Leader

This was a very intriguing book. In it McGee states that the hear of most human problems is that we have forsaken the truth of God and have believed the lie of Satan. Satan's lie is this: Self worth = Performance + Other's Opinion. People experience four basic problems as a result of believing this lie: the performance trap, the approval addict, the blame game and shame. The author looks at the consequences of each behavior and gives God's answer. His underlying assumption is that biblical truth meets the most basic issue of our live- our goals, motives and sense of worth.

This book has a strong biblical foundation in that the author finds the solution to man's problems in the Word of God. I especially appreciate that he addresses the time element involved counseling. Problems develop over years and solutions to them may take years. His advice to pastors is to be patient when counseling those who are hurting- healing takes time. The essence of healing is to discover the false beliefs and assumptions that Satan has deceived us with and replace them with God's truth. In this he is very similar to Larry Crabb in that truth is the ultimate cure for wrong thinking. Wrong thinking is the cause of bad emotions. Chapter three, however, is pretty basic stuff. It is hoped that we do not have to go through the plan of salvation. Despite the slow start, the book improved towards the end.

I thought I had tried it all when it comes to a Christian approach to treating depression only to be utterly disappointed when Christian books and counselors reduced the problem to something it wasn't. My problem wasn't being sad about circumstances in my life or unresolved sin in my life. My problem was thoughts that were so uncontrollable and dangerous that I felt like I had a beast taking over my head. Not being able to capture my thoughts was what led to the depression and suicidal thoughts.

During the process of seeing non-Christian counselors and psychiatrists to jump through the hoops for my insurance, I learned of cognitive therapy. I tried it, but it was very self-focused and all about self-love. The Search For Significance is the Christian version of cognitive therapy, in my opinion. It works because it teaches us how to break the patterns of false thoughts and replace them with true thoughts that we can actually believe in and that don't fail. I was able to reduce my dosage of medication significantly after going through this book and have been stable at the lower dosage for a year now. I am feeling strong enough to try a small decrease again in the near future and hopefully again & again after that.

It is very hard work and you must be dedicated and focused to learn the principles and tools to change your patterns of thought. It is so challenging that when I tried to do it before going on the meds, I couldn't handle it or absorb it. Once you get the tools down, then it is hard work to keep practicing them and keep from slipping into the old patterns. This is a book that you will pick up over and over again.

I agree with the other reviewer that chapter 3 on salvation was a bit slow. But I feel that it is very needed and purposeful. After all, how could this book be recommended to non-Christians without that chapter since the whole premise of the book is realizing your true identity in Christ?

This book is actually a study in important biblical and theological truths. Rather than starting with the timeless truths however, McGee begins with the problems we experience because of our lack of those truths. He then works his way back to the theological principles that will set us free from the ills we face.

For example, he describes how many of us believe we must meet certain high standards in order to feel we are of worth. God's truth is that we have been made faultless in Christ, that we have been justified. In other words, in God's eyes we have met the perfect standard through our relationship with Jesus.

Another point McGee makes is that many of us feel shame, believing we are nothing but hopeless cases unable to change. God's truth is that we have been regenerated as new individuals. In other words, if anyone is in Christ the old passed away, and the new just keeps on coming!

After reading this book, I have an even greater appreciation for the new life I have as a believer. McGee presents a volume that sheds much light on who Christians are because of their relationship with Jesus. I recommend this title highly.

Mary Beth O'Neill is an experienced executive coach who provides a useful perspective and helpful guidelines and examples of what coaches can do to help executives. Her systems perspective and four-step approach is helpful with case examples and additional insights into how leaders can be coached to coach and how coaching can be combined with consulting to have a greater impact on the organization. There are several key elements of professional coaching that are missing in the book: First- The four-step approach does not include a thorough assessment of the executive and his/her organization using reliable historical, normative, and 360-degree data. Instead, the major focus is on asking the executive what they think they need or want to work on. Second- There is a lack of focus on involving and partnering with the executive's boss, board, key constituents, HR professionals and others to truly understand the executive and the organization from multiple perspectives and to have the potential impact on the whole system. And third- there could be greater emphasis on what happens after the coaching is completed; how to transition for continued learning, application, and improvement.
For more information about the principles and practice of executive coaching that incorporates Ms. O'Neill's useful approaches along with the additional components described above, you may want to go to the following website for the free Handbook of Executive Coaching along with other free information and tools for executives, coaches, and HR professionals: www.executivecoachingforum.com

I predict that "Executive Coaching With Backbone and Heart" will become a classic text book within the field of organizational development. As a new coach, I found Mary Beth O'Neill's writing to be clear, informative, honest and thought provoking. She balances theory with practical examples to illustrate her points with a summary of the highlights at the end of each chapter for easy review and reference. I also appreciated her willingness to share her own mistakes and how she's learned from them. I found her honesty refreshing and it added to the credibility of her book. Her writing models her own integration of backbone with heart.

I predict that "Executive Coaching With Backbone and Heart" will become a classic textbook within the field of organizational development! As a new coach, I found Mary Beth O'Neill's writing to be clear, informative, honest and thought provoking. She balances theory with practical examples to illustrate her points and provides highlights at the end of each chapter for easy reference and review. Her willingness to share her mistakes and how she's learned from them added to her credibility and models her own integration of backbone with heart.

Leadership from the Inside Out is a wonderful book about becoming a better leader, not only of an organization but of one's own life.

Cashman covers all the bases, from Being - the innermost core of who we are - to Action, which he talks about as "leading as a whole person." He offers expert guidance, based on more than two decades as a coach to leaders worldwide, on aligning with our core purpose, authentic self-expression, adapting (and giving direction) to change, creating balance in our lives, and building synergistic relationships.

The book is packed with stimulating quotes, questions to foster self-understanding, and meaningful exercises for growth. All this in a well-designed format for easy reading. Highly recommended!

"While reading this book you may think, 'Is this book about leadership, or is it about personal development?' It's about both". Kevin Cashman writes, "As much as we try to separate the leader from the person, the two are totally inseparable. Unfortunately, many people tend to split off the 'act of leadership' from the person. We tend to view leadership as an external event. We see it only as something people do. The view of this book is different. Leadership is not simply something we do. It comes from somewhere inside us. Leadership is a process, an intimate expression of who we are. It is our being in action. Our being, our personhood, says as much about us a leader as the act of leading itself. Paul Walsh, Chairman and CEO of Pillsbury, recently told me, 'The missing link in leadership development is growing the person to grow the leader'. As we grow, so shall we lead...As we learn to master our growth as a person, we will be on the path to mastery of Leadership from the Inside Out" (pp.18-19).

Within this framework, Kevin Cashman identifies seven pathways to mastery of Leadership from the Inside Out. He says that "These pathways to mastery are not stages of development arranged in a sequential or hierarchical order. Rather, they are an ongoing, interrelated growth process in which the pathways constantly are illuminating one another" (pp.28-29).

1. Personal Mastery / Leading Through Authentic Self-Expession: It is the onging commitment to unfolding and authenticaly expressing who we are.

Principles: Take total responsibility, practice personal mastery with others, bring beliefs to conscious awareness, develop awareness of character and persona, listen to feedback, consider finding a coaching process, and be flexible.

2. Purpose Mastery / Leading by Expressing Our Gifts to Create Value: It is the ongoing discovery of how we express our gifts to add life-enriching value to the world.

Principles: Focus on how to make a difference, get in touch with your values, act "on-purpose", be purposeful in all domains, encourage others to find purpose, seek the goal, learn from "failure", and be flexible.

3. Change Mastery / Leading in the Flow: It involves embracing the purposeful learning contained in the unending, creative flow of life.

Principles: Be open to learning, practice present-moment awareness, integrate immediate focus and broad awareness, trust yourself, develop resiliency through mental-emotional stretching, practice the change mastery shifts, and take the leap.

4. Interpersonal Mastery / Leading Through Synergy: It is the dynamic blending of personal power with synergy power to create value and contribution.

Principles: Build relationship bridges, balance personal power with synergy power and contribution power, build awareness of intention-perception gap, personal mastery and interpersonal mastery are intimately connected, become aware of your structure of interpretation, and practice the five touchstones (know yourself, listen, express, appreciate, serve) to authentic leadership.

5. Being Mastery / Leading Through Being: It is connecting with the silence and peace of the innermost depth of one's character to support more dynamism, effectiveness, and contribution.

Principles: Take your own journey into being, resolve life challenges by going to a deeper level, consider learning to mediate, and integrate more reflection into your life.

6. Balance Mastery / Leading by Centering Our Life: It is the dynamic centering of our life to build resilience and to enhance effectiveness and fulfillment.

Principles: Choose wisely, be on-purpose, rest and reflect more, exercise for enjoyment, simplify your life, and loosen up.

7. Action Mastery / Leading as a Whole Person: It is the ongoing commitment to creating value through enhanced authenticity and self-expression.

Principles: Seek the most essential first, approach growth and development as an integrated, lifelong process, take total responsibility, value consistency over intensity, set aside worry, doubts, and negativity, don't just walk the talk, become the talk, and build awareness through inside out journaling.

Finally, Kevin Cashman argues that "Certainly the principal purpose of Leadership from the Inside Out is to give people tools for personal growth and transformation leading to leadership growth and transformation. But its true potential contribution is more than that. Its purpose is more than just helping a bunch of seperate individuals to grow...Growth is fulfilling as it touches and enriches the lives of others" (p.203).

I highly recommend.

This book is a classic. It takes readers on the reflective journey that Cashman himself has travelled through his years of coaching national and international leaders. Cashman takes a long-needed fresh perspective on the essence of leadership, parting ways with those who have viewed leadership as a collection of "techniques." He is among the first to gleen that the key to effective leadership is inherent in the leader him or her self. As he points out in this great book, effective leaders are those who come to understand that who they are, and what they value will drive how they uniquely add value. Cashman's definition of leadership is a fascinating one. He posits that "leadership is authentic self expression that adds value." Read the book and you will surely agree!! It's a must read for those grappling with the concept of executive excellence.

Working with other co-authors, Ulrich has produced a book that is rich in tables that bring together areas that require managerial or leadership attention, identify the key points for attention and suggest measures of success. Little of the content is particularly new or surprising and there are some notable gaps (see below), but the book may be worth getting for the frameworks, tables, figures and 'instruments' alone. The authors have worked hard to produce a book that is thoroughly user friendly without being simplistic, and they have succeeded well. It is however, somewhat 'slick' for my taste and it definitely belongs to the world we are leaving rather than the world to which we are moving.

I have three criticisms.

There is a strong whiff of setting up a 'straw man' so that they can knock it down while building their case. I do not have any sense that other writers have unduly neglected results in writing about leadership attributes and the authors' insistence on that alleged failure gets a bit tedious. A related aspect of the same issue is that the author team is at least as good at marketing gimmickry as it is at building tables and figures. "Leadership" and "results" are two words of known selling power and they are used to the point of distraction. For this reader, the resulting 'hard sell' style casts a bit of a shadow over the authority of the work as a whole and contributes to the excessive glorification of 'leaders' as the source of all success that seems to be endemic at present.

Much more important is a major gap in the range of leadership concerns covered. They devote a chapter to each of four major groups of stakeholders: employees, the organisation, customers and investors. There is no mention at all of society, the community or the environment as stakeholders, yet any substantial organisation ignores that very important group of stakeholders at their peril.

Similarly there is little direct mention of other critically important areas for leadership attention, for example their role in nurturing the supply chain, or in managing the technologically driven step changes so well described in Baghai et al: The Alchemy of Growth. While there is some brief discussion of alternative processes for developing strategies the essential leadership role of developing strategic direction is also treated very cursorily.

The third criticism is more subtle. Concern with results necessarily means concern with measurement or assessment. The authors in general deal quite well with the issue of establishing measures of results across a range of areas concerning their four chosen groups of stakeholders and recognise the importance of qualitative as well as quantitative measures. I think they should have given more attention to the associated risk of giving inadequate attention to things that are hard to measure just because measurement is difficult. One of the great societal questions at the moment is how we value things - like the environment and community harmony - that can not easily be expressed in terms of money. Defining and measuring balanced results is getting much harder, not easier, whether at a societal or an organisational level. It involves wisdom, not just skill, and any book that seeks to relate leadership to results should directly recognise that and directly address it.

So what you have is a book that solves the problems of the 80's and 90's rather than one that addresses the dominant concerns of the next century. But within its own framework, the book does quite a good job.

"The quest to become a more effective leader will neither begin nor end with this work. However, we want to shift how to think about and become a better leader. It is faddish to think of leaders as people who master competencies and emanate character. While agreeing with this perspective, we believe that it falls short of assuring that leaders lead. Leaders do much more than demonstrate attributes. Effective leaders get results. This book refocuses and reframes the search for effective leadership by connecting attributes to results...By so doing, this book makes a bold statement about the next generation of leadership thinking. This does not mean less attention to the leader's attributes, but it does mean making sure that leaders understand and commit to the results they must produce-and how they are produced" (pp.1-23).

In this context, D.Ulrich, J.Zenger, and N.Smallwood suggest the following fourteen specific actions described in Chapter 7 can help leaders make results a major part of their leadership equation, at whatever level they function in their companies:

1. Begin with an absolute focus on results.

2. Take complete and personal responsibility for your group's results.

3. Clearly and specifically communicate expectations and targets to the people in your group.

4. Determine what you need to do personally to improve your results.

5. Use results as the litmus test for continuing or implementing leadership practice.

6. Engage in developmental activities and opportunities that will help you produce better results.

7. Know and use every group member's capabilities to the fullest and provide everyone with appropriate developmental opportunities.

8. Experiment and innovate in every realm under your influence, looking constantly for new ways to improve performance.

9. Measure the right standards and increase the rigor with which you measure them.

10. Cnstantly take action; results won't improve without it.

11. Increase the pace or tempo of your group.

12. Seek feedback from others in the organization about ways you and your group can improve your outcomes.

13. Ensure that your subordinates and colleagues perceive that your motivation for being a leader is the achievement of positive results, not personal or political gain.

14. Model the methods and strive for the results you want your group to use and attain.

Ulrich, Zenger, and Smallwood argue that these suggestions which may be implemented right now by any leader occupying any position, will modify behavior and improve performance- all without a month-long absence from work or expenditures of large sums of money.

Highly recommended.

Together with Kotter's "Leading Change" and Fogg's "Implementing Your Strategic Plan," this is one of the best books ever written on leadership and strategy implementation. Contrary to what an earlier reviewer stated, this book only mention's Enron on two pages (out of 234). And, in each instance, is very specific about what can be learned from the ill-fated company (this book is far from a "cheerleading session" for Enron). Instead, the book focuses on the mechanics of leadership and strategy implementation. As a strategy consultant, I find myself recommending this book to clients again and again. I believe it should be a part of any serious manager's business library -- particularly if you are a senior manager. Overall grade: A/A+.

I agree with all the other readers who have posted comments here that the book is well-written and very engrossing.

But no one else seems to be bothered by the fact that Mr. Fried commits the unconscionable and inexcusable sin of using the real names of the unsuccessful rabbinic candidates. They had every reason to expect that their interviews would be confidential. The Acknowledgments section makes it clear that not all the candidates gave permission for their names to used, or that Mr. Fried even thought it necessary to ask them.

A footnote tells us that the name of a millionaire trouble-maker has been changed. But what does it tell us about the author that he felt no such need to conceal the names of rabbis who have now been embarrassed in print and in public?

The book would have lost none of its force if those names had been changed. Shame on the author!

Author Fried purports to tell the story of how a large and wealthy conservative congregation on the Philadelphia Main Line went through the process of replacing its retiring rabbi. It's actually quite some time before he gets into the essence of the story, and I found myself thinking, when is he going to get to the search? But he gets there and leaves no stone unturned. It is a truly ugly story and it made me feel grateful that I didn't belong to that congregation.
My own congregation recently went through a search for a new rabbi when ours left for a promotion after 14 years with us. This book is more than just the search for a new rabbi. It is a look at the inner workings of the conservative movement and the politics involved when this congregation decided to play hardball with the movement powers that be. I will not detail the end of the story (which, unfortunately is not in the book), but I will tell you it is not a pretty story, but I could not put the book down. Anyone who cares about this sort of thing should find the book endlessly fascinating as I did.

In this book Steven Fried used his investigative journalistic skill in reporting on the life and world of American Jews. He follows a distinguished rabbi as he finishes his thirty year career in a prominent Jewish congregation in Philadelphia. The account reads as smoothly as a well written novel. Anyone familiar with a church or synagogue will experience a feeling of kinship with the rabbis and their families as the story unfolds. The skillfully drawn portraits of other actors in the drama remind the reader of people familiar in their lives. No one who has served on a pulpit nominating committee or been the object of the committee's investigation can fail to enjoy Temple Har Zion's search for Rabbi Wolpe's successor. The rabbi's devotion to his invalid wife and her determined will to fill her place in life no matter what her physical limitation win the reader's admiration.

Both Jews and non Jews will find this an interesting and informative book.

Dee Brestin and Kathy Troccoli have penned a very interesting book, whereby they characterize it as "abandoning yourself to the greatest romance of your life." With references to "Sacred Romance" by John Eldredge, this is essentially a woman's book, although I believe that men could benefit from its ideas.

The purpose is to introduce readers to the ultimate love relationship of all time - a relationship with Jesus Christ. Using humor, contemporary love songs, real-life stories, and solid Biblical teaching, they both help women discover a life-changing intimacy with Christ.

This book is a must-have for anyone who is seeking to deepen their relationship with Jesus and get to know Him more intimately! As co-authors whose backgrounds and life experiences are quite different, both women compliment each other perfectly and come together to provide a warm, inviting place where both single and married women can come to be renewed, encouraged, and challenged in their walk with Christ. Using contemporary and Biblical examples of romantic relationships along with their own life experiences, Kathy and Dee portray the love and longing Jesus has for each of us in a romantic way that many of us have never experienced before. As one of the most tender expressions of a woman after God's own heart that I have ever read, I would also recommend this book to men who are seeking a closer walk with their Savior.

I was immediately attracted to this book because I've read "Friendships of Women" by Dee Brestin and I've been a fan of Kathy Troccoli's music for about 10 years now.

Kathy is single, and Dee has been married a long time, and the way they weave their stories together in this book just great! This book was an easy read and it moved very quickly (women with little time to read, have no fear!).

Perhaps the thing that struck me most was how vulnerable Kathy was in relating her journal entries, many of which were addressed to the husband she has longed for. Even though she's prayed for a husband, she has really ministered powerfully to other single women and is a great example of making the most with whatever twists and turns life happens to take.

Dee and Kathy used the titles of love songs as chapter and sub-chapter titles. I don't think that enhanced the book at all, at least not for me. Some people might really enjoy those, though.

The book contains a lot of detailed information about the relationships between Mary and Martha and Jesus and between Ruth and Naomi and how we can learn from those stories how to have a more complete love relationship with our Savior Jesus Christ....

I had to put this book down. I found it very harsh and terribly depressing. I found God represented in a negative way. I would not recomand this book to anyone who is suffering especially if you have issues with Gods sovereignty. I think God is weeping over the distorted image presented in this book regarding His love and plan for our lives.
Jesus said in John 10:10 that He came to give us life have it more abundantly. I would give this a 0 but you have to pick 1-5

Being no stranger to struggles and pain, i sought to read this book. What i got through this book is far more than i expected: i expected a warm, fluffy book full of inspirational stories and sympathy. The book does have that, but it has something else, too: DOCTRINE. Joni shows us popular opinions of God's role in suffering, and then she picks up the sledgehammer of Doctrine and skillfully smashes the false notion into pieces. She masterfully backs up everything she says with references in the Holy Bible (there's even an entire appendix delegated to giving an outline of concepts expressed in the book and detailed Biblical verses to back it up). I heartily reccommend this book, it really blew me away. (I also bought "Chicken Soup for the Christian Soul". While that book was ok, it was nothing compared to "When God Weeps.")

This is a hard book to read because it hits you right between the eyes with stark reality. But the book when When God Weeps: Why Our Sufferings Matter to the Almighty, by Joni Eareckson Tada and Steve Estes, is probably the best book I have ever read, it's deep but readable. Joni, is a paraplegic and has been wheel chair bound for 30 years. She is not only a woman of great faith, she is my new hero. From page to page the words leaps off the page with everlasting truth, and heart stopping, tear choking reality.

All Christians are called to suffer and all people are called to the vocation of dying. We all have loved ones who are going through, or have experienced terrible trials of suffering, and death. This book unlike any other I have ever read on the subject, paints a Biblical portrait of why we suffer. So get some kleenex along with this book, and get some ice cream too, because reading it is not all sad, but it is a magnificent testimony of immeasurable faith and truth after quotable truth.

Heaven will all be worth it someday.

Thanks Joni & Steve

In Business studies, we were taught that to succeed with our business we should be able to provide best product/service, best prices and superb customer service. The results are mainly unsatisfactory because while we try to master all three aspects, we fail in all of them.

This book will teach you for the first time how to succeed with "imperfection" along with customers blessings.

You dont have to provide your customer with the best product AND best price AND best service, just choose one of those values (depending on your target market and long term objectives) and focus all your resources on developing this value. The book is backed with real life stories from some of the leading firms and the values they have chosen to focus on.

This book is a must for every business owner.

The message of this important book is that "no company can succeed today by trying to be all things to all people. It must instead find the unique value that it alone can deliver to a chosen market. Why and how this is done are the two key questions the book addresses." The authors focus with rigor and precision on three different "disciplines": operational excellence, product leadership, and customer intimacy. It remains for any company (for any organization, for that matter) to determine which of the three should be its primary discipline but all are obviously important...indeed interdependent. Nonetheless, one discipline should be pre-eminent. The authors examine dozens of companies which have concentrated primarily on one of the three "disciplines" so that they can select their customers and then narrow their focus inorder to gain and sustain dominance within their respective marketplaces. I think this book will be of substantial value to executives in any organization but of greatest value to those in organizations which are small-to-midsize. Unless they have dysfunctional management and/or defective products, their mastery of that discipline will enable them to compete more effectively against larger organizations which (obviously) have greater resources available. My own view is that as B2B and B2B2C continue to increase at exponentially greater velocity, leadership of ANY market will require mastery of customer intimacy and at least one (but preferably both) of the other two disciplines. In that event, the insights which Treacy and Wiersema share will be even more valuable.

This business book should be in EVERY marketing and sales professional's library. In one reading of less than four hours you can understand the distinct value disciplines that define your company. And, just as important, you can recognize the value disciplines of your customers and competition. But, you don't have to be strictly a sales person. I'm my company's Chief Technology Officer and I felt the book was very valuable - after my CEO made me read it!
The message of The Discipline Of Market Leaders is that no company can succeed today by trying to be all things to all people. It must instead find the unique value that it alone can deliver to a chosen market. Why and how this is done are the two key questions the book addresses,
Three concepts are introduced that every business finds essential:
1. the value proposition - implicit promise to deliver a particular combination of values - price, quality, performance, etc.
2. value-driven operating model - combination of operating processes, manage-ment systems, business structure, and culture that allows a company to deliver on its value proposition.
3. value disciplines - three desirable ways in which a company combines operating models and value propositions to be the best in their markets. THIS is the key take away from this book.
Three distinct value disciplines:
1. operational excellence - provide middle-of-the-market products at the best price with the least inconvenience - value proposition is low price and hassle-free service.
2. product leadership - offering products that push performance boundaries - value proposition is offering the best product, period.
3. customer intimacy - delivering NOT what the market wants but what specific customers want - value proposition the best solution for the customer with all the support needed to get the maximum value from our products.
The selection of a value discipline is a central act that shapes every subsequent plan and decision a company makes, coloring the entire organization, from its competencies to its culture.
If a company is going to achieve and sustain dominance, it must decide where it will stake its claim in the marketplace and what kind of value it will offer to its customers.
markets, the only established way to improve value to customers is to cut process. If you haven't started thinking about cutting your way to leanness, it's going to cost you later.
High quality is the cost of admission to the market. Without it, you're not even in the ballpark.
Four new premises underlie successful business practice today:
1. companies can no longer raise process in lockstep with higher costs
2. companies can no longer aim for less than hassle-free service
3. companies can no longer assume that good basic service is enough
4. companies can no longer compromise on quality and product capabilities
These four points are critical to the book and to how you must think about value. It is true - we can no longer charge for high quality - it IS expected. By delivering superior value, companies change their customers' expectations. In effect, these companies became market leaders NOT by fulfilling old-fashioned ideas of value, but by getting their business to master one band in the value spectrum. They believed in three important truths that characterize the new world of competition:
1. Different customers buy different kinds of value. You can't hope to be the best in all dimensions, so you choose your customers and narrow your value focus.
2. As value standards rise, so do customer expectations; so you can stay ahead only by moving ahead.
3. Producing an unmatched level of a particular value requires a superior operating model - "a machine" - dedicated to just that kind of value.
Four rules that govern market leaders' actions:
1. Provide the best offering in the marketplace by excelling in a specific value disci-pline.
2. Maintain threshold standards on other dimensions of value.
3. Dominate your market by improving value year after year,
4. Build a well-tuned operating model dedicated to delivering unmatched value.
The operating model is the market leader's ultimate weapon in its quest for market domination. Value comes from choosing customers and narrowing the operations focus to best serve those customers. Customer satisfaction and loyalty are simply the by-product of delivering on a compelling value proposition - not the drivers behind it. When a company selects and pursues one of the value disciplines, it ceases to resemble its competitors.
Customer-intimate companies demonstrate superior aptitude in advisory services and relationship management. This is an incredibly difficult concept for sales and marketing professionals to grasp. They want the largest market possible. If you are customer-intimate, your market is one company at a time. This calls for hard work. Customer-intimate companies don't deliver what the market wants, but what a spe-cific customer wants. The customer-intimate company makes a business of knowing the people it sells to and the products and services they need. It continually tailors its products and services, and does so at reasonable prices. The customer-intimate company's greatest asset is, not surprisingly, its customers' loyalty.
Customer-intimate companies don't pursue transactions; they cultivate relationships.
They tailor their mix of services or customize the products, even if it means acting as a broker to obtain these services and products from third parties or co-providers.
Where to begin? Start with the last chapter and take a close look at Figure 11. From that point I realized my company's value discipline. The rest fell neatly into place.

I just wanted to caution folks who want to get the leader's guide...it relies extensively on the video and participant's guide. Each lesson assumes you will watch the video and go through the discussion questions in the participant's guide. I found it to be of limited use and think the participant's guide is actually more helpful for leading/facilitating discussions.

My Christian teenage daugher has many Christain friends who have bought TOTALLY into the book "I Kissed Dating Goodbye" by Josh Harris. One of them gave the book to her in order (I think) to set her straight. She is a very bright, fun, thoughtful young lady who has dated and had some very good experiences with it and also rough experiences. She and I both read the book and discussed it together. It left her very distressed. She was made to feel like dating was a sin and yet, she couldn't really understand (Biblically) why. I, too, was very bothered by the legalistic approach of that book.

I went in search of a resource to clarify things for both my daughter and myself. I found this book and read it first before giving it to my daughter (no need to set her up for more confusion!) This book gives a wonderful and clear outline on the purposes and values of dating. It is biblically-based and sound in its information. My daughter is about halfway through reading it and as we discuss it, she is constantly saying, "now this makes sense". I especially appreciate the empasis placed on the issue of maturity in dating and how God can use dating (if done within His boundaries) to grow her into a mature Christian woman who will have the ability to make a wise decision when the time comes for her to marry.

She plans to share this book with all of her friends!

Dating is a very difficult thing to do in our society, especially as Christians. This book provides an excellent outline for Christian singles. Dating isn't the problem, it's the people doing the dating that mess it up. If done correctly, dating can provide us with excellent social skills and friendships. This book is a must read for all singles who are looking to be healthy in their dating. Definitely 5 stars A great supplement to this book is Safe People. Cloud and Townsend are fabulous and have been given a great gift.

It would be unfortunate that somebody would avoid reading this book simply because of Card's mormon perspective. First, he is completely honest and upfront that it is written in the context of LDS beliefs and that he has taken great creative liberties. That said, the book still gives what a reader expects from Card- meaningful characters. Although I come from the Friends Church (which is about as different from LDS as one can get) I still found it a very interesting and thoughtful look at the story of Moses. Plus it provides (especially the last 40 pages) a little insight into mormon beliefs (the other Earths with other people on them).

For a fan of Card, this is a fine choice.

Even if you loved "Ender's Game" or some of Card's other sci fi or fantasy, you might have no interest whatsoever in this book. But if you love the subtle and overt religious themes in Card's writing, I highly recommend this book. (His "Saints" is good too.)

"Stone Tables" is a novelization of the life of Moses, using what we "know" about Moses from the Bible and other sources and then creatively filling in the details. (I especially liked Card's explanation of Moses's stutter.) I found this a spiritually nourishing book, particularly Jethro's discussions with Moses about prayer and Moses's advice to Aaron on being a servant of God. Thank you, Orson Scott Card!

I'm very familiar with Card's SF, and his Alvin Maker series, so I expected this to be good. But I was wrong --- it was outstanding! By the end of the book, I felt like I knew Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, and even Pharoah --- or at least Card's "take" on these ancients. He also provided very plausible reasons why little or no archaeological evidence exists for Israel in Egypt, and for the absence of the name of Moses in Egyptian monuments.

Some might be put off or puzzled about the foreknowledge of the Messiah displayed by Moses in the novel. In fact, the Bible itself displays such foreknowledge and even says "Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets." (Amos 3:7) The fact is, the Israelites expected the Messiah, and knew at least something of his mission, and the Jews still do. So why wouldn't Moses know?

My only problem with the book was that it ended before it should have. But that doesn't detract from the 5 stars I'm giving it.