Customer Reviews

Lead Like a Pirate! Leadership Secrets of the Pirates of St. Croix

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

 

 

On the surface, the book Lead Like a Pirate! Leadership Secrets of the Pirates of St. Croix by Christopher Novak appears to be yet another leadership book where the author takes some character from history and attributes a leadership system to them. But having said that, I have to admit that I really enjoyed this short read on solid leadership and teamwork skills. And if you've never read a book or taken any courses on leadership and teamwork, this will serve as a decent starting point for you.

Contents:
Leaders, Legends, and Loot; Pirate Team Leadership Model; Secret 1 - The Captain; Secret 2 - The Crew; Secret 3 - The Mission; Secret 4 - The Strategy; Secret 5 - The Treasure; Scorecard; Extended Insights; Lead Like A Pirate! Training Ideas; Notes from the Captain's Log; About the Author; Bring Pirates to your Next Event

Novak approaches the topic of leadership from the perspective of a fictitious pirate captain named Tiger Eye Taylor. Taylor shares his secrets and philosophy on leading a crew, getting them to focus on the mission, bringing them together as a cohesive group for the success of all, and how the crew should be rewarded. At the end of each chapter/secret, the reader is presented with the option of three different choices of people to bring aboard (or reactions to situations). Each one is described in detail in terms of their pros and cons, and you should then make your choice as to which one would work best for the team. Then at the end of the book, the real author explains the proper choices in each case, while also showing how the other two "wrong" choices would affect the crew and the mission.

If you've read more than a couple business leadership books, there shouldn't be any new deep insights for you here. The choices of who you should pick or how you should react *should* be clearly obvious after reading what makes a good leader or follower. However, if you're working with a group that already show signs of major dysfunctional behavior, presenting these common sense ideas in a pirate theme might be what it takes to get people to shift their normal reactions a bit. From there, you can build on the small improvements and see where you can go.

Personally, I saw the book as interesting in terms of how a team of pirates might be compared to a successful business unit. It's not the normal analogy you'd make, and I don't think I'll ever view Captain Jack Sparrow in quite the same way again. :) For the short time investment involved, this is a good book to consider to get your "crew" formed and your leadership established.

After first reading this book, I was poised to write a not too stellar 3 star review. Luckily, I didn't get around to writing it right away and had a huge change of heart. Last weekend, we kept four of our grandsons, ranges in ages from 4 to 13. When the saw the book laying on my desk with a pirate on the cover, it immediately grabbed their attention. So, LEAD LIKE A PIRATE: LEADERSHIP SECRETS OF THE PIRATES OF ST. CROIX by Christopher Novak, found new life.

After my initial reading, I was looking at the book from the perspective of a CEO or boardroom bigwig. I still do believe many CEO and boardroom bigwigs might find the book a bit too simplistic, even juvenile for their tastes. But after sharing this book with my grandsons, I came away with a much different view. I believe this book is great for school-age athletes and their coaches. Because of the whole pirate theme, the book held their interest and was constructed in such a way that they (at least the two older boys) came away with valuable lessons on leadership and team-building skills. Even the 4 year old enjoyed it, simply because it was about pirates and I tried to use my best pirate vernacular as I read it to them.

Novak breaks his lessons into five parts; Captain, crew, mission, strategy and treasure. Each part is followed by a multiple-choice question. At the end of the book, you score your answers and there is an extended explanation as to the correct choices and why.

I would also like to qualify my earlier comments. If you have a rather "laid-back" or even "group participation" style of training, this would be a good fit for sales meetings and other business training. On the other hand, many businesses, particularly large corporations, tend to be rather stanch and stuffy, `let's get down to business' types. If that is the case, you'll want to look elsewhere for training material.

If you get any new information from this book, you've likely not read other books on leadership. It's short and couched in a story about pirates... That's different and the reason I didn't give it one star.

Leading like a pirate isn't just about peg legs, eye patches and scurvy, and "Lead Like a Pirate!: Leadership Secrets of the Pirates of St. Croix" will explain how such a strange concept at first could be the best thing that could happen to its reader's business, and perhaps its reader as well. Emphasizing team work that can make a valuable worker from even the most unkempt and seemingly useless employee, "Lead Like a Pirate!: Leadership Secrets of the Pirates of St. Croix" is a charming and highly recommended self-help and business book that simply uses a fun pirate theme to get its valuable message across.

Christopher Novak is an author, motivational speaker, leadership consultant and founder of The Summit-Team. One of the excellent training programs they offer is Pirates of St. Croix, a themed learning seminar for critical business skills like leadership, teamwork, delegation, communication, attention to detail, problem-solving, and creativity.

Lead Like A Pirate, his latest book, is based on the same pirate theme. Novak sets forth the Pirate Leadership Model, which consists of five "secrets", Captain, Crew, Mission Strategy, and Treasure. Using a cast of characters like Captain Tiger-Eye Taylor, Crazy Jack Rack, Dreadlocks Darby, and Captain Sara Sly, he spins his tale of leadership principles with humor and examples. Small tests throughout the book show you how well you are "staying the course".

The book has insightful sayings, pirate secrets, scattered throughout. Mission transforms the hunted into the hunters is one liked. Another is Strategy puts Mission in Motion.

An oft time neglected topic in leadership books is one Novak talks about in detail, the crew. How to select, train, and reward the crew is spelled out in detail. As one of the five `secrets'; the crew is an integral part of the Pirate Leadership Model.

Lead Like A Pirate is a quick, insightful and interesting read. The pirate theme is more appropriate than one might think. The book quotes Friedrich Nietzsche "Merchant and pirate were for a long period one and the same person."

Lead Like a Pirate generates fresh insights into leadership in a thought-provoking and entertaining manner. The pirate theme is a useful metaphor for many business models. The lessons taught are cogent, concise and useful. I would have appreciated a little more background on the historical perspective along with actual historical examples of the leadership lessons in action, but this complaint is more stylistic than substantive. If you're looking for new ways to communicate sound business strategies, this book is a good choice.

I don't normally review "business" books, but this one was short, and I thought the title would appeal to a friend of mine, so I thought I'd give it a read. The following review is from a layperson, not a member of the business community, and should be respected with that in mind.

As a historian I was intrigued by the idea that someone had looked at historical piracy and found guidelines in it that could work in modern business. Sadly, the book has no citations, and in fact a search for the main character and even the region in which it takes place reveals that it is a total fiction. So don't pick up this book looking for historical pirates, because you won't find them here.

However, from what I do know about pirates, several things seem realistic about how the ships and the individuals who worked on them lived. Frankly, though, the historian in me must insist on citations. So if Christopher Novak wants a better review from me, he'll put where he found his ideas of piracy into the next edition of the book.

The book, then, is more a series of five role-playing scenarios that discuss the questions of being a leader, choosing good employees, finding the best choice for your business pursuits, deciding on the most appropriate means to achieve those goals, and how to fairly and productively compensate everyone involved. Novak leads us through these scenarios with a series of characters and events, then asks the reader to make the best choice.

Once you make your choice, the book gives you a scorecard that will grade your choices. Considering I'm not in business, it was surprising how well I did when I worked through these. Perhaps being in an academic department and working with students lends itself to similar considerations. After the scorecard, the best choices are explained, and I found that very interesting, since I didn't necessary go through the same thought process as a business manager would, but I still made the best choice for every scenario.

This suggests to me that the benefit of this book is not really for business so much as it is for any sort of team or group work. The book is short enough and entertaining enough that I could see it being used in other settings where profits are not measured in money but in commitment or achieving political or philosophical goals. I think my friend, who is a business person, will get a kick out of the book. I wonder how well he'll score?

This is not the type of business book I enjoy. But I'm sure many people will. It's nicely illustrated in the pirate motif. You'll learn the secrets of effective team leadership. I personally don't buy into the concept of leading by teams. But it works for lots of businesses.

You'll meet Captain Tiger Eye Taylor who will share his secrets on the captain, crew, mission, strategy and treasure. You'll get the keys to getting more from your team.

Do not let the novelty of the title fool you. This book is a treasure chest of leadership wisdom. Using the entertaining exploits of a pirate crew the author teaches the very important lessons of loyalty to your "crew", rewarding your associates based on performance, the importance of never stagnating but always moving forward toward your goals, and many, many more important lessons. The books leadership model is based on the elements of the captain, crew, mission, strategy, and treasure. The captain must provide a clear vision, and select a diverse crew with many talents. The captains strategy must be intelligently simple and he must ensure that the treasure of his successful mission is shared with his crew based on merit. The crew desires more than just gold, compliments and special bonuses are very important to morale and loyality. The book has great exercises to complete and share in group settings. I highly recommend this book for new managers or to be used in team meetings to explore important principles that will be very useful in your organization. I have been in management for 15 years and this book was a great book to remind me of what is most important to be a successful leader.