Archive for the 'Books' category
The Oz Principle
August 12, 2009 9:06pm
The latest addition to my non-required leadership library is The Oz Principle. While other books I have read largely focused on trust, vision, and service (among other things), The Oz Principle is almost exclusively accountability. It’s actually a decently entertaining and quick read too, complete with comparisons to The Wizard of Oz. The idea is that everyone should be able to see it, own it, solve it, and do it. If employees, front-line leaders, or CEOs blame the economy, point fingers at abusive customers, or hope problems go away then the organization is destined for failure. This may seem like very basic, elementary rules of thumb, but the several case examples of everyday failures to accept responsibility prove two things: everyone does it, and any organization that fails to learn from it will fail. Period.
To solve it, the Oz Principle puts forth steps for employees from every echelon to assume greater accountability. Again, several of the case studies seem common sense at first. But when you realize how much integrity is required to confront oncoming disasters it becomes clear how rare accountability truly is.
More books
April 1, 2009 5:23amI recently purchased the following:
“It’s Your Ship” is a leadership book written by a Navy Captain who turned a mediocre ship around to be ranked number 1. Not only that, but every sailor on his ship re-enlisted with the Navy when their time was up – an uncanny success rate.
Plush-o-Rama is a kit that can be found in Barnes and Noble’s bargain books section. It comes with everything an immature adult needs to create a curious creature. I’ve made two so far (I should have some pics sometime soon).
Suze Orman’s 2009 Action Plan
January 10, 2009 9:59pm
Until midnight on Thursday, 1/15, you can download a complete .pdf of Suze Orman’s 2009 Action Plan: Keeping Your Money Safe and Sound for free.
Books to read
January 7, 2009 10:33am
I’m narrowing down on my Master’s degree and my next class, Practical Problem-Solving, has a very cool (i.e. non-traditional) text book. I’ve only delved into the first chapter but so far it looks enlightening.
We also had to choose a biography or autobiography of a leader to read and critically examine. I spent an hour at Barnes and Nobles and was disheartened by the lack of non-white male leadership biographies. I saw others I really liked from Maya Angelou and Cupcake Brown, but their stories aren’t based around developing as leaders. I looked for Benazir Bhutto’s autobiography but they didn’t have it. Finally, I found one that meets my prerequisites while being interesting to boot: Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi’s Iran Awakening.
When in a bookstore I find I can’t leave for another 3 hours – even though none of the displays, bargain books, and featured titles have changed since my last visit. I ended up also getting Garrison Keillor’s Good Poems for Hard Times; a clever mix of Keillor’s favorite poets as often heard on NPR.
