Customer Reviews

Leadership Lessons from West Point (J-B Leader to Leader Institute/PF Drucker Foundation)

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"In business, if you make bad decisions, people lose money and perhaps jobs," according to an Army captain who graduated from West Point. "In the military, if you make bad decisions...people can die." In that light, these leadership lessons from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point seem highly credible. After all, most fields of endeavor do not involve life-and-death consequences, but being in the military is not an ordinary profession. This grim truth not only requires but demands "competent" military leaders, as author Jim Collins discusses in his foreword to this compilation edited by Major Doug Crandall. We appreciate these valuable leadership lessons and their source. The Leader to Leader Institute, formerly the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management, publishes a comprehensive series of leadership books, 21 of which have been printed in 28 languages. So, when the Institute describes this book as "one of the most important...published in our 16 years," it merits a respectful look.

I've found that a lot of books on leadership are riddled with the same fluff: buzz words, recycled concepts, and story lines that seem better designed to sell to a programmed audience than to actually convey some meaningful content. I found "Leadership Lessons from West Point" to be a refreshing break from this style of leadership text, providing case studies in leadership that were both easy to relate to (even for a civilian like myself) and thought provoking. The book is presented in vignettes, which will appeal to the manager with a short attention span, but filled with high impact content. Whether you think you're a solid leader already or are just learning, read this book and gain some valuable insights into yourself and how you fit into the world as a leader.

Awesome book. Well written and organized. A wide variety of opinions and input. I thought it was great!!