Monday Morning Leadership: 8 Mentoring Sessions You Can't Afford to Miss Review

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(More customer reviews)The best business books are brief, clear and pertinent. Monday Morning Leadership fits all of those requirements.
You can read the whole book in a few minutes . . . and think about and apply what you learned for a lifetime.
The format is around a man who's struggling as a manager. His operation isn't performing well. His boss isn't happy. He's not happy. He doesn't have time to be with his family or to do what he likes to do. It looks like his career has peaked . . . and his job may be in jeopardy. What to do?
If that sounds familiar, almost everyone has had that experience who has taken on a management role.
Jeff decides to do something about it. He contacts an old family friend, Tony Pierce, who has had a very successful business career. Tony has agreed to meet with Jeff for eight weeks on Monday mornings.
In their eight sessions, Jeff learns the following lessons:
1. He has to accept total responsibility for results without excuses and to think like a leader rather than a manager or follower.
2. Be sure everyone knows what the main thing is that they have to accomplish and keep their faith in you as a leader.
3. Get closer to your people and help your top performers improve.
4. Act with integrity and prepare for how to handle problems before they occur.
5. Improve the team you have by only hiring high performers.
6. Manage your time carefully by looking for ways to save minutes wherever you can and by being more effective at whatever you do.
7. Encourage, recognize and respect your people.
8. Advance your learning by reading, being open to trying new things, listening, helping others, setting goals and always being professional and positive.
Those points make it sound like you don't need to read the book. You already knew most of those things, didn't you? But the story will embed the learning into your mind in powerful ways. Don't miss it!
I was especially impressed by Mr. Cottrell's ability to turn a phrase. The book abounds with aphorisms that you will find yourself remembering and possibly quoting as you coach your replacements. Many of the best ways are repeated on pages 97-101. Here's one of my favorites: "People quit people before they quit companies." Key principles are also summarized on pages 102-103.
This book would also make a great gift to some you know who is just starting out as a manager. The gift will be even more meaningful if you offer to coach that person as well.
Make a difference!

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Monday Morning Leadership is a story that can help your career!Everyone likes a good story, especially if there are lessons that can be immmediately applied to life.This book is one of those stories - about a manager and his mentor.It offers unique encouragement and direction that will help you become a better manager, employee, and person.

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Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization Review

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(More customer reviews)
To me, the words "Wooden" and "leadership" are synonymous. On and off various basketball courts, first as a player and then as a coach, John Wooden demonstrated talents, skills, and qualities of character seldom found in a single person. He led others by example but also by the force of his convictions. After reading this book, some may conclude that he was "idealistic,' "naive," "corny," "old-fashioned," etc. Not so. In fact, he was a strict disciplinarian with non-negotiable values who had zero-tolerance of attitude and behavior he perceived to be selfish, rude, unsportsmanlike, or indolent. He invariably accepted his team's defeat with grace but was saddened - sometimes so angered he exclaimed "Goodness gracious sakes!" -- by anything less than a best-effort, not only by his assistant coaches and players but also (especially) by himself. It should be added that, according to those who know him best (including coaches of opponents' teams), he has always been an exceptionally thoughtful, caring, and decent person.
What we have in this volume is an on-going narrative provided by Coach Wooden during which he shares everything he learned about achieving and then sustaining excellence. Of special interest to me is the series of "On Wooden" commentaries which include those provided by Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Denny Crum, Gary Cunningham, Gail Goodrich, and Lynn Shackleford. Although the specifics vary from one to the next, all of their authors agree on Coach Wooden's greatness both as a coach and as a man. One of the most interesting anecdotes is provided by Eddie Powell, who played on the South Bend Central High School varsity team which Wooden coached. The bus was about to depart for a game against Mishawacka High School. The co-captains were absent.
Coach Wooden asked the driver what time the bus was scheduled to leave. "6 p.m., Coach, same as usual."
"Well, what time is it?"
`It's exactly 6 p.m., Coach Wooden."
"Well, that's what my watch says, too. I guess it must be 6 p.m...Let's go."
The bus left without the two most important players on the team. One of them was the son of a vice principal at South Bend Central, "the kind of a person who could create job problems for Coach Wooden. From that, we learned that Coach wasn't kidding: Be on time." Indeed meet all commitments to the team and especially in the classroom and to one's family. "We found out later that the co-captains had skipped our game with Mishawaka to go to a dance." Presumably everyone who played on U.C.L.A. basketball teams also soon learned that, when he explained what he expected of them, "Coach wasn't kidding."
With all due respect to his extraordinary success in basketball, I am convinced that John Wooden could have become a great leader in almost any other profession. Fortunately, as Steve Jamison observes, "The qualities and characteristics he possesses and has taught to his teams -- those good habits and how you teach them -- are available to everyone." Hopefully, decision-makers in the business world, public service, and the military will read this book so that they, also, are at all times a "leader" worthy of service to those entrusted to their care.

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A Wall Street Journal Bestseller

A compelling look inside the mind and powerful leadership methods of America's coaching legend, John Wooden

"Team spirit, loyalty, enthusiasm, determination. . . . Acquire and keep these traits and success should follow."--Coach John Wooden

John Wooden's goal in 41 years of coaching never changed; namely, to get maximum effort and peak performance from each of his players in the manner that best served the team. Wooden on Leadership explains step-by-step how he pursued and accomplished this goal. Focusing on Wooden's 12 Lessons in Leadership and his acclaimed Pyramid of Success, it outlines the mental, emotional, and physical qualities essential to building a winning organization, and shows you how to develop the skill, confidence, and competitive fire to "be at your best when your best is needed"--and teach your organization to do the same.

Praise for Wooden on Leadership:

"What an all-encompassing Pyramid of Success for leadership! Coach Wooden's moral authority and brilliant definition of success encompass all of life. How I admire his life's work and concept of what it really means to win!"--Stephen R. Covey, author, The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People and The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness

"Wooden On Leadership offers valuable lessons no matter what your endeavor.'Competitive Greatness' is our goal and that of any successful organization. Coach Wooden's Pyramid of Success is where it all starts."--Jim Sinegal, president & CEO, Costco

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