Leadership – Page 4 – Scott J. Pearson’s Book Review

Equip Your Inner Coach: Personal, Career & Leadership Development in an Uncertain Age

By Scott J. Pearson | February 11, 2023September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

How can someone advance their career and leadership skills without having access to good, personalized mentoring? Many – particularly women and minorities – in the workforce lack such access, yet their ambition to contribute to the world does not lack. What are they to do? One thing they can do is check out Janet Bickel’s book. In it, she teaches readers to rely on their “inner coach” and like-minded peers in figuring out how to…

Leadership Politics

A Message from Ukraine: Speeches, 2019-2022 by Volodymyr Zelensky

By Scott J. Pearson | January 26, 2023September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine in 2022 sent shockwaves through the democratic world. It reminded many of how precarious open, free societies are. As time unfolded, Ukrainian resistance, led by their President Zelensky, proved more formidable than anyone could predict. Most of the free world united behind Ukraine as they fought back Russian gains kilometer by kilometer. Zelensky’s leadership has been admirable. It’ll likely be studied by generations after his time passes, much like Churchill’s…

Leadership Management-Business

Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter

By Scott J. Pearson | January 18, 2023September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

This book entered two new words into my vocabulary of personality: “diminisher” and “multiplier.” To Wiseman, these contrasting interpersonal styles are the secret understanding to why some smart people succeed at leadership and others fail. A diminisher is someone who socially tries to prove how smart they are to everyone around them. As such, they promote themselves, not the people around them. In stark contrast, multipliers make the people around them feel smarter and more…

Leadership Management-Business

The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster & Smarter

By Scott J. Pearson | September 29, 2022September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

Starting any new job is tough, and the pressure cooker is even hotter if the job involves leadership of some sort. There’s simply so much history and dynamics that the new leader is unaware of and so many new difficulties that have not been surmounted. Yet leaders are responsible for lots, and their actions can impact how hundreds of thousands of dollars – if not millions – are spent. How can we improve the chances…

Leadership Management-Business Software-Technology

Fostering Innovation: How to Build an Amazing IT Team

By Scott J. Pearson | August 12, 2022September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

A Chief Information Officer (CIO) is a relatively new addition to a modern business’s C-suite. However, despite being recent, in an era of digital innovation, it’s become an essential one. Instead of offloading work onto employees, most companies try to offload some of the work onto the IT department. IT specialists, the builders of technology, usually cannot meld their products into business-ready deliverables. That’s where the CIO comes in, to lead tech efforts towards a…

Biography-Memoir History Leadership

A Man Named Robert: Lessons from the Life of America’s First Great Emancipator

By Scott J. Pearson | June 26, 2022September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

This book attempts to accomplish two feats at once. First, it attempts to provide leadership lessons, and second, it tries to highlight the life history of Robert Carter III. (Ironically, the author and the biographical subject share the same last name. In this review, the author will be referred to as Dr. Carter while the subject, as just Carter.) Carter was a 18th-century Virginian planter who amassed great wealth around the time of the Revolutionary…

Leadership Management-Business Society

All Are Welcome: How to Build a Real Workplace Culture of Inclusion that Delivers Results

By Scott J. Pearson | January 29, 2022September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

Historically, diverse workplaces – for various reasons – have out-competed workplaces with less complex cultures. Especially after the social movements surrounding the untimely death of George Floyd in 2020, American employees have increasingly demanded their employers to take diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) into its management practices. As the American workforce becomes more diverse, it’s hard not to believe that these trends represent the future. However, many business attempts to address these issues only…

Biography-Memoir History Leadership Politics

My Life by Bill Clinton

By Scott J. Pearson | January 9, 2022September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

The name Bill Clinton evokes several reactions among people, each with its own emotional subtext: economic prosperity, partisan conflict, sexual misconduct, and international peacemaking. In a long history of American presidential memoirs, Clinton adds his to the list in this book. It is lengthy, thoughtful, and carefully crafted. He attempts to provide insight into himself and his leadership while advocating for the policies his administration enacted during his presidency. I was a Republican teenager from…

Biography-Memoir History Leadership

Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream by Doris Kearns Goodwin

By Scott J. Pearson | September 6, 2021September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

Former US President Lyndon Johnson is one of the more difficult to understand presidents. He reached the heights of politics through an assassination. He changed America permanently through the Civil Rights Acts of 1964-5. Pragmatically, he attempted to build a nation based on equal opportunity through the Great Society. He had an unparalleled genius for administrative leadership in the Senate and Oval Office. Yet he led the nation down a horrific course in Vietnam and…