Leader

This book contains a great collection of articles. I enjoyed it from cover to cover. I highly recommend it!

Dr. Michael Beitler
Author of "Strategic Organizational Change"

All of the books in this series are excellent. They are a collection of the best of the best--there was not one chapter I didn't want to read. This book focuses on change and how to prepare for it and make the most of it. Considering how quickly things change, this book is an important one.

I'm a fan of the whole Leader to Leader series. This book presents luminaries such as Peter Drucker, Peter Senge, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, William Bridges, Frances Hesselbein, and Jon Katzenbach. They address in short simple chapters the challenges of leading change. Who could provide you with a better supply of insight and inspiration?

I first read the sample chapters on the Drucker Foundation Web site. Now I'm sharing this book with my friends and children.

This title was recommended to me by a friend who is a PRP (Professional Registered Parliamentarian). I've read a number of books on RONR (Robert's Rules of Order, Newly Revised), but this is the first one that applies specifically to churches. Too many congregations dictate that RONR are their authority on conducting business meetings, but have little or no understanding of what RONR actually say and mean. Having served as a pastor for over twenty years, I have witnessed (and contributed to) church business meetings being sloppily conducted because of a lack of familiarity with RONR. McCarthy here provides some very helpful pointers for all church leaders in general, and for church moderators in particular.

I recommend this book highly to church leaders and moderators, along with two other "must-have" titles. McCarthy should be read as a follow-up to "Robert's Rules of Order in Plain English" by Doris P. Zimmerman. Zimmerman's work provides the best summary of RONR I have read to date. McCarthy can then be used to build upon that summary with a specific application to churches. Of course the latest edition of RONR itself should always be on hand as the third "must have" title, since it is the actual and final authority.

No church interested in conducting itself "in a fitting and orderly way" (1 Cor. 14:40) should be without this. Its 1987 date, however, makes one wonder if it's time for a second edition.

My father did an awesome job with the book Iam his son Ian McCart

Mary-Alice Waters outlines why Pathfinder Press is truly unique in the publishing world, because its "starting point has always been what is needed by those fighting to change the world, not what will sell in the market place."
I recommend this work because it describes the importance of a publishing house dedicated to fighting workers and explains how this idea was born with the 1917 October Revolution in Russia.
"The best materials Pathfinder publishes are those produced in the heat of battle," Waters says and outlines Pathfinders' scope, from Malcolm X and Fidel Castro to Pathfinders' number one seller, The Communisty Manifesto.

Pathfinder Press is much more than a "small","radical" publisher. Pathfinder was the first to publish Fidel Castro's speeches in English in the US in the early years of the revolution for use by the Fair Play For Cuba Committee. It published Malcolm X's speeches, unexpurgated, along with The Militant newspaper, when no one else would. These works are in print to this day. This pamphlet explores Pathfinder's history as a fighting, working class publisher back to its beginnings with the activities of the first U.S. supporters of the Bolshevik Revoluttion.,through to the publishing of the record of the fight by the Russian revolutionary leader Leon Trotsky for Marxist policy and action against the Stalin murder machine and against fascism, to today's distribution of Pathfinder books and pamphlets by socialist industrial workers and youth at mine portals, factory gates, and college campuses.

Thousands of workers, youth, intellectuals and students have struggled to build Pathfinder press, to expand its sales, editing, printing. We do this because in Pathfinder the struggles of Lenin, Trotsky, Che, Malcolm X, Maurice Bishop, Rosa Luxembourg, Thomas Sankara, Mother Jones, and many other working class, women, and national liberation fighters Pathfinder publishes have not died, but continue and deepen. This pamphlet is a speech given in Havana by Pathfinder Press's publisher, Mary Alice Waters, that explains this history and this struggle. Through it we see that the October revolution has not died in the cesspool of Soviet Stalinism, but lives in the revolution in Cuba, in the fights workers are waging around the world against the US-UK war against the people against Afghanistan, in the struggle to build and expand Pathfinder. Read this speech, read these books, join us!

John Spritzler's The People As Enemy: The Leaders' Hidden Agenda in World War II is a powerful,necessary, and inspiring book. Read it and you will never see World War II in the same way. More to the point, you will never see contemporary capitalist society in the same way. Spritzler explodes the myth of "the good war" by taking apart, piece by careful piece, much of the structure of lies and myths designed to buttress capitalist rule and exposes the system in its ugliness and ultimate weakness.

He shows too that there is a powerful counter-force to capitalism at work in society: working men and women fighting everywhere for a better world, a force so threatening that the most powerful elites on earth waged a world war to extinguish it. This counter-force, Spritzler shows, was not defeated on the field of battle in World War II so much as misled and betrayed by Communist leaders in a little-known history from which we have not yet recovered. The People as Enemy is a giant step in understanding and breaking free of that history.

The book has profound implications beyond World War II. Echoes of the past in the present and specifically a consciousness of the Iraq war never too distant in this book. It suggests that the real force driving the history of the twentieth century was working class struggle for a new world and ruling class efforts to contain it. The rhythm of the century was revolution and counterrevolution-a rhythm in which we, of course, are still caught. Seldom has a work of history been more acutely relevant to understanding our present and our possible futures.

It's not easy to believe a few people are so greedy and powerful that American soldiers can be sent to war without any real debate by either party, to make powerful and wealthy people even more powerful and wealthy. Can anyone really be that corrupt?

A few weeks ago, a 22-year old Marine Sgt. named Kirk Strasesskie jumped into a canal south of Baghdad when a helicopter hit the water. Kirk drowned trying to save his Marine friends. His friends back home in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin said he could barely swim. In high school, Strasesskie had played sports and spent much of his free time with kids who struggled with their learning disabilities. His dad, an Army veteran, questioned whether the Iraq War was just and why his son should have been there at all?

Kirk Strasesskie's always going to be a hero for me, just like my Army uncle who fought in WWII in New Guinea and those Marines at Iwo Jima and those paratroopers at Bastogne and Chosin. Heroes all, just like my auto worker friends who battle each day and night against their Vietnam experience. Their lives are such a contrast with those boundlessly powerful, elite, selfish few who so easily send them into our constant wars.

I lump them all together today, those heroic figures whose lives were risked or ended fighting for their friends in wars that all were so unnecessary except for WWII - the "good war" of course.

But, as it turns out, while WWII saw heroic soldiers dying on South Pacific beaches and in the frozen foxholes at the Bulge, the most powerful people in our country did business with the Nazis and Fascists making enormous profits on the deaths of 50 million people and laying the groundwork for post war elite control. It was not such a "good war" after all.

After reading John Spritzler's "The People as Enemy" I am as angry about the unjustness of WWII as I ever was about Vietnam or as I am about Iraq. Every library in every VFW and American Legion Hall should stock this book and make it required reading for members. Anyone interested or active in the Peace Movement should read this book to understand who really causes and profits from war.

Every American of conscience should read this book then stand up and demand that never again should our government be allowed to send our brothers and sisters and sons and daughters off to wars that are meant to defeat the values of democracy and solidarity and make the rich richer.

Browsing the bookstore, first, I just liked the cover and the title, "The People as Enemy"-- caught my attention!!

Then, expecting to be bored with WWII history, etc. etc. what I found out (couldn't put the book down!)..was all this hidden agenda stuff that went on, which we never knew about, were never directly told, but.. clearly from this author's extensive research and investigation... was beyond a shred of doubt,going on.

The book is easy to read, even for someone who is not a history buff per se-- but who has an active and inquiring mind.

Thank you, John Spritzler, for hugely shedding light on this misconception of the "good war," and for letting us know the real motives behind it. It's almost hard to believe, but with all your direct references and direct quotes, it's impossible to not believe. Ya mean, it wasn't so "good" after all!? Who woulda thunk it.....

And thank you for making such obvious, in the end, brilliant comparisons to the "good war" (Bush's) we just fought.

I urge everyone who can, to read this book!

The ideas and tools offered up in Janice's book are positioned for business leaders, but are useful for the other half of your waking hours. Janice includes many stories outside the work place that demonstrate how her ideas impact the personal life of her clients and herself. Well read or trained business people will be familiar with a lot of the concepts, what is unique and useful is; the different perspective, the connection of the ideas and the exercises Janice presents to the reader. The understanding of human nature gained as a psychotherapist is clear in each chapter as Janice explains how to change the way people behave in organizations. The ideas and tools are carefully woven into a logical progression throughout the book, however you can get value by starting anywhere or reading a single chapter. At the end of each short chapter you will find some exercises often phrased as questions to the reader. I found the exercises very useful for putting the ideas into action. The saying good things come in small packages applies here, a physically small book with a big impact.

I picked up Janice Calnan's book mostly out of curiosity since I have a keen interest in the smooth implementation of new projects and ideas. Shortly thereafter, and with very little warning, organizational convulsions suddently started to happen. My department was changed overnight. Some people were let go, others reassigned, new roles were in store for those that remained. "Change" was now very up close, personal and not a lot of fun. The book helped me focus on the right things in order to get through it all.

The "secrets" are a collection of new and simple ideas that caused a shift in my assumptions and behaviours. Once I began to think about and understand the concepts over a period of time, I found it much easier to manage my emotions and produce results.

Janice Calnan's book SHIFT was brought to me about a month ago while I was conducting workshops at a government accountability conference in Ottawa. In just the five minutes I had to scan the opening "Letter to the Reader" and Introduction, I knew I was onto something special. I have been involved in the work of quality and organizational improvement for about 20 years. I am a certified "business book junkie," consuming dozens of titles a year. Janice Calnan's SHIFT is a remarkable piece of work. Ms. Calnan offers a simple, clear path for people to begin the process of personal change needed to craft more effective and successful organizations. It is obvious that Janice Calnan has spent a great deal of time working with, and learning from people at all levels of organizational structures. She has distilled the complex and seemingly arcane art of organizational improvement into a clear and transformational process. The book's ideas are set out in a simple, straightforward style, that is likely to appeal to even the most entrenched "old thinking" business practitioner. Janice Calnan's book has earned a top spot on my own reference shelf, along such classics as Peter Scholtes' TEAM Handbook, and the works of Deming, Juran, Townsend, Peters, and Wheatley. If you are engaged in the work of organizational change, I would highly recommend this book.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER: Bruce Waltuck is a 25-year veteran of the United States Department of Labor. In 1989 he was asked by Labor Secretary Elizabeth Dole to "rethink the Department's management system." Together with colleague Jim Armshaw, Bruce co-created the DOL's award-winning Employee Involvement and Quality Improvement System. Bruce has lectured and taught throughout the United States, Canada, Brazil, and Singapore. He is widely known for his expertise with labor-management cooperation for quality improvement, strategic planning, data collection and performance measurement, and Baldrige-based assessment. He has authored book chapters, and published numerous articles in academic journals and magazines. He is currently pursuing his interests in the application of complex adaptive systems science to organizational behavior and improvement. He is listed in both U.S. and international editions of Who's Who. He resides in central New Jersey.

The book was shipped more faster than I expected. Thanks for your effort.

"What does the future hold for the HR function and for HR practitioners? Many studies have been undertaken to answer this question. However, three of them stand out as being the must comprehensive: (1) the 1995-1996 Hman Resource Planning Society State-of-the-Art Study (R.Eichinger & D.Ulrich); (2) the Penn State Executive Programs Management Skills Assessment-Human Resources, which was conducted between 1985 and 1997 (A.Vicere & R.Prescott); (3) A 21st-Century Vision of Strategic Human Resource Management (W.Rothwell, S.Schechter & S.McLane). A review of tese studies shows that the HR field is on the verge of moving beyond its recently acquired responsibilities for performance consulting and business partnering to assume strategic leadership" (p.26).

In this context, W.J.Rothwell, P.K.Prescott, and M.W.Taylor review these studies as following:

I- 1995-1996 HR Planning Society State-of-the-Art Study.

1. Seven most essential skills for HR executives today:

* Business savvy and acumen

* Leading organizational change initiatives using personal power and indirect influence skills

* Deep and working knowledge of the basic HR technologies

* Global strategic thinking and planning skills

* Change management technology

* Analytical, conceptual, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills

* Financial analysis and costing skills

2. Seven most essential skills for HR executives in the future:

* Master global operating skills

* Business and financial savvy

* Strategic, visioning, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills

* Using information technology

* Deep HR technology savvy

* Change management skills

* Organizational effectiveness

II- Penn State Executive Program Mnagement Skills Assesment-Human Resources (1997)

1. Six general roles of the new HR leaders: Partner, problem solver, model manager, oracle, conduit, and change agent.

2. Most important competencies of the HR leader:

* Is committed to the success of the organization

* Acts consistently in a manner that instills trust

* Is an effective listner

* Exhibits high standards of performance

* Can manage conflict effectively

* Works effectively with other managers outside the HR function

* Recruits and selects high-quality professionals

* Communicates effectively both orally and in writing

* Understands the overall corporate mission

* Develops HR plans that are clearly linked to the mission and strategy of business units

III- A 21st-Century Vision of Strategic Human Resource Management (1995-1996): The results of the study indicate differences between the most important present and future competencies required for success by HR leaders (see pp.29-30, and Appendix 1).

Within this general framework, they write that "taken together, these three studies provide compelling evidence that HR practitioners of the future must demonstrate exemplary leadership skills if they are to be successful. For HR practitioners, it is no longer enough to be a compliance-oriented practitioner, a supportive, or even a performance consultant. Exemplary HR practitioners of the future will be leaders who are capable of demonstrating a new value-added component to their organizations by managing and developing knowledge capital. By comparing the studies (just summarized above), we can see that six key roles for HR leaders have emerged: change agent, HR strategist, business strategist, HR functional aligner, partner to general managers, and problem solver and consultant."

Highly recommended.

Following an initial, probing discussion of the history and present problems plaguing human resource management, the authors present a vision of a new HR function. They carry these ideas forward in terms of six trends: the advance of technology; globalization; cost containment; increasing speed in market change; the increasing importance of knowledge capital; and the overall pace and scope of change. They discuss how to apply insights about these trends to shaping and leading the HR function, specifically in terms of action plans and the requisite leadership competencies to implement these plans. The book contains work sheets for guiding professionals in action planning. Importantly, the results of research underlying the book are included. A worthy contribution to the human resource management field and something of a career heads-up for HR practitioners.

Dr. Joni has created a clear, logically compelling case for a new kind of leadership appropriate for the complex age we live in. Too many leaders (and leadership models) still believe that leading is all about making decisions in the splendid isolation of the corporate suite. Dr. Joni shows how to create teams of inside and outside advisors that will keep you from becoming the next Enron -- and avoid being blindsided by the competition you never saw coming from the corner office. More than that, there is profound advice here for leaders at all levels of their careers trying to navigate the tricky waters of corporate politics. A must-read for business people today.

This is one of the best books for leaders to come out in a long time. There is no more important topic than getting the best thinking into leaders' decision-making. I left a job once because all my peers told our boss whatever he wanted - not what he NEEDED to hear. That leader could have benefited from reading Dr. Joni's book. She weaves personal accounts into her text, making for very clear and lively reading. The Third Opinion is the perfect book for business men and women everywhere!

Dr. Joni has real world experience in the business environment. Too many professors write business books that are theoretical. Dr. Joni based this book on her experiences in corporate America. If more executives followed her guidelines, there would be less Enron and Tyco disasters that ultimately harm consumers and stockholders. This book should be required reading for us all.

Being a leader in today's world is not what it used to be. There was a time, when a leader was tough, rugged and quiet. That time is no more. It is time for leaders to let their guard down, to show their true selves, to lead by following and to lead by example. The Transparent Leader shows many of today's national leaders in this light. It shows them being transparent, vulnerable and initially with no protection. Along the same lines of Jesus, they step into the worlds of other people and lead them, ultimately showing the way to the one true God. It shows who these leaders were, the situations they were in and how they succeeded in becoming great leaders. All of them have one thing in common; they all know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour.

The text shows leaders who have failed, where they failed, and how they came to succeed. The leaders within the compilation tell their story, either via testimony or anecdote. Some open their entire lives to the reader so they can see the heart of the storyteller. Although the booklover might not be able to identify with all of the passages throughout the book, there is no doubt that more than one will hit the heart and soul of the reader.

Should this book be required reading for all future leaders of the world? I believe that it should. It offers inspiration to those people who are not yet world leaders and it offers a reality check for those who are in the top echelon of leadership.

Leadership can be defined as influencing others in a positive way to attain organizational goals, or put another way, getting things done by, with, and through people. The assumption is that effective leadership will foster acceptance of, and commitment to, organizational goals, generate a degree of enthusiasm for the task at hand, elicit voluntary cooperation, promote teamwork, and result in maximum levels of motivation and productivity on both an individual employee and group basis. Whether it be in business, sport, government, or a nonprofit or volunteer organization this is the challenge which faces everyone who assumes a leadership role. This book is a must for all who are in position of leadership. It is testimonial of 19 well known and successful men who have faced similar difficulties as others will face in their role as leaders. It will prepare them to learn from intensity, integrity, intelligence, determination, devotion, and dedication of these men in order to become spiritually, financially, and morally successful.

I've read plenty of books dealing with leadership...but none like this one. As the CEO of a 100-employee firm myself, I'm well aware of the tendency for those of us in leadership (and men in general) to suppress and contain our own struggles...often eventually to our own detriment.

This book provides a refreshing alternative view featuring several well-known and successful men revealing the freedom and power they have realized in their personal, spiritual, and business lives -- by transparently sharing their struggles, failures, and successes.

Though I was already aware of these concepts prior to reading the book, the real-life examples and willingness to share by these men are compelling - some of the stories even riveting - and all are an inspiration. It doesn't matter if you're a professional burger-flipper or the leader of thousands...at least some of the short accounts in this book are sure to speak to you.

this book and workbook combo has been a blessing in our marriage and to those who have been through the marriage classes my husband and i lead on sunday afternoons twice a year. we have seen couples who were separated divorced and also engaged. three couples in our class have renewed their vows. the books brings out only the best and help remind us of the love that brought us together.the author has truly put together a must for all married couples and i truly think it would help to take it before the marriage to put away any problems before they arise

My husband and I read this book right before we got married. And now, almost two years later, we continue to refer to it again and again.

Very useful, insightful and Godly.

This workbook, along with the text book of the same title, should be required reading for everyone who is either in a relationship or desires to be in one. This book is a careful and complete study of God's intentions for men and women in relationship. It establishes clear and cogent Biblical guidelines. While it is an excellent book for those who are married, the principles it teaches are relevent to all relationships. Regardless of the success of your marriage, this book will open your eyes to things you've never seen before. Get it and read it now--it will change your life.

Frank Damazio's 'The Vanguard Leader' is one of the best-written books of its kind. The author takes his readers into the Word (richly into it) and explains what the "vanguard" leader of the Church is truly to be.

Superb teaching, done with love and authority perfectly blended, the book is invaluable to all who've been called to leadership in the Church.

It's not all high praises; it is carefully balanced and clearly voices a clarion warning of the pitfalls of leadership as well as what to watch for in those who purport to be called to ministry but are false teachers (he takes the reader into the book of Jude and gives a clear picture of what to look for).

This book veritably jumped off the shelf at me, and its one of my treasured tomes. I pull it out on occasion to be reminded afresh of the Lord's call for a vanguard of leadership to take His Church forward in victory. Buy a copy for yourself and get one for your church library and/or your pastor/priest. Excellent buy, you'll not regret getting it.

Frank Damazio indeed has a prophetic insight to the changing needs of all offices of the church as we bridge the millenial gap in Christianity. A must read for clergy and laity that want to MOVE into the 21'st century with truth and revelation through the Holy Spirit rather than stand still and stagnate in tradition and the mediocre. Anyone with a desire to "catch" the current wave of the Holy Spirit and actively discern what is being said to those with prophetic insight, as well as share the book (in love) with a pastor or leader who is a bit dry should definitely add this book to his/her library.

Pastor Frank Damazio succeeded Dick Iverson as Senior Pastor of Bible Temple in Portland, OR and has been given the ability to put into words the prophetic revelation necessary for God's leaders as the church faces the next millenium. Pastor Frank is liken unto the 'sons of Issachar who KNEW what Isreal ought to do'. If you are in ministry leadership, read and be encouraged to push on!