Customer Reviews

Small Unit Leadership: A Commonsense Approach

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book was written for officers in the United States Army. It gives officers an idea of how to manage and develop the soldiers under them. Particularly it gives good advice on how to recognize and deal with certain types of soldiers based on a skill, will, and teamwork scale. To tell the truth, I'm not in the army, but I bought this book to gain some insight into the army's way of managing and developing soldiers. I believe that if you are a businessperson or a teacher, you can learn a lot about how to treat different employees or students. Each person has individual needs that need to be handled in different ways, and I think this is something that this book does a good job of introducing. If you're in the army, you definitely need this, and if you're not, you can still gain a lot of knowledge by reading this.

At last, a leadership book that doesn't have alot of corporate stuff in it. I get really tired of those volumes that have the samurai way, or the military way, or whatever, and then start talking about sales figures and meetings. This one literally is about leading military units, with specifics and an explanation of the broader concept of what leadership is for and how each leader in the chain of command fits together to achieve the goals of the army.

I am a squad leader in the police academy, a para-military outfit, and the ideas and advice in this book helped me out alot. I heartily recommend it for anyone facing an NCO billet of any kind.

This is a great book on leadership! Don't ignore it if you are not in the military. Much of the content carries over to the civilian side of the fence too. I am a first line police supervisor and found alot of good material here. I dare say much of it could be useful in the business/corporate world too.

I was an NYPD supervisor (Sergeant and Lieutenant)and found this book very helpful. Even if you *aren't* in a military or law enforcement organization, this book can help you. It talks about leadership and personnel management issues that apply to *every* supervisor or leader in *every* business or profession. For example, Malone breaks down personnel into 4 categories:

*Willing and able - Tell this person what to do, and when you want it done by, and leave them alone.

*Willing but UN-able (such as the "new guy") - Help this person with training and coaching to do what you want done.

*Able but unwilling (the classic shirker)- Needs motivation and supervision to get the job done.

*Unable and unwilling - ideally, would not be in your organization, but if you are stuck with them, need training, motivation, and supervision to learn what they have to do, and then get it done.

(Obviously, if a poor perfomer had personal problems of some kind, their supervisor would have to address those appropriately.)

Malone's explanation of these categories alone is worth the price of this book.

Another great leadership book: "Top Performance" by Zig Ziglar. He's a sales trainer, but really understands the core of leadership and teaching. Easy to read (I got it on audio tape), and well worth your while.

Simply said-- if you are an NCO or Officer, you must make the effort to add this book to your library. This book is making it's rounds throughout our organization as I type. More importantly--it is positively effecting our current training...pound for pound the best training guide/leadership guide WE have ever read!

Train to Lead--Lead the Fight!

COL Malone did the Army a great service in the field of leadership besides writing this book. Unfortunately, he passed on a few years ago. This book is helpful to anyone in a military leadership position, but its utility for non-military is a bit limited. I heavily recommend it for the young officer about to take over his first platoon or company and the young Specialist about to take over his first fire team. The section on how to ask questions is worth the price of the book alone.

I found this book invaluable as I undertook the task of leading a platoon. Clear, solid advice on how to lead soldiers to success.

This is a very good book and goes by its self-explanatory title. It was very informative and easy to read. It gives good instruction on leading AND being a part of the team, without being just a YAHOO type of book like some others. Good for leading small units from military to paintball.

I first purchased this book last December and made it half-way through before I "forgot" it at a bar during the Vikings loss to New Orleans. The book was so good that I had to buy it again to finish it.

Quite simply, Small Unit Leadership is a training manual for leadership. I've never been in the military, but feel this leadership guide translates just as well to the business world. It's not like those fluffy, self-helpish books generally written for business leadership. (You know the ones: more feel-good stories, less substance). Think about it, no other organization has made a systematic study of leadership the way the military has. I can picture myself teaching from this book as a textbook someday in a leadership course in business school.

The book is written in a clear and concise manner. It lays out in detail the purpose of leadership, how to develop your subordinates, how to understand their styles and develop high performing teams, followed by a detailed list of "how to's."

Five stars.

I brought this book when I was a young Non Commission Officer (NCO) in 1985. From time to time I had refered to it but I really discovered its worth when I repeatedly used it during my Masters Degree course in the Psychology of Leadership. The old book was tattered and highlighted from years gone by, I have to concur with every other professional in a leadership position that has commented on this work; don't put it on your bookshelf, put it in your pocket or your desk and refer to it weekly if not daily.