Lessons on Leadership: The 7 Fundamental Management Skills for Leaders at All Levels (Hardcover)

by Jack Stahl (Author)
Key Phrases: confident sexiness, merchandising fixtures, shareowner value, The Coca-Cola Company, Consider Are, Key Question (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Stahl, Revlon CEO and former president of Coca-Cola, doesn't live up to his potential to share a wealth of management tips in this leadership guide. He delivers on the title's promise of identifying key skills, ranging from leadership and management to delivering people, brand positioning and financial strategies. But his emphasis on developing clear strategies and setting measurable objectives, or defining a unique product or service, is bland, particularly for regular business leadership–book readers. Too often, Stahl turns to generic examples to illustrate his points, rather than focusing on his own experience. And when he does touch on his professional life, he often leaves the reader wanting more. For instance, he mentions a moment early in his career at Coca-Cola when he toured East Germany in 1989, just after the Berlin Wall came down, and had to decide how to approach the new market, then quickly drops it—although that experience could have leant itself to a deeper market development case study. Readers may justly wonder why he held back. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
“An experienced and successful CEO of the Coca-Cola company’s North American group (who also served as head of their global corporation) for twenty-two years, and later serving for five years as CEO of Revlon, Jack Stahl writes with a very special expertise on the subject of leadership in the management of a business with Lessons on Leadership: The 7 Fundamental Management Skills for Leaders at All Levels. A gifted writer, Stahl expertly simplifies the complexities of running a business by introducing, explaining, and illustrating seven frameworks that cover many of the situations that are commonly encountered by managers when building up world-class organizations in a volatile and competitive marketplace be it local, regional, national, or international. These frameworks relate to the basic issues of leadership and management; creating a high-capability organization; developing human resources; brand positioning with consumers; customer relationship management; financial strategy and management; and ‘influencing people.’ Lessons on Leadership is strongly recommended reading, especially for business students, employees aspiring to management responsibilities, and managers charged with advancing their company’s best interests and bottom-line profitability.”

—Midwest Book Review’s Library Bookwatch

“Lessons on Leadership, by Jack Stahl, is rich with theory combined with real world examples and practical techniques allowing for easy implementation. This book wasn’t intended solely for the CEO. Stahl understands that leaders at every level of the organization must be on board and communicating the vision and direction to achieve success. A must read for all leaders, both new and seasoned.”

— Executive Ladder

“I had the good fortune to witness and benefit from Jack’s extraordinary leadership while he was president of Coca-Cola. His innovative and perceptive ideas on what it takes to be a great leader have significantly shaped my own personal management style. I’m thrilled that leaders from all walks of life will now have this valuable resource to help sharpen and focus their management skills.”

—Steve Koonin, President of Turner Entertainment Networks

 

“Stahl’s Lessons on Leadership stands out for its concrete, actionable advice and rich insight into the challenges of managing and leading. The straightforward writing together with the personal stories get the points across vividly—the stories are telling. His seven frameworks offer a comprehensive approach to tackling the most important issues that all managers and leaders face.”

—Steven Gunby, Chairman of the Americas Group, The Boston Consulting Group

 

“Jack Stahl delivers results. This is a very insightful book where Jack delivers a message that really goes to the heart of how you manage great brands. By teaching key lessons and getting specific about proven techniques, this book is a road map to building a world class team that can take you and your company to the top.”

—Brian France, Chairman & CEO, NASCAR

 

“Lessons on Leadership is a practical and succinct guide to what is important in everyday leadership. It is full of stories and examples to which leaders of all levels can relate and asks insightful questions of the reader who is serious about improving the quality of his/her leadership.”

—Judy Rosenblum, President, Duke Corporate Education

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Kaplan Publishing (July 3, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0793194741
• ISBN-13: 978-0793194742
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #451,586 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Passionate, Insightful, and Pragmatic, July 3, 2007

By	Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The last time I checked, there are more than 52,000 business books in print on the subject of leadership. It is reasonable to ask, "Why another?" Jack Stahl provides his answer in this book, based on his extensive real-world experience as a senior level executive, notably as president of Coca-Cola and then, until recently, CEO of Revlon. True, both are major corporations. However, Stahl asserts - and I wholeheartedly agree - that "organizational dynamics are often similar in different environments, and most of the important leadership skills and techniques presented here will apply across diverse organizations large and small, and to various management roles. The frameworks are guidelines that I know have helped me."

Specifically, Stahl focuses on seven "frameworks" and devotes a separate chapter to each, with "Key Points" and "Leadership Insights" featured:

1. Leadership and Management: "A modest view of your future brings modest results and rewards. Think big and give people the opportunity to win big." This is what Jim Collins calls a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG).

2. Creating a high-capability organization: "People focus on those skills and behaviors that leaders say count." Also, what they reward.

3. Developing people: "And important oversight technique for major projects is to schedule frequent project updates, and be sure that when someone says something is done, it is totally complete."

4. Brand positioning with consumers, clients, customers, etc.: "A `brand' represents a promise to consumers of what to expect from a product or service. Brand positioning is the process of establishing that promise in the minds of the reader."

5. Customer relationship management (CRM): "Asking questions and listening patiently and carefully - in order to understand your customer's business, where they want to take it, and how well you are serving it - is the foundation of great service."

6. Financial strategy and management: "As the leader, you must help make clear to your people the link between their actions and the creation of value for your company." Also, and at least as important, the creation of value for each customer.

7. Influencing people: "I have presented six frameworks for creating leadership success. The seventh is a linchpin for them all because success in any leadership role will depend upon your ability to effectively influence people to take actions to achieve success."

As these excerpts correctly indicate, Stahl provides no head-snapping revelations in this book, nor does he make any such claim. Rather, he shares everything he has learned (thus far) about what works...and what doesn't...in the seven basic business areas. To his credit, after briefly identifying the "what" of effective leadership, he devotes most of his attention to the "how" and "why" for those who wish to strengthen their leadership and management skills. I especially appreciate his effective use of various checklists for appropriate and effective action, such as the key building blocks for creating a high-capability organization (Page 31), seven basic techniques for leaders that are critical to successful people development (Page 64), customer relationship skills that focus on what is most important (Pages 109-110), and four important elements of an effective control and reporting system (Pages 153-154). These and other checklists facilitate, indeed expedite periodic review of Stahl's key points.

I commend Jack Stahl for his pragmatic approach as he shares a wealth of lessons he learned while occupying a series of progressively more demanding executive positions. His insights will be of special value to those now preparing for or have only recently embarked on a business career. I also recommend it supervisors in need of their own improvement in one or more of the seven areas on which Stahl focuses. Ultimately, however, it is the responsibility of each reader to absorb and digest the material provided, and then apply it effectively. Because Stahl is a pragmatist with a bias for results, he would presumably agree with Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton's admonition to beware of the "knowing-doing" and "doing-knowing" gaps. Or as former Texas football coach Darrell Royal once observed, "potential" means "you ain't done it yet."

Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Bill George's Authentic Leadership and then True North (co-authored with Peter Sims) as well as Ram Charan's Know-How, Dean Spitzer's Transforming Performance Measurement, Paul Spiegelman's Why Is Everyone Smiling?, Thomas H. Davenport and Jeanne G. Harris' Competing on Analytics, James P. Andrew's Payback, Richard Ogle's Smart World, and Matthew May's The Elegant Solution.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pleasantly proven wrong . . . , July 3, 2007

By	Dan Bobinski (Boise, Idaho) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have to admit, when I saw "another" book on leadership I anticipated a theoretical prose that seems to be prevalent in too many books on the subject. I was pleasantly proven wrong.

Although Stahl writes mainly from his experiences at Coca-Cola and Revlon, by no means are they narrow perspectives. And, by no means is what Stahl has to say only for executives of large companies. This book applies to those in leadership at any organization - or those that want to be.

Stahl provides compelling truths about the need for a clear, focused strategy; measurable objectives, and communicating both of those with enthusiasm throughout the organization. These activities are sorely lacking in many companies--yet vital for a company to thrive--so I was glad to see Stahl emphasize them.

He also talks about the flow of information and reporting systems, and perhaps most importantly, developing the people around you who can help the organization achieve its goals. Again, all vital.

What's more, Stahl doesn't use corporate-speak; it's down to earth stuff. And he doesn't just tell us how what to do, he tells us what questions to ask and why we need to ask them.

He also tells us these things based on a train-load of experience.

I believe any leader in any company will take away some golden nuggets from this book.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book - Clear and Concise, June 28, 2007

By	Christopher J. Hooper "turbo arbitrager" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I work in the private equity industry and spend a significant amount of time with management teams building leadership skills to ensure success in our investments. Having read a lot of these types of books, I can honestly say this book presents the most direct and clear path to developing leadership skills. Stahl uses more of an outline style so it is an extremely easy read and very much to the point - there is never a page in the book that is not useful. The book also is very specific and uses clear examples without getting into nebulous, long-winded discussions that put you to sleep. Overall, I found the book incredibly insightful and would strongly recommend it for anyone in business or investing.