Customer Reviews

Monday Morning Leadership: 8 Mentoring Sessions You Can't Afford to Miss

5 star:		(69)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The best business books are brief, clear and pertinent. Monday Morning Leadership fits all of those requirements.

You can read the whole book in a few minutes . . . and think about and apply what you learned for a lifetime.

The format is around a man who's struggling as a manager. His operation isn't performing well. His boss isn't happy. He's not happy. He doesn't have time to be with his family or to do what he likes to do. It looks like his career has peaked . . . and his job may be in jeopardy. What to do?

If that sounds familiar, almost everyone has had that experience who has taken on a management role.

Jeff decides to do something about it. He contacts an old family friend, Tony Pierce, who has had a very successful business career. Tony has agreed to meet with Jeff for eight weeks on Monday mornings.

In their eight sessions, Jeff learns the following lessons:

1. He has to accept total responsibility for results without excuses and to think like a leader rather than a manager or follower.

2. Be sure everyone knows what the main thing is that they have to accomplish and keep their faith in you as a leader.

3. Get closer to your people and help your top performers improve.

4. Act with integrity and prepare for how to handle problems before they occur.

5. Improve the team you have by only hiring high performers.

6. Manage your time carefully by looking for ways to save minutes wherever you can and by being more effective at whatever you do.

7. Encourage, recognize and respect your people.

8. Advance your learning by reading, being open to trying new things, listening, helping others, setting goals and always being professional and positive.

Those points make it sound like you don't need to read the book. You already knew most of those things, didn't you? But the story will embed the learning into your mind in powerful ways. Don't miss it!

I was especially impressed by Mr. Cottrell's ability to turn a phrase. The book abounds with aphorisms that you will find yourself remembering and possibly quoting as you coach your replacements. Many of the best ways are repeated on pages 97-101. Here's one of my favorites: "People quit people before they quit companies." Key principles are also summarized on pages 102-103.

This book would also make a great gift to some you know who is just starting out as a manager. The gift will be even more meaningful if you offer to coach that person as well.

Make a difference!

I have read (I daresay) hundreds of books on management, the goods, the bads, and even the uglies! MONDAY MORNING LEADERSHIP is right up there on the top of my list now - for a couple reasons.

1. Its short. Let's face it: most of us barely have the time to do what's expected of us, much less pick up a book on management. TAKE THE TIME TO READ IT - I am betting that the time it takes to read this book (about one hour) will make a tangible difference in how you do business.

2. There's no fluff. It's just the meat, nothing but the meat. Sure, there are a few illustrations scattered about but only where a story might strengthen the message. I appreciate authors who appreciate that I have better things to do (namely supervising employees) than sit and read!

3. Finally, if any book comes close to teaching a manager "everything they need to know in one sitting", this does it. As a matter of fact, I teach management workshops for new managers, and have decided that MONDAY MORNING LEADERSHIP will likely become required reading.

One could almost say this book is "Tuesday's With Morrie" meets "Leadership and the One Minute Manager". Monday Morning Leadership is David Cottrell's story of his struggles at work and the lesson's he receives from his mentor, Tony. Tony is a very successful and wise former turnaround specialist who is now an author and business coach. David spends eight Monday mornings with Tony learning easy to apply leadership theories. One of my favorites is the difference between drivers and passengers in the car. Most of all, I appreciated that Tony only ask of one thing for David to be his mentor, that he too passed these lessons on. And with this recommendation, I too shall pass it on.

I generally avoid these "allegory" type books, feeling that they are written for beginners rather than for those who have read volumes of self-help jargon. This book kicks butt. The story part doesn't take the weird twists characteristic of this type of book. The advise is easy to understand and instantly usable.

I highly recommend this book.

This book is clear, crisp and hits the critical success factors for effective managers and leaders. The author uses powerful anecdotes to get his message across. This short book can be read inside of a few hours and should be on the required reading list for all new managers (and those needing a refresher). The chapter titles and key messages can be found below:

1) Drivers and Passengers (accept total responsibility for results w/o excuses; be a leader rather than a follower)

2) Keep the Main Thing The Main Thing (Focus on few critical needs and be certain everyone knows them)

3) Escape From Management Land (Get and stay close to your top people and help your best improve)

4) The "Do Right Rule" (Act with integrity)

5) Hire tough (Only hire and retain top performers)

6) Do Less or Work Faster (Manage time carefully by being more efficient at what you do)

7) Buckets and Dippers (Respect, recognize and cheer on your people)

8) Enter the Learning Zone (Continuous learning through reading, listening, trying new approaches, helping others)

This is the way books should be written. Short, easy to relate to, and teach things that you can actually use. Monday Morning Leadership is real world. I have faced every challenge faced by Jeff in the book. Unfortunately, I did not have a mentor like Tony to help me through the challenges.

This book should be a must read for all managers regardless of who or what you are managing. It has also provided a good track for me to conduct my Monday Morning Meetings with my staff.

I love this book!

This book was required reading for a leadership class I took. It has a number of good pearls, and I am glad I read it. However, the presentation is horrible. It is written as if it is the transcription of two people having a series of conversations over coffee. The dialog between the two people seems contrived and repetitive, even belittling at times. In the end, I could have gotten just as much out of the book if it had been condensed to a two-page list of bulleted items.

This is a great book! Every Monday was a reminder of lessons that I know but tend to forget. Every manager,team leader, supervisor, and CEO should take an hour to read this book.

I have not had the luxury of a mentor like Tony and these eight mentoring sessions will be remembered and re-read for a long time.

This is a excellent book on leadership and mentoring. I read it in less than an hour- could not put in down.

It is in the One Minute Manager, Fish, Who Moved My Cheese catagory but it has many, many more teaching points. Have fun taking the journey with Jeff.

This book is concise and easy to read. I thought this book was a to-the-point kind of a book. I liked the reference to the importance of reading and learning from other's mistakes and not reinventing the wheel. The concept of having the right people on the team could have been more insightful. Who is a right person and if and how they can be made right for the team is something I would have liked to see in this book since it so clearly focuses on leadership. Jim Collin's `Good to Great' covers this concept in a more comprehensive manner. It reminded me of what my former manager said to me the first day I joined work. He commented that the first rule of management is to take care of the people. The concept of reward and recognition and having to tailor it for the individual is the absolute truth and was hinted at well in the book.

Overall, I thought the book could have been a little more detailed. It also gives the impression that time management can be learned and implemented in a day as opposed to being an incremental iterative process that it is.