Churchill on Leadership: Executive Success in the Face of Adversity

This book about Winston Churchill is my all time favorite. It avoids mud slinging, which is so common among other books about him. Hey, every hero has detractors, even Superman. There is a wealth of quotes by Churchill and other objective assessments of his actions during the leader's life. I challenge anyone else to accomplish what he did under the same circumstances. While Great Britain's leaders were heading for the hills, Churchill assumed the most challenging tasks and right, wrong or indifferent took action and did his best. This is a wonderful book about those accomplishments and the author did an excellent job of writing about them! This gem is a book worth buying, reading and re-reading many times

Although Sir Winston's leadership skills manifested themselves in the military realm, his skills can easily be transferred to the business/ private sectors. The author used great examples and wonderful quotes to convey his message. His method of ending each chapter by focusing on the leadership skills discussed in the chapter was very helpful. I do not normally read this type of book, but I enjoyed it thoroughly and found some of the skills applicable even to me, a Management Analyst. Of course with the subject being Sir Winston, how can one go wrong.

I have been a manager for over 10 years, and have worked in different industries and different countries. And I gladly admit I still have a lot to learn concerning management. This book talks about concepts we know we should all be applying, such as learning from mistakes, responsibility and organization, attention to details as well as to a master plan, communication, etc. However understanding how Churchill put these concepts to work is fascinating. I did not know that much about Churchill in the first place, perhaps that is why I enjoyed the book so much. It is a nice change from CEOs' biographies. And yes, I am putting some of what I read to work, so it was worth my time and money !

As we all know too well, in the flow of flotsam from academe, there is seldom material that is both readable and edifying. Often neither quality is present. This book, Churchill on Leadership, scores high in both categories. Hayward's obvious in depth knowledge of Churchill and his times enabled him to organize the vast storehouse of material available into a useful and unique way of teaching the leadership principles Churchill personified. God knows the lack of leadership today evidences the extreme need for what Hayward has wrought.

Steven Hayward uses a new perspective to illuminate the achievements of Winston Churchill. Even though we all know of Churchill as a great leader, he has become such a titanic figure that in some respects his human dimension has been lost. Hayward recaptures this, particularly the drive, the self-confidence and the persistence in the face of adversity. Also, because he is British, we tend to see him in a cigar and brandy snifter environment. Hayward shows that he was a thoroughly modern man, once of whose accomplishments was as an outstanding hands on leader and administrator, with, among other things, the ability to make decisions of great weight with only partial information - the conversion of the British fleet to oil before World War I being only one of them. I was thrilled once again at Churchill's eloquence, courage, foresight and determination. I agree with one of the other reviews that the blurbs at the end of each chapter are a bit trivial, but that is, itself, a trivial criticism. This is an outstanding book, easy to read, and one that will stay with you as a "biography" of Churchill more than a management manual.