Leadership – Page 6 – Scott J. Pearson’s Book Review

Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

By Scott J. Pearson | April 11, 2021September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

Most people engage the world passionately through labor of some kind, only to lose their sense of purpose with time. Work becomes repetitive, and new outlets become sparse. In this book, Sinek suggests that great leaders continually re-engage with why they are doing what they do. They articulate their vision and systematize their effects in organization. By scaling their purpose, the best leaders inspire others to amplify their purpose for positive (and measurable) outcomes. Now,…

Leadership: In Turbulent Times by Doris Kearns Goodwin

By Scott J. Pearson | December 26, 2020September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

In this work, Goodwin charts the lives of four influential US Presidents – Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson. Having written leading biographies previously of each of these, she combines her insights to profile the character of leadership, at least in an American form. She distills prior deep study of these presidents into an interwoven narrative that highlights how their personal narratives enabled them to meet the challenges of their times…

Biography-Memoir History Leadership

His Truth is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope

By Scott J. Pearson | September 6, 2020September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

The recently deceased congressman John Lewis has been a public light to the United States for over fifty years. Nicknamed “the conscience of Congress,” he courageously campaigned for civil rights since a college student in Nashville. The author Jon Meacham, surely one of America’s greatest biographers, writes this history of Lewis’ doings in the 1960s. With extreme acuity, gravity, and imagery, he captures what the civil rights movement resembled on the inside. In so doing,…

Biography-Memoir History Leadership Society

Grant by Ron Chernow

By Scott J. Pearson | May 25, 2020September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

This Memorial Day is appropriate to celebrate one of our nation’s forgotten saviors. Although Lincoln is often credited with guiding the nation’s rebirth by preserving the Union, none of this would have happened without Ulysses S. Grant’s leadership. Still, Grant is often denigrated as an inept drunk and a butcher of soldiers. This view simply was not shared among his contemporaries who viewed his grace in Confederate surrender at Appomattox Courthouse as foundational in national…

Leadership Management-Business Presentation

Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management

By Scott J. Pearson | March 20, 2020September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

In my opinion, this book is misnamed. Its proper main audience does not consist of managers but those in public relations; likewise, its main topic is not crisis management but communicating in a crisis. It admonishes the readers to plan for emergency situations, but it does very little to coach readers exactly how to do so. To be fair, it suggests that each company perform a “vulnerability analysis” to detect weaknesses that might be exploited…

Leadership Management-Business

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t

By Scott J. Pearson | March 18, 2020September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

This work is the result of a cohort business study. The control group consisted of publicly owned companies that had good performance for 15 years and then great performance (defined as outperforming the market by over three times) for 15 years. There were only 11 good-to-great companies. Eleven other companies in similar lines of work were chosen into the comparison group. Then the research group dissected those companies to figure out what the great companies…

Leadership Management-Business

Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.

By Scott J. Pearson | December 25, 2019September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

I often use slow times of the year to read psychologically oriented books that apply to my life. This Christmas, I picked up this book that deals with leadership and being up-front with emotions in the workplace. This book’s author served in the military before getting a PhD in sociology. Her topic of interest is vulnerability as a leadership trait. The influx of women into the American workplace has changed workplace dynamics. This book –…

Biography-Memoir Leadership

A Woman’s Education: The Road from Coorain Leads to Smith College

By Scott J. Pearson | December 19, 2019September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

Jill Ker Conway has left us with quite a trilogy of autobiographies. In so doing, she has divided her life into thirds – growing up on the Australian outback, coming of age in North-American academe, and gaining a feminist voice as president of the elite Smith College. This work examines her experiences at Smith College. She poured her soul into learning to articulate an authentically feminine institutional voice in a world of coeducation. Instead of…

Leadership Management-Business Psychology Writing-Communication

The Skilled Facilitator

By Scott J. Pearson | October 6, 2019September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

Successfully resolving conflict is one of the most important tasks in management and leadership. Schwarz, a Harvard-educated organizational psychologist, teaches us how to do just this in this well-received book. Its success can be demonstrated by the fact that it now resides in its third edition. (This review only applies to the second edition.) Schwarz tells us how to be not just a facilitator but a skilled facilitator of discussion within organization. He consults with…

Fiction-Stories Leadership Management-Business

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

By Scott J. Pearson | September 9, 2019September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

This work straddles the fence between a short novel and a book on business. It covers a helpful topic of five common dysfunctions of a team. Through reading it, I helped identify pits that teams I have participated in have fallen prey to. The story itself is relatively easygoing, if a bit short and superficial. A new CEO faces the scenario where her new form has more cash and more talented leaders, but is underperforming.…