Customer Reviews

Leading People the Black Belt Way: Conquering the Five Core Problems Facing Leaders Today

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Leading People The Black Belt Way: Conquering The Five Core Problems Facing Leaders Today by professional consultant, executive coach, public speaker Timothy H. Warneka is an experience based and informative guide to making use of Aikido principle systems and philosophy in solving great and important problems be they personal or professional. Leading People The Black Belt Way includes a "user-friendly" guideline on how to develop a "leading presence", how to increase performance, how to improve your bottom line, how to accomplish more with less, how to create winning teams, and how to lead with mind, body and spirit. Leading People The Black Belt Way is highly recommended to anyone faced with the responsibilities of a leadership lifestyle.

Who IS this guy who wrote this book?!? Last week, my friend sent me a PDF version of a book and told me I HAD to read it. (Isn't word of mouth great?!?) I was a little put off by the title, but I started it (because I trust my friend). Once I started reading this thing, and I HAD to get my hands on this book! This book that Tim Warneka has written is an excellent leadership book. It should be on the shelf of EVERY business in America. (the only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because I reserve that rating for the true classics.

A stunning, breakthrough book. Everyone should be reading it.

So begins Tim Warneka's excellent book on leadership. As a practitioner and teacher of aikido, I appreciate Tim's use of aikido as a metaphor and teaching tool. How can we acknowledge and make use of emotional energy? As leaders, we can no longer afford to ignore this question. In "Leading People the Black Belt Way," you will learn core problems facing today's leaders and how to engage and manage them. Through theory, parable, learning experiments, and real life examples, this book offers easily grasped, yet innovative concepts. Read, learn, and enjoy!

Mr. Warneka has done an impressive job of evaluating the various and different sources required for successful leadership - the bibliography alone for "Leading People..." is quite extensive. The author clearly did his homework here. Furthermore, the author has combined his knowledge of leadership and has drawn from several primary sources: (1) the literature on Emotional Intelligence; (2) an impressive addition of Gestalt perspectives toward leadership; and (3) the author's main strength -- his ability to translate the physical movement of this Japanese martial art into effective learning points for leadership development.

Frankly, Mr. Warneka's chapter on pushing and pulling as leaders alone is worth the price of the entire book...very valuable insights for every manager here. I was struck by the implications that Mr. Warneka drew forth in this chapter as to how the overwhelming majority of leaders tend to either use pushing or pulling as a strategy for leadership, as well as how ineffective these two approaches can be. Never thought of that.

The author opens each chapter with a story from ancient Japan. Although I found a few of the stories to be somewhat trite, Mr. Warneka more than makes up for this faux paus by efficiently getting to the point: telling us what it takes to make a great leader.

I particularly very much appreciated Mr. Warneka's chapter on conflict and change -- two perennial bugaboos that we executives consistently have to deal with.

Frankly, this book is probably somewhat ahead of it's time...it may take a few years to pass before the average reader becomes fluent enough in managerial processes in order to understand what Mr. Warneka is trying to say.

Bottom line: If you're interested in leadership, this is the book for you.

Hi all! Just wanted to pass along two new reviews that I've received:

This from Richard Boyatzis....

"Being deeply aware of yourself and your surroundings, called mindfulness, is a major predictor of effective leadership and management at all levels. Tim Warneka's adaptation of martial arts philosophy and practice awakens the reader to fascinating and helpful techniques to increase your mindfulness."

Richard E. Boyatzis, Professor of Organizational Behavior, Psychology and Human Resources at Case Western Reserve University and ESADE, and co-author with Daniel Goleman and Annie McKee of the international best-seller, Primal Leadership, and more recently with Annie McKee, Resonant Leadership

*******************

...and this from Richard Strozzi Heckler....

LEADING PEOPLE THE BLACK BELT WAY is a valuable addition to the literature and is certain to impact many people's lives."

Richard Strozzi-Heckler, author of BEING HUMAN AT WORK, IN SEARCH OF THE WARRIOR SPIRIT, and many other books

Tim Warneka has skillfully integrated Easter philosophies with the latest scientific information on emotional intelligence. He did so in a very creative manner weaving his well practiced principles of Aikido and knowledge and experience in emotional intelligence science, along with some traditional psychology. Tim is honest and meticulous about giving credit where credit is due regarding his sources. Good job, Tim.

A book very well planned and creatively written and one that every leader should read. Leader "know thyself." We've often wondered how intellectually capable leaders do really "dumb' things. They know little about how their emotions and egos' are driving their decision-making. Enron trials and tribulations, case in point.

I highly recommend this book for current and aspiring leaders, leadership coaches, specialists in conflict resolution, judges, and more.

Norma Delp, Signal Tree Resolutions, LLC

Leaders are sometimes hard to find. Sure, there's loads of folks that have been to leadership workshops and programs to be indoctrinated with yet another leadership system. But as Warneka points out, "The world does not need one more leadership system. What the world does need is great leadership that draws on the wisdom of the body and recognizes the treasury of emotions waiting to be tapped within every organization."

Using references to the lovely and efficient Japanese martial art of Aikido, Warneka shows us the importance of the above statement. In a text that flows much like a well trained martial artist, we receive epigrams from a well known swordsman, the Tao, today's best and brightest leadership coaches and the ever important thoughts of Ghandi and Einstein. Along with all that we get examples of Warneka's tried and try methods, his well thought out "learning experiments", helpful Author's notes and an extensive bibliography/webography. And while you'll have loads of folks you'll want to buy a copy for, this book could stay in your briefcase or backpack for months and in your library indefinitely.

I could list the 5 core problems that face leaders today, the 4 tools of conflict management or the 7 solutions of black belt leadership that Warneka expounds on and offers solutions to, or I could tell you this:

Whether you're the president of your garden club developing your next fundraiser, a teacher dealing with stubborn union issues, or a Fortune 500 CEO, this book can help.

Heck, it can be helpful in issues that arise every minute of every day in every country on this planet. Working together and living together is what we do as a species, using techniques that borrow from the philosophy of yin/yang, the Gestalt Cycle of Experience, and the teachings of Joseph Campbell, just may help us become those leaders we so desperately need.

If you're looking for a goldmine of timeless leadership treasures, you'll want to add Leading People The Black Belt Way to your collection. This book is unique because Warneka weaves his vast knowledge of eastern philosophy through the basic principles of emotional intelligence. It's thought provoking and loaded with plenty gems of wisdom. He highlights key points with bolding, for easy reference later. Each chapter ends with a summary and a learning experiment to help you implement the key concepts.

The book's content is written around the framework of The Seven Solutions of Black Belt Leadership:
1. Know the Five Core Problems of Leadership
2. Understand Leadership as a Relational Process
3. Seek Harmony in Leadership
4. Lead People Rather than Pushing or Pulling Them
5. Cultivate Emotional Engagement
6. Practice Embodied Leadership
7. Follow The Black Belt Cycle of Leading People

Don't worry if you don't really understand the meaning from this list. Warneka thoroughly defines "what is meant" at the beginning of each chapter.

This book is a great investment because it's jam packed with hidden gems. It's so content rich that he could have easily broken it down to several smaller, simpler books. Warneka clearly put his heart and soul into this piece of work.

I'm an avid business book reader and I have to say that I found it to be on the difficult side to read. Each chapter is prefaced with an eastern philosophy based story, which I personally found a bit distracting. If you're going to read it cover to cover, consider taking it in bite-sized chunks to maximize the benefits. Read one chapter every 2 - 4 weeks, complete the experiments at the end, and give your self plenty of time to sift, sort, and learn from the material.

If you couldn't put down Daniel Goleman's books on emotional intelligence, you're likely to be thrilled with this book. On the other hand, if you found Goleman's books to be great reference material versus engaging and inspirational, you'll likely feel the same way about this one.

Regardless, it's a great addition to your business book library.

I really enjoyed reading this insightful cutting edge leadership book. It is a must read for all managers that want to move their organization forward.

Ordinarily, I'm not a big fan of the management genre. More aphorisms than pages is not a good combo.

Tim Warneka's *Leading People the Black Belt Way* takes its time to do the job right. Not surprising, perhaps, given how Aikido -- the martial art that provides this book's philosophical center -- rewards patience. Yes, the author provides schemas to help us remember key points, but he never races through them as if prepping Intro to Management students for an upcoming quiz. His goal for his readers is genuine understanding, not rote memorization of bullet points.

Tim's prose is extremely accessible. He talks of problems that managers and their teams actually face. When he introduces concepts from the management canon, he defines them in phrases that don't demand an MBA.

Each chapter begins with a brief "story" that illustrates the upcoming topic. Don't be surprised to find that you've stopped to reflect for a few minutes before you move on. It is the nature of stories to invite readers to contemplate meaning. Far better that you start to grasp these principles organically, rather than have the author bludgeon you over the head.

Tim brings a truly fresh perspective to the management text. I honestly believe that his mission is not simply to make managers get more from their workforce, but to actually improve the world. It's not just that happy workers are more productive workers, but that happy workers are happy. So are happy managers. What's refreshing is that he doesn't consider this naive. It's a worthy common cause.

Perhaps most indicative of Tim's take on both management and the world is his assessment of Ebeneezer Scrooge. We've heard this one so often we can recite it by heart: warm and fuzzy Bob Cratchit, good; cold and calculating Ebeneezer Scrooge, bad. What a refreshing take to see Warneka focus upon Scrooge's redemption. How the Scrooge at the *end* of The Christmas Carol literally embodies the managerial lessons that Tim tries to teach throughout *his* book. We should all be like Scrooge in the end: a good man and a good manager too.

Full disclosure: I have worked with Tim on a business project and know him to be the real deal. But so is his book. Stop enumerating habits and move your darned cheese -- *this* book can teach you a lot.