Leader

This is the Group Leader's Guide which contains the participant study guide plus discussion leader notes. This series of lessons is aimed at Christian married couples. The back cover starts... Why marriage is God's workshop for self-esteem. Part of God's plan for marriage is for you to help your mate become all that He intended. While that may sound like a big job, all it takes is letting your mate know that you accept them and are committed to meeting their needs. ... A large part of this book is examining Biblical teachings in light of the marriage relationship and the marriage partners' personal faith. The copyright page says "FamilyLife is a part of Campus Crusade for Christ International, an evangelical Christian organization founded in 1951 by Bill Bright. FamilyLife was started in 1976 to help fulfill the Great Commission by strengthening marriages and families and then equipping them to go to the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ." If your personal beliefs do not coincide with the evangelical approach, you may find some material to be wrong or offensive. Given this context, this course seems to be fairly good.

This was the greatest wedding gift that I was given. I am really learning my husbands language. It gives specific advice on how to build your husband up in his role as leader. It's principles are biblically sound and backed with scripture. An excellent source for wives on building your husband into the leader you always knew he was. This book is an awesome tool to get your marriage back on the right track with your husband feeling confident as the head of the wife/household.

It is quite easy to look at the cover this book (or books like this) and scoff at titles like this because of the seemingly endless parade of marriage/relationship books available. However, Dennis & Barbara Rainey offer a sensative and practical book aimed at edifying your spouse and improving your marriage relationship in the process.

Assuming you are of the school of thought that people don't just bumble in marriage and somehow make "it will all work out", then this book makes an excellent handbook/reference book whether you are married or aspiring to be. If all things successful require planning and delegence among other things, then it makes sense that marriage is no different. The Rainey's through this offering will guide you by their own success at applying these detailed Biblical principles producing real life results, some more positive than others, but all conquerable.

The key to enjoying this book in to understand effort is required, but it's so practical and so well supported by their testimony in the form of very short true stories it offers hope because their success can be replicated. The book covers a wide variety of topics in a general sense such as self-image, unrealistic expectations, dealing with the past and the impact of the spoken word to name a few. Issues that will manifest themselves in the form of attitudes, tendencies or patterns in the marriage relationship.

There are esteem oriented projects for the married couple to work together. Again, this is the key to excellent books such as these, the willingness to be open to change and to admit that you may not know everything and or you may need some help.

With a willing attitude this book have impact, excellent book.

This had many solid points and I like the fact that it has many example of the constructivist theory in use which makes this book more practical for some one who doesn't want to worry about getting to deep into the theory. The only problem with this book is that the theory that is presented is flawed. They completely down play the role of traditional education and present their theory as the opposite to traditional education. This goes against John Dewey's basic theory and makes the fallacy of selective emphasis. This is a great book if you want to practical experience from schools that this method has been used at but if you want theory, you are better off going to the source, John Dewey.

Constructivism has a myriad of definitions, or so it seems in education today. In this book, the general principals of constructivist leadership are defined and "fleshed out" through the contributing authors. Excellent book for administrators that are trying to find theory based rationale for site based management in school. A book that should be kept on your office bookshelf because you will refer to it often. The listing and comparisons of past educational methods is nicely done and easy to reference.

This book essentially examines the dynamics of a learning community within the theoretical framework of constructivism. While the book is dense in theory, it's clear prose and liberal inclusion of examples and stories make it an accessible and meaningful read. The book's title may be misleading in that an educational leader, in the constructivist sense, is any educator who seeks school improvement through open, democratic processes. In this sense, the book would seem useful to any organizational development specialist who craves a broader theoretical understanding of the nature of OD, and insight into how groups of educators can build learning communities committed to improving the lives of their stakeholders. The book is complex in its scope and depth, but nonetheless answers a fairly simple question: How does constructivism help us see what humane and effective schools should look like? Lambert and her colleagues weave a fairly cohesive and inspiring narrative of social change within the educational context.

According to the writers, constructivism is a theory of learning derived from the fields of philosophy, psychology, and science. Constructivism in simplest terms posits that learning is the process of reforming what we know, believe and value based on the connections between new and already held knowledge, values and beliefs. In other words, people are in a constant state of learning in order to secure or enhance their existence. In the school context, Lambert defines 'Constructivist Leadership' as 'the reciprocal processes that enable participants in an educational community to construct meanings that lead toward a common purpose about schooling.' (p.29) These reciprocal processes entail building trust through social and professional relationships, identifying and reconstructing commonly held assumptions and beliefs, building new shared knowledge, and altering individual and group behaviors to create new ways of doing school. In this way, Lambert and her colleagues argue, we begin to see leadership, community, and schools themselves not as roles or physical entities, but as social processes, which require constant tending and development. In a biological sense, individuals are in a constant state of constructing their understanding of the world. In an ecological sense, interdependent groups of individuals must co-construct their understandings in order to create a desired reality. In this way, Lambert's constructivist view of learning and leadership is in close company with Senge's view of the learning organization, which strives to move from status quo to a shared ideal of something better.

Theoretically, constructivism owes much Lee Vygotsky's work on the relationship between language and learning. Not surprisingly then, this book's core chapters all deal with the role of communication in constructivist leadership. In 'Leading the Conversations', Lambert argues that conversations 'are the visible manifestation of constructivist leadership' (p.83). On page 86, she provides a useful 'Typology of Conversations' model, which shows that four conversation types (dialogic, inquiring, sustaining, and partnering) contribute to, among other things, collaborative sense-making, remembrance and reflection, sharing and building ideas, and respectful listening. In 'The Linguistics of Leadership', Diane Zimmerman deconstructs the processes of paraphrasing, inquiring, and articulating ideas, and argues that when used in balance they help groups uncover 'the unspeakable', make sense of assumptions and beliefs, and find new patterns and paths to improvement. In 'The Role of Narrative and Dialogue in Constructivist Leadership', Joanne Cooper argues that 'stories provide a vision and a desired direction for adults working in schools'' (p.122) Narratives bring to life 'tacit knowledge' and in so doing imbue groups with connectivity, and common purpose and vision. In these chapters, we see strong practical and theoretical themes that are consistent with the change work of Fullan, Senge's work on learning, and the organization work of Schmuck and others.

Constructivism, as an epistemological theory, has a long and broad history in this century. I found this book refreshing for making clear connections between a theory of knowledge and the practices and perspectives relevant to organization development and learning communities.

After reading this book, there can be no doubt that author Michael Breen possesses as keen an insight to the North Korean system and the enigmatic nature of Kim Jong-il as any Westerner who has spent a significant amount of time in South Korea. Mr. Breen is well-versed with the Korean culture, the language, as well as the idiosyncracies of the respect North and South Korean societies. However, it is clear from the outset that Mr. Breen is openly hostile to the North Korean regime and perhaps that's the problem with Mr. Breen's account of the complexities of the Kim regime.

While the author does an admirable job of synthesizing a variety of materials covering the North Korean regime and the "Dear Successor's" ascent to power, Mr. Breen neither possesses nor offers any unique insight to the problems those on the outside - particualrly the United States, Japan and South Korea - face when confronted with the Kim Jong-il labyrinth. In fact, perhaps a failure to the credibility of Mr. Breen's presentation is his occasional attempt to satirize his subject.

Mr. Breen's cheekiness in describing Kim Jong-il causes him to fall into the same trap as many western journalists and political figures have fallen into when dealing with North Korea. They mock and parody Kim Jong-il, yet when pushed they dance for ways to appease him to prevent him from pushing the Korean peninsula to the nuclear brink. Admittedly, available alternatives arelimited.

That said, Mr. Breen's book is entertaining despite the references to Kim Jong-il's diminished stature, bouffant hairdo and other idiosyncracies. Drawing upon primarily North Korean publications and resources, Mr. Breen gives readers some background to Kim Jong-il, his childhood, his personality, as well as the forces that brought Kim Jong-il to power upon the death of Kim Il-Sung. We learn that Kim Jong-il is not a monolith but that he may have an inferiority complex, that he has a sense of humor, that he is cultured and that he is capable of compassion.

Unfortunately, given Kim Jong-il's enigmatic nature, these are all second-hand, highly propagandized accounts and necessarily replace any real ability by Mr. Breen, or perhaps anyone outside the regime, to provide an understanding of the Kim regime and what drives it. While Mr. Breen falls short of the mark, his attempt at insight is nonetheless commendable.

Lest Mr. Breen go too far to humanize his subject, Mr. Breen devotes an entire chapter to graphically cateloging the human rights abuses committed by both Kim regimes both in the North Korean gulags as well as in society in general. While the stories are compelling, delineating the crimes of the regime do not add much to Mr. Breen's professed goal of assisting the reader to understand Kim Jong-il.

One positive aspect of Mr. Breen's book is his humanization of the North Korean people, a feature that is often lost on the western media who tend to portray the North Korean people as a faceless horde of supporters of the Kim Juche Ideal rather than the victims they perhaps are.

Another positive feature of Mr. Breen's book is his analysis of the regime's attempts, albeit limited, to introduced controlled forms of a market economy to North Korea. While Mr. Breen seems to advocate a form of "constructive engagement" with North Korea, primarily with Sourth Korea and China taking the lead, this seems to be self-defeating where the North's xenophobia prevents any of the traditional quid pro quo we would expect from a trade relationship. This is couple with Mr. Breen's expose of Kim Jong-il's largesse, accusations of rampant drug trafficking by the regime and other forms of illegality that would make constructive engagement of Kim Jong-il potentially self-defeating for any country that attempts it.

After reading Mr. Breen's book we are no closer to addressing constructively the problem of North Korea and a possible solution than we were before. Eeven as Mr. Breen intimates, until Kim Jong-il goes away we only have two options for dealing with him: the military option that promises to destroy the sub-continent and the deaths of millions; or living with Kim while trying to neutralize and contain him. Kim Jong-il remains a short, enigmatic, possibly egomaniacal man, with big hair and a penchant for young women, a vast array of western movies, and the means to develop and deploy a nuclear arsenal. North Korea remains a closed, xenophobic society with approximately one quarter of its population in some form of conscripted military service. All told, learning to live with Kim may be the only solution to the "North Korean problem."

I have to agree with the previous review .It was an outstanding book espcially with the begining sentence "If you scan Northeast Asia from the space at night-which the United States does,for obvious reasons ....etc" is really one of the best opening lines in most of the books i have read.But the two set backs were that in the preface he mentions his wife and boast's about her "professional editing skills" when their is alot of errors in the manuscript.But over all it was a must for bookshelves all over the world!

I've been interested in North Korea ever since the nuclear crisis flared up in late 2002. Yet my search for worthwhile books to read about that sad little country has not turned up very much. The literature seems to be divided up into ideological rants about how the Bush administration provoked the new crisis (given the fact that the North Koreans began cheating before Bush was president that makes no sense) or impenetrably dense academic tomes (I noticed a reviewer of Breen's other book sneering at the fact that it is a "popular" book).

In my view, I learned a great deal about Kim Jong-Il and the state that he runs by reading Breen's book. I thought the chapters on the North Korean slave labor camps and the one titled "Country of the Lie" were particularly enlightening. I'm starting to perceive North Korea as less a country than a cult and the typical North Koreans as the equivalent of abused children who persist in believing that the "Dear Leader" loves them, even as he lets them starve.

This being said the book is not perfect:

1. It could have been longer. It was only about 190 pages. I would have liked more information about the nuclear crisis and North Korea's arms and drug dealing enterprises.

2. The chapter "Is Kim Jong-Il Evil?" wavers from being highly perceptive to being annoyingly "new age-ish."

3. The author makes a few minor errors (understating a number or two by several orders of magnitude and stating that the average North Korean's weight is 16 kilograms -34 pounds which is impossible).

Still, I feel that I am far better informed having read this book. I believe it deserves a five star rating even with its faults because it fills such a yawning gap in public understanding of this strange little man and his strange little country.

Read it and learn!

Perret's book on the formation and use of German armor in World War II is a good read if you just gotta have everything about German tanks. He does a good job relating most of the major campaigns and battles where the panzerwaffe made or failed to make relevant contributions. He relys heavily on German memoirs that we now know are somewhat suspect. I think that he could probably write a much better and more complete book on the subject now, by comparing the German accounts to those of the allies, particularly the Russians.

The overwhelming mass of his story is about the Eastern Front. He provides many interesting anecdotes as well as numerous sidebars on tank development, tank types, and production issues. The book's principle failure though, is introduced by General Senger und Etterlin, whole was no stranger to armored warfare (as an aside, although SuE participated and many of the campaigns described, his name is nowhere else mentioned). General Senger wrote that there were three schools of thought on how tanks should have been employed before WWII. The implication is that the Germans picked one (perhaps the wrong one) and pursued it to its logical conclusion, which was not enough to win the war. Why this happened, and what debates existed in the German army thoughout the war, the author does not address again. Too bad, because the battle details are well known -- what is unknown is how the German reconciled the tactical and operational use of their "two armies."

More space should have gone to the African campaign, and how German victory in 1939-1940 influenced subsequent battles, especially in the East. Also, not every panzer general had the same background or the same experience. He should have highlighted more of these. Finally, the German use of armor after Dec 1941 is totally different than pre 1942 (possibly with the exception of Rommel). If the author could have identified that shift in usage and explained why it occurred, he would have made a great contribution to understanding mobile warfare as practiced by the Germans in WWII.

The appendices are very good, and there is also a fair amount of technical detail that doesn't bog you down.

So, if you have to have everything about panzers, it is a good buy. If you are looking for something with more conceptual substance or a more comprehensive look at German operations, you may be disappointed.

I read this book thinking it would be about Knights Cross winners. It has nothing to do with that.

This book is about the development and war time use of the German tank.

There is a great deal of good information, even if it isn't written in a way that keeps you on the edge of your seat.

The author did make some good points about major events in the war that you never hear about. His reason for the Germans stopping outside Dunkirk sheds some new light on the debate.

I personally found it annoying that the author had such a dim view of Rommel, and I found all of his views about his poor leadership very easy to argue away.

There is bery little actual combat action in the book, and most of that is at the battlegoup, or division level.

This is not an action packed book, but the author did his homework, and has some very interesting information on German tanks and their operational useage during the war. You won't see this information in any other book or History Channel show.

Bryan Perrett's Knights of the Black Cross is a brief guide to German panzer units during the Second World War. In the book, you can reach good detailed information about the history of the panzer units as well as you can benefit from Perrett's valuable analysis of comparison of German panzers with their opponents' weapons. His comparison of tanks, armored carriers, assault guns self-propelled artillery and anti-tank guns will help new researchers' studies. Perrett also emphasised and focused on influence of German panzer commanders during the war. In the book, you can find, for example, strength of panzer divisions in the major operations, development of the panzer quality between operations, captured tanks used in operations by German units and more... His information giving in the book was well-supported by good statistics. Each major operation was supported by a map. There are also some maps showing selected local operations. The book consists of eleven chapters and four appendices. In the first chapter, Perrett has written the establishment and first experiences including panzers' first using in the Spanish Civil War. Next three chapters, he has continued with the role of panzers interdependently to the major events during campaigns in Poland, Norway and Denmark, France, Balkans and Barbarossa up to the end of Moscow. In the fifth chapter, he has made comparison of panzers, their critics, upgrades and early actions for preparing German Summer Offensive in 1942. In the next chapter he has included the Operation Case Blue, Stalingrad disaster and Battle for Kharkov. He has set apart the seventh chapter for about the panzer actions in North Africa and Meditterennean. Eighth chapter has a significance due to the development of superior class of panzers and their first experience in the Battle of Kursk. This chapter also covers the events in the Eastern Front during the first half of 1944. In the next chapter, Perrett has completed the previous events upto 1945. In chapter ten he has focused on the Italian and Western Fronts. In the last chapter, Perrett compiled all fronts focusing on panzer foeces in 1945. In appendices you can find more information about German tank design, short histories of German panzer divisions, orders of battles of German, Soviet, British and the US armored units. The book is very helpful for military history researchers and it is an excellent guide to the German panzers.

Straight from over thirty of today's most innovative CEOs come the ideas that are reshaping and reinvigorating the modern corporation-written exclusively for this book. Straight from the CEO is a major work, because the world rarely hears directly from the great contemporary business leaders-the chief movers and shakers of major corporations. Working closely with the Price Waterhouse management team, a wide variety of chief executives who are successfully managing today's rapid pace of economic change present their ideas about leading and motivating people, unleashing innovation and creativity, and learning from customers to revitalize their businesses. Among the CEOs represented in the book are the heads of British Airways, Compaq Computer, Monsanto, Royal Dutch/Shell, Enron, Chase Manhattan Bank, and Warner-Lambert. The scope is worldwide: from Bangkok to Jakarta, from Dusseldorf to Dallas. No ivory tower theorizing, no speeches, no "consultant speak," these are the practical insights of leaders who every day must find ways to test and validate new ideas, implement change to improve the bottom line, and ultimately focus on the core ideas that will truly reshape their corporation.

Straight from the CEO is an important tool for managers at every level, focusing on such issues as creating loyalty to customers, organizing globally, fostering individual employee motivation, and leveraging corporate values to enhance performance. These are the pressing issues that face every manager who strives to sort out valuable contributions from impractical ideas, the gold from the dross, and then take action that gets results. As intellectually stimulating as it is practical, Straight from the CEO is an invaluable report from the executive trenches.

By necessity brief, the many pieces (I hesitate to call them chapters or even articles) lack depth, assume much and as a result are quite unstatisfying; but they do leave the reader hungry for more!

William Dauphinais is Vice Chairman, Human Capital for PricewaterhouseCoopers. He co-authored with Colin Price two previous books, The Paradox Principles and Better Change. He has 25 years of business experience covering a broad range of organizational change, business reengineering, financial planning, and information technology issues. He received both his undergraduate degree and his MBA from the University of Michigan. Colin Price was previously a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he oversaw a Strategic Change Consulting, a practice of 3,000 consultants working with global clients in managing large-scale corporate transformations. He has a BA in Economics and graduate degrees in Organizational Psychology. Married with one child, he lives outside London.

Reviewed by Azlan Adnan. Formerly Business Development Manager with KPMG, Azlan Adnan is currently Managing Partner of Azlan & Koh Knowledge and Professional Management Group, an education and management consulting practice based in Kota Kinabalu. He holds a Master's degree in International Business and Management from the Westminster Business School, London.

Very persuasive book, with new and bright ideas for the future. It has motivated me to become a more people oriented person. I will take closer looks and my employees needs and wants, taking care of the customer has become one of my greatest concerns. Thank you for the edge on life. Omar Cumberbatch, CEO Royal Family Pro.

Based on a collection of essays by global corporate leaders, the book is structured around 6 themes: globalisation, radical change, leadership, culture, innovation, and customer relationship. Percy Barnevik of ABB, explains how to balance global resources and local autonomy, Richard Evans of British Aerospace shows why radical changes required CEOs to get out of their ivory towers. The book is well illustred and easy to read. It doesn't contain academic theory or consultancy methods. It is a step by step guide explained by experienced CEO who can help solve your company's problems. Franck Renand, Prof. of Strategic Management, ISLA, Oporto, Portugal.

Most books out there are very dry and pedagogical. Every now and then, we all need to relax a bit and get a fresh look at how organizations operate. This book hits the mark in that respect.

Although this book is short (75 pages), it is long on practical tips for teams and manages to discuss a well-worn topic in a refreshingly imaginative and absorbing manner. This book will make your next airplane flight zoom by

I bought this book as part of a Christian pre-school character education program - this book is included in the "courage" theme. The story is a bit over the head of my pre-school audience, but the illustrations are wonderful.

This whole series of four books are about the best I have seen of Bible-based books for children. In Courage, Esther, nice artistic touches include a page reminiscent of Cinderella and her stepsisters primping for the ball, a Persian cat on just about every page once Esther becomes the Persian queen, and vivid, colorful details on every page. From a text standpoint, the storyline is interesting and relatively detailed, yet it does not include extraneous imaginary details like making up names for Esther's deceased parents. These books are a great way to introduce kids to some of the important stories of the Old Testament.

Max Green's fascinating exploration of the dwindling of organized labor in the United States has the slightly mournful tone of the former "true believer" but is refreshingly without the corrosive "sour grapes" approach that too often accompanies that tone.

In this heavily footnoted but very readable work, Green explains American labor unions were organized, gained power and ruled during a time when the US economy was dominated by huge industrial enterprises which were members of seemingly invincible tariff-protected domestic monopolies or near-monopolies. Their workforces were composed largely of single-task semiskilled and unskilled manual workers. All rhetoric and behavior to the contrary, labor leaders for years shared the economic and political outlooks of their presumed business "adversaries."

The 1970s and '80s, which saw foreign big and domestic small-business competition, the development of economical information and sophisticated production technologies, the rise of the well educated "knowledge worker," and government decontrol of key industries completely changed the socioeconimic climate of this nation and the world. Business, although fitfully and often ineffectively, did successfully adapt to this new commercial landscape over time. Labor chose not to, instead acting more and more like backward-looking medieval guilds and gravitating to the radical left, embracing every fringe group that had little to do with business or even labor, and to government, the last real "monopoly."

Green's work is flawed in the notable absence of any discussion of high-level corruption and organized crime infiltration that seriously damaged labor's effectiveness and tarnished its reputation over time. Also, greater discussion of the increasing dominance of small and medium sized businesses in the US economy and their strong immunity to organization efforts combined with the exposure of labor's legal immunity from prosecution for often heinous crimes against persons and property would have made for a more complete work.

In this very reader-friendly work, Max Green describes the slow demise of the American Labor movement. His thesis rests on the fact that the emergence of the New Politics of the New Democrats in the late 60's early 70's brought the political aspect of organized labor away from the "bread and butter" issues of Gompers -- which rejected socialism -- to an increasinly liberal movement with declinig membership and influence.

He shows how this drift has coincided with labor abandoning the political center for the political left, and how its traditional approval of capitalism has turned into an unhealthy skepticism of market forces that is increasingly out-of-touch with the modern world. In short, the democratic nature of unionism was undermined by the New Lefts direction toward seeking special protections for minorities, rather than seeking gains for the whole. He further points out how the policies of the New Left actually hurt a core group of union members, middle class white America, and forced them to seek poltical representation outside of the traditional Labor-Democrat relationship. Thus was born, the Reagan-Democrat.

Green's work is well documented and worth reading, and has serious implications in contemporay society. Of greatest importantce is the need for middle America to gain representation -- a third party -- that would seek a more equal distribution of wealth. In short, raising the economic standard of living for all will likely adress the social issues of minorities as well.

Freemasonry At The Top is a must read for officers in the lodge. The book gives ideas to stimulate a dormant lodge, build membership, and to get members involved that have not attended in along time.

I think should be the title of this book. I recommend it as a read thru of a step by step guide for those interested in line work and advancing in Masonary.

This is a great story. Any horse crazy kid would be able to relate to the competitiveness and jealousy that often accompanies competition against peers who may be more fortunate than themselves. The outcome is heartwarming, but the main character horse has the name you'll never forget..."Woody Chip." It's worth finding a copy.

This was definitely my favorite childhood book. I had checked it out at my hometown library so many times as a child, that the librarian had to tell me to let someone else have a chance to read it. Now some 25 years later, I have found it for purchase ~ I am excited! I will share it with my three daughters ~ who by the way are "horse crazy" just like their mom! 'Hard Luck Horse' is a life leason that allows the reader to experience that most things that are worthwhile are worth every effort.