Leadership A to Z: A Guide for the Appropriately Ambitious

The subtitle to this book explains the its purpose: "A Guide to the Appropriately Ambitious." The author lays out twenty-four aspects of leadership that he has gleaned from other authors and his own experience. The author's focus is not on leadership theory, but on what leaders actually do. It is a compelling read.I liked it. This book is a compelling read. Since the author focuses on the pragmatic aspects of leadership, he gives the reader the necessary tools to hone his or her leadership skills. The format of the book, although difficult to follow at first, lends itself to quick review. Successful leaders will find this book helpful as a review of the principles which brought them success. For those who wish to become leaders, this is the best resource I have found. It clearly states what leadership is all about in a format that is easy to read and digest. The "no holes barred" approach to illustrations helps the reader see and understand the principles elucidated as O'toole names the names and tells the stories of corporate and non-profit leaders whose successes and failures he demonstrates. Aside from a good review of the principles that I am trying to instill into my life, it has helped me in three ways. First, the discussion between strategic change and change management was very helpful. The author points out that every organization is faced with constant change, and change cannot be managed. Change management is short sighted and issue orientated, whereas strategic change looks for the long term and seeks to make change a part of the culture of the organization. Second, I appreciated the author's repeated emphasis on the courage of leadership. Being a leader puts one at risk, and as O'Toole succinctly demonstrates, most "leaders" would rather play it safe. Unless the leader is willing to risk failure and humiliation, he or she will never taste the fruits of leadership. Third, I will be using this book as a primer for my staff to teach them leadership principles. There are few books with such broad scope as this one. How does this book help a pastor of a small church? Some church leaders would balk at this book because the author is looking for the "appropriately ambitious" and deals with secular business. Yet, leadership is leadership. If we as pastors do not have the engine of ambition beating in our hearts for the gospel of Christ, what in the world are we doing in the pulpit? And as long as our Bible Colleges and seminaries ignore the leadership issue and keep training in the "pastoral model", the church in the USA will continue its decline. Leadership is the key to turning the seeming inevitable decline in church attendance around. Until our seminaries and Bible colleges teach leadership, pastors will have to turn to the business community for help.

This simple but effective book is written for a general audience with interest in managerial, supervisory and leadership concepts. The book is structured as a dictionary of terms relating to leadership. While some readers may like the A-B-C division of information, others may find the book somewhat disjointed, as the format forces you to skip around from idea to idea. But then, as author James O'Toole points out, readers are invited to seek the nuggets that appeal to them, letter by letter. The connective tissue that O'Toole lays between the entries is ambition, which he says is the single pre-requisite to leadership and the one common characteristic that all great leaders share. We [...] recommend this accessible summary of basic leadership principles, although hardcore readers of leadership literature might be better off elsewhere.

How to describe a book with this title? It is not a dictionary. It is not a sequential narrative. It is not an anthology of aphorisms or portions of previous publications. It is not a manual. (However, its title does make much more sense than would those of other books such as Chicken Soup for Dummies or Stan Laurel on Management.) What Leadership A to Z provides is "a guide for the appropriately ambitious." O'Toole believes that more can be learned from what effective leaders do (and how they do it) than from their personality and character. What do all effective leaders seem to have in common? What O'Toole characterizes as "appropriate ambition." Note the modifier. All of us have ambitions. (The most effective leaders assuredly do.) Within effective organizations, most of those involved seem to have both personal and organizational ambitions which nourish and sustain each other. At least these ambitions are not mutually-exclusive or even incompatible. Within the most effective organizations, these ambitions are almost (not quite) identical. Moreover, most of the time -- day to day -- most of those involved are leaders of leaders. That is, sharing ambitions which are appropriate to them as well as to their organization, together functioning as what Noel Tichy has described as a well-designed, carefully-maintained "leadership engine." How should this book be read? One option is to read it sequentially from A to Z. That will work. However, my personal preference (and suggestion) is to re-visit the Contents (pages ix-xi) whenever there is a question to be answered, a problem to be solved, or a new perspective needed. You may find that the answer will reveal itself after you read (let's say) some/all of B, H, J, and T; perhaps reading some/all of A, M, R, and W will suggest a solution; as for gaining a new perspective, I often hop around, in and out, back and forth. Sometimes I locate or formulate one...sometimes I don't.The book's content is rock-solid. The writing style (vintage O'Toole) has snap, crackle, and pop. The selection of individual items was, of course, arbitrary but the material seems cohesive...perhaps because, directly or indirectly, all of the items help to demonstrate "appropriate ambition" in action. Another way to approach the book is to pretend that you have just entered O'Toole's General Store. Perhaps you have a specific item in mind. Or perhaps you are just "looking around." Fine. Take your time. Check out the merchandise. No obligation to buy anything today. Come back again another time. You are always welcome. Next visit, perhaps, you'll need what you saw last time in Aisle 5. It's nice to know it's there. It's nice to know that some much else is also there, waiting to be of help to you.

As written by J.O'Toole, "the purpose of this book is to identify clearly what leaders need to do in order to create high-performing, self-renewing organizations. While most leadership books focus on who leaders are (their character, personality, style, and charisma), the accent here is on what leaders do. The shift in emphasis has a practical intent : although it is possible for you to learn from what others do, it is highly unlikely that you can become someone you aren't."In this context, O'Toole discusses and explores some concepts (like behavior, commitment, communication, controlling, delegation, ego, globalism, hierarchy, performance, repetition, team, trust, vision) with specific stories of some great leaders such as Percy Barnevik (ABB), Jack Welch (GE), Richard Teerlink (Harley-Davidson), Andrew Grove (Intel), Jan Carlzon (Scandinavian Airlines), Michael Boxberger (Korn/Ferry), Robert Galvin (Motorola), Lou Gerstner (IBM).I higly recommend this alphabetically arranged practical leadership guide.