Leader

Effective Department and Team Leaders is an outstanding handbook for all school administrators. Mr. LeBrecque provides the reader with hands-on, immediately useful information for leading content area departments through curriculum improvement efforts especially at the high school level. Areas that are covered particularly well are self-evaluations, supervision, conflict management, and organizational structure. Throughout the book there are specifically designed excersizes for the reader to do that press home the objective of the chapter she or he is reading. I recommend it to anyone in education who has assumed a leadership position.

Selected by Brandon & Hill (Nursing Outlook, March-April, 1996) as one of best books for small nursing and medical libraries.

Belying its 1981 publication date, this concise yet thorough volume is timeless in explaining the essentials of the Reformed / Presbyterian form of church government and the role of the Elder.

Structuring the book around St. Paul's parting instructions in Ephesus (Acts 20:28-31), Berghoef and De Koster not only skillfully explain the work of the Elder, but share insights gained over many years to guide those involved in these tasks.

"The Elder's Handbook" is laid out and written in a well-organized but conversational style, making it both an easy read and a handy reference. Those involved or interested in the Eldership will find this a valuable addition to their library, or a much-appreciated gift for those contemplating or entering this office.

The authors have done an excellent job of pulling together short biographies of dynamic women (some famous and some awaiting discovery) who have dared to step out of their comfort zones to help others in new and caring ways. A collection of interviews of women who are speaking out and changing the world in areas historically reserved for men, this book reveals the heart-centered nature of the contributors. If you are a woman, this book is a must-read. I savored each and every story, and was truly sad when I got to the last biography. At the same time, I felt my hidden potential as a human being awaken, and came away with feelings of empowerment and a sense of personal duty to raise myself even higher than I previously thought possible.

Pappas's 20 years as pastor at the Harbor Baptist Church on Block Island gave him a laboratory to work in. But he also took his thirst for understanding the small church on the road, doing scores of programs around the country. This book is the best written about understanding the entity called the small church. His comparisons of pastor to missionary and anthropologist really make it clear. And, this book may be out of print, but it's just been revised and rereleased in 2000. So try and find the updated one. Steve Burt, national small church consultant and author of Activating Leadership in the Small Church, and The Little Church That Could: Raising Small Church Esteem.

This book has become my "go to" resource when I need to get through to senior managers and executives within companies that are caught in transition paralysis. The different stages an Entrepreneur goes through will catch many of you smiling and nodding your heads as you see these traits in your organizations. If you read, internalize, and apply the easy to understand concepts, you will see a difference in your organizations.

This book is a must for all who are looking to understand and improve their leadership skills and to become more Equipped to Serve!

The fundamental role of information technology (IT) in the identification and transformation of business processes is clear in this outstanding contribution from Peter Keen and Ellen Knapp. This concise work serves to promote the dialogue between the IT staff and the business experts. It communicates powerfully like a well-written executive summary. Although it reviews in a critical way and consolidates gains in the task of coordinating business processes undertaken by total quality management (TQM), business process reengineering (BPR), the learning organization, time-based competition (and a host of related -isms), at another level it provides a breakthrough way of looking at old things in new ways. "It is because there are so many approaches to coordinating business processes, with information technology a major enabler of dramatic change, that so much of the process movements' ideas seem at once old and new" (p. 23). That breakthrough is entitled the "business process investment" framework (p. 30ff.). It is a framework for a conversation between the IT and the business roles and functions in the modern firm. If any doubt existed as to the fundamental significance of the business - IT conversation, then the references in this work on client-server, groupware, electronic data interchange (EDI), image processing, (computer system) integration, and UNIX, will put to rest any question as to the salience of the task. As usual, IT is the "enabler," the catalyst, the provider of infra-structure. For example: "Image processing joins client/server computing and groupware as a core technology for process innovation. It does not create but rather enables many forms and degrees of innovation that are simply not possible when physical documents drive the process" (p. 125). The inquiry undertaken by Keen and Knapp aims at solving what they call the "process paradox" (p. 165). Major business process reengineering efforts fail to furnish value-added, bottom line profits, in spite of being successful technically and even organizationally. That is the paradox: great benefits, no value-added. The resolution: the wrong processes were reengineered. A fundamental distinction exists between "...getting a process right and getting the right process right" (p. 165). But how do we tell what are the right processes to get right? The short answer is to distinguish "identity processes," which are a lot like "core competencies" (what a company does best), from "liability and background processes". An identity process is what makes a company what it is. For example, the guaranteed on-time delivery for Fed Ex; product innovation for 3M; Nordstrom's customer service; Managed Care in health insurance. In each case, the process stands for the company. That is the process into which development effort should be committed. What should be done with the other processes? If they can't be stopped, e.g., because they are mandated by law or the IRS, then they are candidates for out-sourcing. Find a company for whom the preparation of the candidate (liability) back-office process is an (asset) identity process. Then contract with them to do the (now out sourced) job. The success of ADP in processing payrolls for firms of all sizes is an example of this. "...Tax reporting and accounting are background liability processes for British Petroleum but identity asset processes or the Big Six accounting firms" (p. 49). This defines a "win-win" situation. Likewise, you can be sure that IT is a major cog in the mechanism generating this success. Implicit in the solution of what might be called the asset - liability process accounting equation is a detailed analysis of how the economics of processes add value to organizations. As usual, the genius is in the details. And Keen and Knapp provide plenty of them. One significant spin that is nowhere else available is to distinguish a process as a workflow from one as a coordination cost. The latter in particular is where IT shines and can make a significant difference. "Information technology is transforming coordination costs" (p. 22). Time after time, Keen and Knapp display a sophisticated understanding of the role of information as a strategic asset in the life of the organization. The argument is that companies exist at all because at particular times and places the coordination costs of goods and services are less than the transaction costs. That is, a firm can organize internally to coordinate processes to produce a good less expensively than it can purchase that good by means of a transaction in the market. IT is the fulcrum of this production lever: "...Information technology affects what is most fundamental to organizations: coordination costs versus transaction costs" (p. 21). From yet another perspective, Keen and Knapp offer a wealth of insights and new ways of seeing old things. For example, they cite the work of Nobel laureate Arno Penzias on information theory. Their Penzias Axiom is that anything that comes between the customer and the computer system that will completely fulfill his request will be removed (p. 157). When IT reduces the cost of obtaining the information needed for decision makes it promotes centralization; when it reduces coordination costs for customers and suppliers, it encourages decentralization (p. 74). Identify sources in telecommunications and computing technology of "discontinuities" that "change the rules of competition" (p. 90). Examples of this kind can be multiplied greatly. The subtitle of the work, "A Glossary of Key Terms and Concepts," sounds as though the book can be used as a reference. That is true. The harried business or technology manager or senior analyst can profitably dip in and out, and usefully follow the "see also" cross-references. Be aware, however, the alphabetic organization of concepts sustains a thematic and narrative coherence that fully supports and deserves a cover-to-cover reading. That in itself is a remarkable accomplishment in the context of an already break through contribution to the process development literature. --excerpt from my published review in COMPUTING REVIEWS, December 1996

This book is a great tool for police leaders to use in the development of their skills. EVryone should have one on their office bookshelf.

For the past two years I have been working as a consultant on the creation of an executive service for the UN. More recently I have played a similar role for the US federal government. I have become a student of the thinking and the books on developing leaders. This book is by far the most important book to read. Its based solidly on research findings but more importantly on intuitively valid conclusions. It makes practical sense.

It takes the current state of the art and moves it forward. It also raises important questions about prevailing beliefs and practices. The ideas developed in this book make you realize why most executive development is not productive.

I see this book as a companion piece to another of the great books on the subject, Results-Based Leadership. Jack Zenger is one of the authors of both books.