Leader

I went through this book with the study guide in a women's bible study group and haven't been the same since. I highly recommend it. It gave me not only a new perspective on God's love but practical tools for applying God's love in every day situations. On a scale of 1 to 5 I give it a 6.

So many of us who claim to be Christians believe that we are loving others with the love of God. The dilemma is that only God can impart that kind of love to us as we seek His will above our own. Nancy Missler uncovers the reasons for the failures in our lives and shows us the only way to truly overcome them - by loving others and laying down our "right" to our own feelings, desires, and ways of doing things that are typically diametrically opposed to God's ways. This book is one of the most influential and instrumental instruction manuals for maturing your walk with Christ, freeing you up, and opening up your love floodgates. Nancy teaches us what it means to love God in practical, easy-to-recall terms. She outlines a practical methodology for rising above the challenges in life to achieve victory and progress rather than always repeating our failures. Read it and gain victory!!

Nancy Missler's book is for those who have gone through life difficulties. And who hasn't? Every person goes through something in life that will challenge us to grow either emotionally, or spiritually.

It could be a difficult marriage, or a depression, or a painful childhood, or past mistakes, or perhaps a betrayal of a friend. The book gives many examples of how people have pulled through trying times. How did they do this? By learning to love themselves and others God's way.

The Way of Agape encourages us to look at the bigger picture, and seek out God's love in the midst of our difficulties. Nancy Missler encourages us to begin to see things from God's perspective. If God truly lives in our hearts, how can our lives reflect this fact? Nancy Missler explores this and the many facets of love and relationships, and scriptures related to God's love.

Experiencing tough times is something we can all count on , and having God's tools available to cope, not only builds character, but builds and heals lives..what can be better than that?

Nancy Missler has offered us something of real value that we can use and apply in our daily lives. Great book and great study on love.

Most books for Christian leaders I have read lately deal primarily with skills. I recommend many of these to pastors in my work as a church consultant, because leadership skills are critical to effectiveness.

But McNeal in this book deals with something more foundational than skills--how God shapes the heart of a leader. After four wonderful character sketches, tracing how God shaped the hearts of Moses, David, Paul, and Jesus, preparing them for leadership, McNeal moves into what he calls the six "subplots" of the leader's life: culture, call, community, communion, conflict, and the commonplace.

In the chapter on culture, the author describe two options for how the church can relate to the world--as refuge or mission. Refuge "congregations focus on the past. Fearful of change, these churches create a safe, nostalgic haven for their members." In the missional church, however, "leaders who want to transform the culture seek to build as many bridges as possible to the world outside the faith."

The chapter on communion is probably the best treatment I have seen of the importance of "sabbath time"--regular, protected periods of time alone with God--that I have read. I have been suprised in my work by how few pastors have a discipline of regular, intentional blocks of solitude every week or every other week. I believe that this, far more than learning any set of skills, has the potential to infuse power into the ministry of spiritual leaders. For many pastors and other spiritual leaders, this chapter alone, if heeded, would be worth many times the price of this book.

I sometimes close or follow a consultation by giving the senior pastor the gift of a timely book. This is one I expect to be giving often.

McNeal pulls no punches in this book! He's obviously passionate about helping leaders cooperate with God's sculpting process. His six "subplots" of a leader's life are well explained and challenging. His insights into the lives of Moses, David, Paul, and Jesus were amazing.

I started reading this in a small group. Even though we didn't agree with all of his biographical sketches, we definitely are far better off for having read this book. My biggest problem is that I wanted to underline almost every paragraph!

This book is one of the best Christian leadership books that I have ever read. Reggie offers some phenomenal insights on a neglected aspect of Christian leadership - how God shapes the heart of a leader. A must read for every Christian leader!

I highly recommend the book.

Very Insightful,very timely even after all these years-an inspiration!Bravo Lorraine!

I loved this book- it immediately captures and holds the reader's attention,then provides deep spiritual insights gleaned from this true story of spiritual searches.I couldn't put it down,and am glad I didn't-a book that will stay with you forever.

This book provides some unusual insights into eastern religion and how the Holy Spirit can penetrate ANY cult. This story set in Upstate New York provides the reader with a gripping saga of a local group of followers and their leader's encounter with the Holy Spirit. I believe this can be useful reading to give to a young person who might be considering a deeper involvement with Eastern religious groups.

The Nine Natural Laws of Leadership is interesting and valuable but The 108 Skills of Natural Born Leaders rises above and beyond. The message to me is that with attention to these laws and ideas, we all are (or can become) natural born leaders.

This newest Warren Blank book benefited me in many pratical and useful ways. I plan on buying one for my assistant and deputy and one for each of my division managers.

I'm an avid reader of business, management, leadership books and 108 Skills is one of the best I've ever read! It provides literally hundreds of practical suggestions on "how-to" improve Leadership skills. I was able to apply many of the ideas immediately to my own work environment, with great results. I then made sure all of my management and staff got a copy -- which has definitely increased our ability to work efficiently as a team. I'd recommend this book to anyone who is seriously interested in improving their ability to Take Charge and lead oneself and others. In fact, I'm planning to use 108 Skills as a guide in our new training programs, and have great confidence that my employees will learn important skills for both their personal and professional lives.

My nine year old daughter wrote a review of this book which we bought from you. What happened to it? Schuling@AOL.com

A great biography about the Dali Lhama and Tibet. It is easy to read and very instresting. A good amount of vocabulary for 7-10 year olds. Whitney Stewart makes it much easier to understand about the Dali Lhama and what is happening in Tibet. END

Charles Hampden-Turner and Fons Trompenaars have been collaborating for many years to develop an understanding of how different cultures approach and resolve problems and the cross-cultural issues that arise from it. In the course of this collaboration they have developed a formidable database of responses from managers around the world, and a 'dilemma methodology' which they use to demonstrate how superior results flow from the way in which dilemmas are managed and resolved.

This book is a direct successor to a series of books by one or both authors, which develop the methodology and its application. This one applies it to the question of effective leadership, and makes a valuable contribution to a generally overcrowded field. In particular, it adds to understanding of the particular skill of an effective leader and also helps to build an operational understanding of what is meant by 'managing a culture'. The book can be read and used without reference to the earlier works, but Building Cross-Cultural Competence is particularly useful in providing an extended statement of the principles and dimensions summarized in the first 2 chapters of 21 Leaders.

The nine opening pages of the Introduction provide a succinct overview of the main thesis, described as a 'metatheory of leadership'. They argue that leaders 'manage culture' by fine-tuning and reconciling dilemmas and that that culture then runs the organization. Outstanding leaders are particularly adept at reconciling dilemmas - they make the necessary distinctions yet integrate them into a viable whole. The authors conceptualise apparently opposed values (eg individualism versus communitarianism) as being the opposite ends of a continuum and the test of successful reconciliation being that both values should emerge stronger from the interaction.

The book and most of the examples are based on issues of cross-cultural in the sense of cross-national values, but the principles apply equally wherever there is a potential clash of values - for example in a merger or a major program of change.

Through expanding their methodology and showing how it applies in a wide range of complex situations the authors seek to help leaders :

"Elicit and become aware of major business dilemmas in cross-cultural environments
See dilemma resolution as a crucial ingredient of strategy
Utilize dilemmas as strategic contexts for action
Learn the art of achieving one value through another in a virtuous circle (a process known as through-through thinking)
Learn how transnational entrepreneurs take their stands (preneur) between (entre) contrasting values."

Much of the book is devoted to case studies of the 21 selected leaders. These are not all the 'usual suspects' of the management literature, but include a former Russian Prime Minister and the heads of companies in a variety of industries and from a range of nations. Each is well-written and argues its particular points in a way that gives depth to the main thesis of the book.

This book should be read by everyone from young adults to senior executives. As a lay person, not only did I understand how to be successful in the business world, but how to improve my own life. The pages provided me with a fresh insight into leadership; one is not born as a leader, rather one must use leadership skills. Although this book provides examples with well known figures, it also points towards lesser known, but amply talented, leaders. However, albeit how successful some of these people are, some stories serve to remind us that even leaders cannot escape their own humanity. I loudly applaud Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner for giving me the tools to make my way through the 21st century!

After sinking my scarce time into a book, I do a rough ROI calculation by asking two questions: "Is this really going to build my business?" and "How rough a slog was the book to get through?" The 24-Carrot Manager might be my highest ROI book ever. I think it'll have big impact on my company . . . and it's a blast of fresh air to read.

Gostick and Elton have woven a clever story together with thoughtful insight and straight-forward HR advice to create a book that should circulate through the management ranks of every organization bent on success. It will soon circulate through ours!

"The 24-Carrot Manager" is a quick-paced, entertaining read with a bushel-basket full of ideas on how to motivate and retain the best employees in any organization. More importantly, "The 24-Carrot Manager" underscores why employee motivation is central to YOUR success as a manager. It's a 24-karat winner!

Allie's Answers is one of the best books I have read in a long time. It is the perfect start to a fantastic series. I can't wait to read them all. Allie has a great group of friends, a good mom and God in her life. She can get through anything with that grand combination. Allie's Answers just might help answers your questions too!

The Seekers series is excellent! The themes that appear throughout the books are both engaging and important to the young readers they target. The characters are some of the best to come to youth fiction in years. The books focus on a group of eighth grade boys and girls who go through the difficulties of growing up, and more importantly growing up with a Christian attitude toward others. The series is a fun read; through imaginative writing and painted detail, the reader feels like he/she enters the world of Allie, Holden and the rest of the gang. This is a must read for all kids!

This book is an amazing merging of the experience , knowledge and wisdom of three experienced developers that gives the reader concepts, stories, tools and exercises to develop the type of skills any leader of this new millennium should own.
I believe that any Executive should have it and use it in his everyday activities and that the ones who help Executives in companies like HRD, coaches and facilitators should own the whole package for their greater results.
It's a very enjoyable book, a good manual that makes itself be read with interest, fun and ... action. We need more 'Alpha Leaders'!!!

Some talk about the emotional intelligence of leaders, others talk about level 5 leadership. This book focusses on what a leader should do in practice. It is written around a simple model I really like. It consists of 3 basic dimensions: Anticipate-Align-Act and 9 principles that come with these 3 dimensions of leadership. Anticipation requires that one can detect weak signals, has the agility to understand them and that the organization is flexible enough to respond. Align, the second dimension, is about assuring that the core purpose, values and beliefs of the organization are aligned with the actions of their leaders and their people. People's attitudes, values and the company culture need to be compatible with each other and this book lists attention areas and tools to increase this alignment. Finally, the third dimension has to do with acting fast enough, with attention for the 20% that makes the biggest difference and with the willingness to pursue goals with enough determination and patience. Simple as it seems, one wonders why so few leaders in companies apply this model today. I hope this book will be the stepping-stone some people need to become real "alpha leaders".

It's so well written that's irrelevant whether you have ever heard of NLP. When I wrote "7 Steps to Emotional Intelligence", I wanted to make my book accessible, helping people to develop a practical EQ, using the findings of behavioral sciences such as NLP. The authors of this book have done the same for the field of management, and I think they've done wonderful job! The result is a practical book that fits amongst the top business books, and I hope that Wiley will be able to put the needed marketing efforts behind it to turn this masterwork into a bestseller.

It's fully applicable by anyone leading an organization, so that doesn't leave many excuses for not being a good leader...

Patrick Merlevede - co-author of "7 Steps to Emotional Intelligence"

Organizations spend vast amounts of time, money and energy to recruit and hire top executives. Then those same companies let these new valuable employees sink or swim totally on their own. A new receptionist is likely to receive more attention than a new division manager, as author Diane Downey explains. Despite its jargon-laden title, this enlightening book will change the way you think about hiring or being hired. We from getAbstract recommend this book to any manager who hires, who is being hired for a high-level job or who would like to be.

How many times have you read a book and then found yourself wishing, if only I had had this book way back when.....In this case, I kept finding myself saying, "if only I had had this book when I started this new job, I would have known that I wasn't alone in what I was going through." Apparently, the trials and frustrations of organizational politics and culture come in a common and predictable form. This book is full of insights and tips about how to build relationships and influence in an organization quickly and strategically. I found the author's description of the four stages of assimilation process to be particularly insightful. The psychology of the assimilation process really resonated with the experience I've had time and time again each time I've taken on a new job. While the author's assimilation model does not reflect radically new information about what happens when you enter a new job or company, it is full of intuitive truths about what one often forgets. After all, how many times have we repeated the experience of starting a new job, new company, joining a new team and yet how often do we learn from that experience to be more deliberate in our actions and change our behavior in a given situation to have a greater impact? Then before you know it, you've left the company, joined a new company and make the same initial mistakes you made previously. And then in hindsight, you say to yourself, "I wish I had done this differently" or that you had the power of hindsight. Well, with this book, you do. While the tactics in the book are targeted to an HR audience, the author shares a multitude of practical insights and tools to help you as a leader make decisions at those critical points, understand and analyze the political and organizational dynamics within your organization, and develop a plan for short term wins and long term impact within your organization. The executive handbook in the back of the book was particularly useful tool.