Summary: This is an unpleasantly narcissistic and at times bitter spill about his former direct bosses written by a serial VP of the US automotive industry. The book plainly follows the lines of the intelligent/wise/enlightening me vs. the rest of the senior management in Chrysler/GM/BMW/Daimler.
In fact, a corporate officer with a shining bureaucratic pedigree himself, Bob has nothing to say about leadership. Instead, his tales are about authority and corporate management. Sadly, the two categories (leadership and authority) are badly confused in his mind.
Bob's notably great - what he calls himself - "leaders" are limited to only two encounters in his life: his high school teacher and his military induction sergeant. Perhaps. I believe him. What I do not believe in is viewing the two authority figures specifically tasked with keeping check on their subjects as 'leaders'. They are not. Just like the prison warden is not a convicts leader. It is amazing how confused the corporate language has become particularly in the minds of not so great thinkers. Including the author of this book. Lutz Germanic roots do not help here either.
Bob's admiration of authority is unmistakable. He thinks that although authority (or 'leadership') can be harsh and unfair, in the end it's good for those being 'led'. In Bob's mind, to be led is to be corrected by an authority figure with a mystical and highly ethical set of personal qualities. And here's where his attitudes have created a non-stop array of conflicts for him as an employee later in life: this corrective and re-educational element of higher-moral authority simply does not exist in bureaucracies. Hence, beyond his military commanders no senior management have ever earned the same respect.
Overall, being a product of the large organizational machine which breeds group-think and risk avoidance, Bob fails to comprehend what a classical leader (rather than a classical senior officer) is about. The leader is always transformational being able to take risks, inspire an ideal, or create a purpose regardless if he is Jobs, MLK, or Lenin. A former VP of GM, even a very ambitious one, simply does not belong there. Irrespective how much he wishes he were one exceptional leader himself.
The book is not a complete write off as there are some reasonable observations on how different strategies deployed by (in most cases) value-destroying senior management can prolong their survival in the ladder. None of the observations are remarkable thought, and they would just remind you of office gossip you share at the coffee machine with your like-minded peers.
This brings me to my last point. If you are interested in an in-depth analysis of various management styles, idiosyncrasies and corporate culture, try Vincent Packard, Scott Adams, Jeffrey Pfeffer or late John Galbraith. They wrote a number of original and (mostly) unknown books in the mainstream. I judge this by the number of amazon reviews this unremarkable, arrogant and confused book received.
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