Occasionally I stray from the political theme are read books on other subjects. I have often thought that if I spent as much time reading books about my actual profession as I do books about political philosophy I might be much better off. Liberty Alert is generally devoted to ideas regarding liberty. However, I also use Liberty Alert as a chronicle of books I have read, even if they are not political in nature. Since it’s my blog, I have that prerogative! Additionally, discussing books on different subjects changes it up a bit; helps to keep things interesting.
With that in mind, I have recently completed reading the book Developing Executive Skills: Managing Yourself, Others, and Organizations by John R. Hook. As the title suggests, this is a business management book. I decided to read this book after meeting the author. He happens to be the grandfather of someone who works in my office.
As a management book, I thought it was a little on the simplistic side. At 191 pages, the book provides mostly an overview of upper-level management topics. It does provide a good starting point to lead an interested researcher in the right direction for further study. I’m not sure how much of the book I will retain. Many of the concepts seemed to make sense, but were not particularly unique or memorable. There was one particularly thought-provoking section in the book. The most memorable discussion had to do with leadership. I dog-eared this page and later made a photocopy so I could hang it in my office. The author quotes the military historian S. L. A. Marshall regarding leadership:
“Quiet resolution. The hardihood to accept risk. A willingness to share rewards with subordinates. An equal willingness to take full blame when things go wrong. The nerve to survive storm and disappointment and to face each new day with the score sheet whipped clean, neither dwelling on one’s success, nor accepting discouragement from one’s failures. This is the essence of leadership. For these are the things that have enabled one man to draw others to him in any age.”
I thought this was a good, simple, straight-forward list of good leadership traits.
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