacting and short-tempered, he was insecure about his lack of formal education. But these issues are presented and explained in such a way that they are all forgivable, especially when viewed in the context of the times in which Washington lived. It is hard to believe that any human could have been such an exemplary paragon, but apparently Washington was. I haven't read a lot of American history, so I'm definitely no expert here, but there seem to be few scholars who have much of anything negative to say about him. Once every century or so a person of such sterling character rises to the front of the world stage, making an indelible mark on history, and George Washington seems to have been just such a man.

What I took away from this book was that George Washington was, more than anything else, an ambitious man. Although not a great general, he was a man of strong integrity and character, and a born leader whom people would follow. This, combined with his practice of seizing any and every opportunity that came his way and making the best of it, is what propelled him to the level of greatness he achieved.

For serious readers of history I doubt that this book would have much to offer; it is, after all, not written for the 2% or so of Americans who area already avid students of history, but for the other 98%. It is a light and easy read; a good book, but not a great one.

A very good overview of quality leadership traits and of the outstanding leadership (seemingly forgotten in today's world) of George Washington.

I just love this book. I am a history buff and love famous quotes. You can actually use some of his ettiquite teachings in todays time. It really makes alot of sense. I shared it with a manager friend of mine. He loved it.

This was an entertaining and interesting book. I feel that the author may have come across as somewhat more definitive and authoritative about General Washington's personal traits than may have been the actual case. After more than 200 years it is impossible to really know for sure. There was little new material here.

Amazing insight into the young mind and perspective of America's first president. I learned some quite interesting things from this book. On the humorous side I learned it is bad edicate to spit into the campfire. I recommend this fun to read book. Especially if you are a bit of a history nerd as I am.

This book is rich with colorful vignettes, interesting facts and fascinating lore about George Washington, the first president of the United States. Author James C. Rees (writing with Stephen Spignesi) is both blessed and burdened with an abundance of facts, stories, quotes and tidbits of trivia about Washington. The author works mightily to correlate illustrative incidents from Washington's life with character lessons for today's corporate executives. Unfortunately, the connections are often a little forced, although the narrative remains interesting. Some of the things that Rees includes are fresh and valuable, such as his sidebar about Washington's Revolutionary War spy ring. But others are less compelling, like the verbatim rundown on all 110 of the civility rules that the Jesuits developed in the 1500s to instruct young men. They have passing relevance, in that as a child Washington copied them in longhand so he could memorize them. Yet many of the arcane dictums seem to have little to do with the famed general's life or character. Still, this intriguing, easy read provides a fond, useful lens for seeing Washington as a remarkable leader and a leadership role model on many levels. If your goal is to learn about leadership, getAbstract believes that George Washington has a lot to teach.

This analysis of leadership is written is such a dumbed-down style that I find it hard to believe any sentient being will find it useful or entertaining. Perhaps it will be bought in bulk by some multinational fast food chain for its entry-level managers.

George Washington was truly the indispensable man of our country's early history. The authors of this book, trying to capitalize on the public's apparent mania for "business leadership" books, do no service to the memory of this great American.