Customer Reviews

We Shall Not Fail: The Inspiring Leadership of Winston Churchill

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I recently read two separate but related books, this one and Alan Axelrod's Nothing to Fear: Lessons in Leadership from FDR. The connections between Roosevelt and Churchill are numerous and significant. Some doubt remains as to how close their personal friendship was but there is no doubt of their mutual respect as together they and their respective nations faced what once seemed certain defeat by the Axis powers in World War II. This book is of special interest to me because it was written by Churchill's granddaughter in collaboration with Littman. Her perspectives are especially significant, given what we learn about Churchill's family life in the excellent biographies written by Martin Gilbert and Roy Evans. Apparently Churchill could often be rather demanding of family members as well as of his staff, especially during England's struggle to survive and then share in the ultimate victory in World War II. In fact, Sandys (with Littman's substantial assistance) focuses most of her attention on her grandfather's inspiring leadership during those darkest of hours.

In the Introduction, she acknowledges that she has been frequently asked, "When did you realize that your grandfather was a great man?" For reasons she explains, she found it impossible to answer. The core question to which she does respond is this: What can be learned from Winston Churchill's leadership? She organizes her material within fourteen chapters, concluding each with a list of what she suggests are "Churchillian Principles." For example, at the end of one of my favorite chapters ("Follow Your Canvas"), she offers these:

* Expect the unexpected and you'll find yourself far better prepared to deal with life's twists and turns.

* Make your own hours to bring vitality to your work.

* Leave time for rest and relaxation, especially when under pressure.

* Wise leaders have a hobby or pursuit outside of work that brings them joy.

* Never forget the rejuvenating power of a good meal with friends or stimulating company.

Sandys was in a unique position to observe Churchill's commitment to these and other principles. Throughout her narrative, she makes appropriate use of Churchill's own statements about all manner of situations, ranging from his conflicts and collaborations with other world leaders to the reasons why he enjoyed painting so much. She offers her own opinions along the way, duly noting her grandfather's warts as well as his halos. This is a serious book, a remarkably thoughtful and sensitive book, but also one which is highly entertaining. I have always regretted never having had the pleasure of Churchill's company. (He would be among the guests invited to a "fantasy dinner" were it possible for me to host such an event. The others? Homer, Eleanor of Aquitaine, William Shakespeare, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Katherine Hepburn. Wouldn't that be an evening to remember?) I am deeply grateful to Sandys for sharing so much of her personal relationship with Churchill but also for her response to the question previously posed: What can be learned from Winston Churchill's leadership?

In the epilogue, she recalls that "Even at home taking command was a way of life. On seaside holidays he would direct the family party, his children and those of his brother Jack, in the building of magnificent sand castles. Everyone had a role to play under the direction of the `King of the castle.' He was as excited as the children when at high tide the sea rushed in to fill the moat and eventually destroy the entire day's work." What a fond memory of a singular man who retained "almost to the end, his ability to enthrall his audience with wisdom, humor, and humanity."

With all of the 500 page business books with their myriad proclamations as to what constitutes good leaderhip, I found this book refreshing. To me, the important key message of this book is that great leadership comes from one who has has integrity, fortitude and a keen sense of what is right, and one who has been challenged to apply those qualities when making, sometimes unpopular, critical decisions. Those reading this book looking for a cookbook for leadership will be disappointed. Those looking to better understand how Winston Churchill exemplified the qualities of great leadership and how he applied them throughout his life, not just when faced the adversity, will be inspired and motivated by this book. It is also a particularly good book for young people who are still shaping their own senses of personal values.

This thouhtful book by Churchill's Grandaughter again reminds us of his influence in our world yesterday and today. Ms Sandys has once again captured the essemnce of this great but complex man whom she knew so well. Anyone interested in leadership or in assesing others capacity to lead would be well advised to read this imp[ortant book.

Anyone who gave less than 4 stars for this book needs to have their head examined! This is a great book about a great man. I read a lot, but when I read that this man read entire volumes, I was impressed. The fact that England isn't speaking German today is largely due to the perseverence of Churchill. As far as good writing, Celia Sandys (Churchills grand-daughter) did a wonderful job. Any leader would learn a lot by reading this or other books about or by Churchill.

I liked it and highly recommend it.

Most of us admire the great leadership of Winston Churchill, many of us would like to be more like him! This book is a very useful guide as to how we might get a few steps closer to that goal. I bought the book to find some ideas on leadership that I felt I could follow, it worked.
Celia Sandys has managed to condense her grandfathers thoughts and actions on leadership into a set of easy to follow Churchillian Leadership Principles. The book was easy to read and is well organized for quick reference afterwards.
The examples of modern leaders following Churchillian principles helped to make the book relevant to issues facing today's business leaders. I enjoyed it. It inspired me to want to learn more and also inspired me to never, never, never give in!

I am a Churchill fan and have read much by many on the subject. This book might serve as a primer on Churchill. It captures some of his distinguishing characteristics. While some of them relate to leadership, others were just extensions of his personality. He was a bullish, long winded, contrarian, egoist. Without a doubt he was also an extraordinary leader and a man for his time during WWII.

Unfortunately, in some chapters Celia Sandys takes a personality style or quirk and tries to stretch it into an inspiring nugget of leadership truth for the masses. She gives anecodtal evidence of a particular facet of Churchill's outlook and then ends each chapter with Churchillian Principles. They are meant to convey that he had distilled these principles and lived by them, however, there are many biographies out there that will show you the complete Churchill. He was a leader. He was stubborn, relentless and fully taken with himself. But let's don't over do it. These were manifestations of WHO Churchill was, not leadership principles. Churchill wouldn't have changed any of them even if he discovered they weren't exceptional leadership traits. He simply would have continued on undeterred.

Still, I would recommend this book to any not familiar with Churchill and who may not be up for a lengthy biography. You'll get enough for a flavor of the man or you may be intrigued enough to conduct more serious study about him. I don't think you will be able to take any one of the "Churchillian principles" and infuse it into your personal management or leadership style.

First a caveat to my review. I only bought this book for information on Winston Churchill, and have no interest on the business aspect of this book at all. I got exactly what I wanted, insight on Churchill the man, and even learned a bit about some great business minds. The book is full of little vignettes of Churchill, and how he operated and used his personal skills. Divided into chapters which define Churchill at his best, and even some of his worst. The gems of the book are the little stories given to reinforce thought processes of the authors on Churchill. Such as the one where Churchill, after a late night meeting, ran into a trunk G.I in a hallway. The G.I addressed Churchill as "Fatso", and asked him where the bathroom was. Churchill gave the man concise instruction on finding the restroom, then added "It is marked Gentlemen...., but do not let that discourage you." Priceless, stuff on a great man. If I were more intersted on the business side of the book a five would have been given.

We all know Churchill was great, many of us would like to be more like him! This book gives us an insight into how we might go about accomplishing that goal. It was a good read, easy to pick up, easy to read and great for refering back to for reminders of the key 'Churchillian Principles' of Leadership which Celia Sandys has so ably condensed from all of her grandfather's words and actions.
There are plenty of other books about his speeches, what this gives you is a guideline to the type of leadership behaviors which made Winston Churchill such a great man. The value for me was that these are real, down to earth, practical principles which we can adopt to try to model the leadership behavior of such a great man. The book also has plenty of more recent business examples which lend substance to the leadership principles as things which modern leaders can use effectively.
This book really inspired me to want to learn more!

This is a decent book on leadership, but nowhere near as good as the Leadership Challenge. While it is similar to the Maxwell leadership books in that it short on the how, it does contain much more usable and practical information than his books do. If you are looking to study leadership, this would be a good supplement to the primary texts of the Leadership Challenge, Hope is not a Method and so on, but I would not use it as the only book.

There is no question that Winston Churchill was an inspiring and powerful leader, probably the best that the twentieth century produced. He took over a nation reeling from defeat and standing literally alone against the mightiest military power ever assembled before the massive American forces were mustered at the end of World War II. When many were convinced that England would be forced to surrender, he rallied the British so that they held on until the Soviet Union and the United States entered the conflict.
This book is a recapitulation of many of the actions and principles used by Churchill to achieve his war aims and at that level, the book is a success. Beyond that, there is an attempt to relate these actions to managing a modern business. While there is some justification to the comparisons, the book is very weak in that area.
The problem of course is that the British position in the first years of World War II was a literal matter of life and death. If they failed, the nation could cease to exist and even in the best case scenario of victory, thousands of British citizens would be brutally killed. This simply cannot be transferred into the leadership of a business. The capitalist system has programmed a rate of business failures into the regular operations, so the failure of a business is at most a local catastrophe. Therefore, all such comparisons suffer from a serious, if not fatal flaw.
The authors use the incident of the destruction of the World Trade center towers as the most similar modern incident and there is repeated praise of the American and British leaders after the fact. While some of that praise is justified, the reality is that despite the horrific nature of the event, it was a singular event, unlike the Blitz, which was nightly.
For these reasons, I rank the book highly in the historical sense, although there is a glossing over of some of Churchill's mistakes. This is balanced by a poor rank in the modern business sense, because the situations are just not that comparable.