Reviews for Churchill on leadership : executive success in the face of adversity
Publishers Weekly
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It seems such a natural idea to distill the "management" wisdom of an inspirational leader such as Winston Churchill for today's corporate chiefdoms. Unfortunately, Hayward, who works for the think tank Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy, does not deliver. He identifies four strategies that he believes made Churchill a successful leader: "candor and plain speaking, decisiveness, the ability to balance attention to details with a view of the wider scene, and a historical imagination that informed his judgment." But instead of using those strategies as an organizing principle?giving managers examples of how Churchill put those traits into practice?Hayward treats us to truncated versions of numerous Churchill biographies. Except for his chapter on Churchill the communicator, there is never any analysis of Churchill's effective leadership. Even the pithy quotes from the prime minister at the end of each chapter lack a "how to" component. Given Churchill's autocratic nature, perhaps it's just as well. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.
Analyzing leadership is difficult; its definition is elusive. Writers usually resort to identifying someone they perceive as being an effective leader and then select various attributes the individual possesses, suggesting that others would do well to emulate them. This method has recently been applied to leaders as diverse as Attila the Hun and Mahatma Gandhi. Hayward chooses Winston Churchill, a figure who occupies the continuum somewhere between those two examples. The author is a director at the Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy, a think tank devoted to free enterprise and individual rights, and a frequent contributor to Reason, the magazine dedicated to "free minds and free markets." In selecting Churchill, Hayward provides numerous examples of the statesman's candor and plainspokenness, decisiveness, historical imagination, and ability to balance overview with attention to detail. --David Rouse
Library Journal
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Strock, an attorney with a long career in public service, aims to provide guidance to those in leadership by distilling lessons from the official conduct of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan. The topics covered include Reagan's commitment to a vision, decisiveness, ability to learn from failure, and management techniques such as delegating, holding meetings, and setting priorities. Each chapter contains a summary of the principles covered and supposedly demonstrated by Reagan, the only value in the book, and the author borrows heavily from memoirs by former Reagan aides, appointees, lackeys, and sycophants. The effort to portray Reagan's style as exemplifying sound principles of leadership borders on sanctification and seems far-fetched at best. Neither biography nor history, this book represents a feeble attempt to derive leadership principle from insubstantial sources, a phenomenon of serious concern to executives well documented in John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge's The Witch Doctors (LJ 12/96). Harried executives interested in leadership advice should instead seek out the solid works of Stephen Covey and Peter Drucker, for example, and pass on this lightweight tome. Recommended for presidential libraries and only on demand for smaller public libraries.ÄDale F. Farris, Groves, TX (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
