Leader

Carl George effectively communicates the essential basics. This book does a good job of highlighting the difference between being a facilitator of small group time and being a leader (someone who is a disciple-maker). I have used this book as the main text for training small group leaders. It provides great material for interactive discussion and presenting a wholistic picture of all that small groups can be.

The best two things about this book are: 1) it helps the small group leader coordinate with the pastor, and 2) it includes shepherding, building community, discipleship and evangelism as part of the small group experience. It is the best balanced book available today!

I am a small-groups person. I have been in one small group or another, often as a leader, almost continually, for the past 30 years. I believe small groups are just about the most important aspect of a church's life.

I have read many books on this, gone to many seminars. There is a lot of good material on this topic.

But in my present role as a church consultant, this is the book on small groups that I hand to pastors who are wanting to know how to grow a small group ministry or how to better equip their small group leaders.

Why? As George explains in this book, most church small groups do a good job of promoting nurture and fellowship, but most stop there. George believes an effective small group should perform three basic functions, not just nurture. In addition to nurture, he believes small groups should be effectively engaged in small-group-based evangelism (George says that in any given year, only one small group in four does any evangelism), and he thinks that small groups should constantly be training small group leaders through apprenticeship. I agree that a small group needs all three functions. And so I use this book as the entry point for someone who is new to these ideas about small group life.

After this introduction, I point churches to further training or more in-depth printed materials about various aspects of this approach to small groups, but in my opinion, there's not a better starting point than this one.

Carter and Rovell do a masterful job of highlighting the fundamental truths of good business. There is a right way to play the game, and this is the rule book.
Please pay close attention to the anectodes about Minor League Baseball. Sometimes, the greatest success stories do not occur on the grandest of stages.

Congratulations, Mr. Carter and Mr. Rovell!!

I am a college student who really wants to have a future career in sports business. I have read many books but this book by Carter and Rovell takes the cake. It is very well written and they should take pride in the amount of research they did for this book. There are more examples that I can understand than in any other sports business book. Are there two better people to learn the business of sport from? Rovell being 'the guy' for ESPN and Carter being a successful businessman in sports. It is very hard to ignore all this experience. This is a must-read!

I would highly recommend this book! I initially thought it was going to be a fun read about sports marketing. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the book was more about how to apply lessons from the sports world to the business world. As a strategy consultant, I found many of the examples given (especially on brand building, sponsorships, and customer needs) to be very relevant to the kind of work that I do with big consumer products companies. You can't afford to miss this one!

I sat down and read it through completely, and was amazed at the knowledge, and well researched detail that you have presented. Notable, are the medical and technical knowledge together with the care and real concern for Parkinson's sufferers, which is shown by compassionate practitioners in many fields.

This has to be the definitive book on this subject, giving hope, support and the tools with which to live as creatively and with as much dignity as possible. I do not just wish you well with it's publication, but am lost in admiration!"

This resource book is an essential user-friendly compendium and tool-kit. By following the various practical strategies described patients with PD can be helped and encouraged to improve their quality of life, function as best as they are able, reduce symptoms and minimise the distressing side-effects of drugs.

This may not be as headline-grabbing or sensationalist as foetal grafts or human cloning, but has the advantage of markedly improving the lives of those with this unfrotunate illness.

This should be a prerequisite for every person graduating college, or even high school. Guides readers through relating to one's self, and then to other people and God. Easy to read, easy to understand, and such a life-changing topic!

This is a book that everyone that is dating, planing to begin dating or will be getting back into dating, needs to read. The authors have a God given gift of writing the truth in a way that is not offensive. This book should be a requirement for any person that you want to date, and of course a requirement for you too!

If Les and Leslie were put on this Earth to teach, mentor and impart relationship truths...they have done an excellent job with this book! I honestly felt as if they had been ease dropping on every relationship that I have had. I wished that i'd read this book a lot sooner... it would have saved me a lot of heartache, money, and time I spent making a fool of my self with broken relationships. Open this book and save yourself a lot of sleepless nights while looking forward to more meaningful relationships!

I recently had occasion to re-read James MacGregor Burns's marvelous Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox and was deeply impressed by how well its has withstood the test of time. The early paperback edition of this book, which was originally published in 1956 and covers the period from 1882 until 1940, characterized it as the "first political biography of Franklin Delano Roosevelt," and it continues to be the authoritative study of Roosevelt's preparation for and then conduct of his first two terms as president, when domestic affairs demanded most of his attention. This remains a wonderful book about this country's greatest politician of the 20th century, and it also offers many penetrating insights into the American political system.

Burns's treatment of Roosevelt is comprehensive, "[treating] much of [Roosevelt's] personal as well as his public life, because a great politician's career remorselessly sucks everything into its vortex." Roosevelt was the only child of a member of the upstate New York landed gentry, and he could have led a life of leisure. Instead, he was sent to Groton School in Massachusetts, where the headmaster, according to Burns, "made much of his eagerness to educate his boys for political leadership." Roosevelt completed his formal education at Harvard College and Columbia University Law School. Burns writes that Roosevelt's first elective office, as a New York State Senator was a "political education," and he became a "Young Lion" in Albany. Roosevelt served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy in Washington, D.C., during World War I and was the candidate for Vice President on the Democrat Party's unsuccessful ticket in 1920. In 1921, Roosevelt was stricken with polio, and the crippling disease would have ended the public career of a less ambitious and determined man. Instead, he continued to work hard at politics, was elected Governor of New York in 1928 and then President in 1932. This was just the beginning of a remarkable career in high office.

Burns makes clear that Roosevelt was a progressive in the tradition of Woodrow Wilson but was without strong ideas or a specific agenda. According to Burns: "The presidency, Roosevelt said shortly after his election, 'is preeminently a place of moral leadership.'" Retired Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes offered this cutting assessment: "A second -class intellect, but a first-class temperament." Action to combat the depression was necessary to restore public confidence in government, and the first Hundred Days of Roosevelt's first term was one of the great periods of legislative achievement in American history. Burns writes: "Roosevelt was following no master program." However, in Burns's view: "The classic test of greatness in the White House has been the chief executive's capacity to lead Congress." According to that test, Roosevelt was a great president. Burns writes that, "[i]n his first two years in office Roosevelt achieved to a remarkable degree the exalted position of being President of all the people." Burns explains: "A remarkable aspect of the New Deal was the sweep and variety of the groups it helped."

As early as 1934, however, organized conservative opposition to the New Deal was forming. (A newspaper cartoon reprinted here shows a figure identified as the Republican Party holding a sign stating: "Roosevelt is a Red!") Roosevelt was increasingly attacked as a traitor to his class, but a large measure of his genius was his ability to hold the more extreme elements of the New Deal in check. Roosevelt's political skills were tested in every way. For instance, Burns writes that Senator Robert Wagner's National Labor Relations Act, which proposed to"[vest] massive economic and political power in organized labor" "was the most radical legislation passed during the New Deal." According to Burns, Roosevelt's initial reaction to the bill was "invariably cool or evasive," and the president, with what Burns describes as "typical Rooseveltian agility," announced his support for the bill only after its passage was certain. Burns demonstrates that Roosevelt's support, both in Congress and among the public, gradually eroded in the late 1930s, but he was, of course, elected again in 1940 and 1944. Roosevelt's nomination in 1940 was especially skillful. Many in his own party favored maintaining the tradition of limiting presidents to two terms, and Democratic Party leaders lined up in the hope of succeeding Roosevelt. Roosevelt outfoxed all of them and was elected to his historic third term.

I believe it is fair to say that Burns admires Roosevelt, but this book is not a whitewash. Burns candidly writes about Roosevelt's "deviousness." And the author is appropriately critical of Roosevelt's attempt to "pack" the Supreme Court following his overwhelming re-election in 1936. However, in my opinion, these instances simply are proof of the truism that great men are not always good men. Burns took the subtitle of this book from the Italian Renaissance political philosopher Machiavelli's dictum that a political leader must be strong like a lion and shrewd like a fox. Franklin D. Roosevelt was both, and that made him a great president. This is a great political biography of that great president

FDR was perhaps the craftiest politician to occupy the White House since Lincoln. The Title, "...Lion and the Fox" is an allusion to Machiavelli's dictum that one must be stouthearted like a lion and crafty like a fox. FDR combined these qualities to achieve political mastery of his time.

This book focus on his life up to the start of WWII. It paints a thorough life portrait of the president and illustrates the events and experiences that shaped this master politician. Although enjoying congressional majorities like no other president (that certainly aided the implementation of his program), FDR had to over come the reluctance of both GOP and Democrat conservatives to rework the federal government into the active economic and social player it is today. McGreggor's book explains how FDR the man made the New Deal possible.

This is a well written book that gives evidence of being thoroughly researched. For anyone interested in presidential history, I'd recommend this book.

Gives a fantastic account of FDR from his privileged childhood and days at Groton, to his harsh induction into the world of politics; the skill at which he maneuvered the political currents to the New York Capital in Albany, and ultimately the White House. Once there Burns gives an account of passionate dedication to the American people, both during the Depression and WWII, that most likely was not seen since Lincoln. A must for anyone's Presidential Biographical collection.

This book is many things: a history on the conservation movement in Michigan, a glimpse into the politics of the environment, and more. But as a whole one is most astounded by the sheer number of people throughout Michigan's history who have made a difference for their state's natural resources. It's easy to let the environmental movement be seen these days as the sole domain of liberal soccer moms. Far from true, it has been both Democrats and Republicans, animal lovers and hunters, farmers and urbanites, and men and women who have all made a collective big difference. The movement belongs to no one alone.

The book's rich history and insight serve as a subtle reminder that the environment really can be a nonpartisan issue after all, and after finishing the book you're definitely left with the sense that it will be again. An excellent and informative read.

Dempsey is an activist affiliated with MUCC, Michigan United Conservation Clubs. He assigned himself the task of writing a comprehensive history of conservation and environmental politics in the Wolverine State. His title is apt: the overall trend is indeed ruin and then recovery. Ruin began with over-trapping for pelts, for fish, for copper, for iron, and for timber. The recovery was painful and required a different attitude toward resources and the vulnerability of nature. Only one governor gets his nod as a champion of the environment, viz. William G. Milliken, and no others. We are presently is a third wave of reexploitation under John Engler. We are slipping back into bad habits of allowing pollution-by-dilution. Then why did he did he use the subtitle of "Michigan's Rise as a Conservation Leader"? Because of advocacy by interest groups and individuals ranging from Thomas Anderson to Mark Wycoff and from Audubon to EMEAC and WMEAC. Some corporations come in for positive evaluation. Such as Herman Miller Company of Zeeland. The overall story is not presented in black and white, but is subtle and recognizes the role of current culture. The vignettes of conservation-leaders including Thomas L. Washington, of his own group, are balanced. The documentation is superb and is informed by -Aldo Leopold, Dunbar, Catton and especially Sam Hayes. Criticisms include no maps, a Lower Peninsula bias and listing only one web site. Topics not covered include the Rouge River cleanup, NAFTA and incoming garbage, deep-well injection, nuclear energy mishaps, acid rain, slant drilling, and mine-exit strategy and the Seney National WLP. The book covers new ground, is competently researched, interesting and relevant, a model for other state case studies. The hard-back copy belongs in every public library as a compliment to Dunbar's state history and Lawrence Sommer's State of Michigan geography.

Dempsey's highly readable history of Michigan's environmental ups and downs is an excellent motivator. He shows us vivid examples of how the short term economics of business will harvest a resource until it is gone; cut down every tree and catch every whitefish. His reporting shows how industrial companies will dump their waste on anyone who is unaware or unconcerned (remember PBBs, PCBs, mercury and Dioxin?). He also shows us how concerned, active people have successfully fought and won battle after battle with political machines, unconcerned companies and unaware publics. Without these peoples' efforts we would have dirtier air, fouler water and an alphabet soup of contamination. Dempsey also gives us a good outline of the currently critical environmental issues of ecosystem preservation and land use planning. If you want to be motivated and and to feel that you can be part of a solution, this book is for you.

Also, if you want to know what to look for in your cantidates for political office Dempsey's information about Milliken, Blanchard and Engler is, alone, worth the price of the book.

Sticking to the Union is a delight! Ms. Polishuk definitely has a gift for making Julia Ruuttila's words sing, and I very much appreciate her journalistic attention to detail with respect to the places where the oral history diverges from recorded history. Viewing the immensely important Pacific Northwest labor movement through Julia's eyes with Sandy Polishuk as a guide is like a well-crafted gourmet meal. Delicious, satisfying, nourishing, and extremely educational!

Julia Ruuttila was never scared of "Sticking to the Union". She lived her life sticking up for the underdog and protesting what she saw wrong in the system. Small, spunky Julia told her own version of events. Sandy Polishuk carefully and respectfully corrects the stories. "The transcript of the interview [with the FBI] reveals that Julia's responses during the interview were less heroic than her recollection." Ms. Polishuk offers enlightening context, real knowledge of radicals and clear, concise writing. This book is a fascinating account of a radical woman willing to protest. What a wonderful way for a reader to learn history. I highly recommend "Sticking to the Union".

Julia Ruuttila's life was amazing! And Sandy Polishuk has done a great job bringing her life to the page. The best part is the book is it's totally engaging and then you realize you've learned a ton of history about twentieth century activism (peace, labor, civil rights, birth control, women's rights etc.)at the same time.
While this book was written for adults, my teenage son read it too and loved it! He couldn't resist it because I was raving about it almost from the first page.

Teams are everywhere-in all kinds of organizations. Some work beautifully to produce wonderful successes; others are miserable failures. Why? The authors conducted research with over 6,000 team members and discovered five factors that determine a team's success: collaboration, relationships, group processes, leadership, and the organizational environment. This book is a report of what they learned, loaded with plenty of advice for increasing team effectiveness.

After an introductory prologue, the book delivers five well-organized chapters that correspond to the factors of success. The first chapter explores what makes a good team member--abilities and behaviors that matter. What determines how collaborative someone will be in a team setting? The second chapter examines relationships among members of teams: what's most important, where are the greatest challenges, and how can you make it all work?

In the third chapter, the authors look into team problem solving. Included are the distinguishing factors of good problem-solving teams, dynamics and processes of solving problems and making decisions, and building systems that support results. Chapter four really digs into the team leader, reviewing six key dimensions of the role. This chapter alone is worth buying this book. Following the research-based model, the last chapter zeros in on the organizational environment. The authors evaluate management practices, structure and processes, and systems in an insightful look at how the environment affects team performance.

Each chapter is preceded by a one-page Snapshot that offers a valuable overview of the chapter. Two indexes and a half-dozen pages of notes add more value to this volume. Good flow, readable, and useful. Recommended as a good tool for team leaders, members, and encouragers in any organization.

When Teams Work Best: 6,000 Team Members And Leaders Tell What It Takes To Succeed by Frank LaFasto (Senior Vice President of Organization Effectiveness for Cardinal health, Inc.) and Carl Larson (Professor of Human Communication, University of Denver) is a practical, "user friendly" guide to the harnessing the power of cooperation and teamwork for increased productivity and effectiveness. Individual chapters address what makes a good team member, what makes a good leader, problem solving methodologies, and how to best promote confidence and trust. When Teams Work Best is very highly recommended for anyone charged with the corporate responsibility for cultivating business group work skills!

LaFasto and Larson have composed a MUST READ guide for maximizing team effectiveness. Rich in content and advice, will give readers and indepth perspective on how to unleash the power of Teams.

It is the best book on strategy there is and its originality is amazing. It is probably the definitive book on business strategy. There can be no doubt that this book is an unprecedented masterpiece.

I am a management veteran with an MBA. I have taken advanced classes in strategy and marketing, studied with Peter Drucker, and run through innumerable Harvard case studies. Yet I have never before read a single book that so clearly, succinctly and coherently organized the fundamental principles of competition and market strategy in a manner that one could actually USE. This is no gimmick. The material is well organized and the principles are sound. I have led companies in marketing wars before with success. However, I believe I might have made my decisions more decisively and confidently if I could have read this book years ago. Bravo to Mr. Michaelson.

Profound, insightful and resoundingly practical, Michaelson begins his work with a serious error. He refers to the book as Winning the Marketing War. It's scope is far greater. Not only a reference in marketing, it is a serious work for anyone interested in management, international business, competitive advantage or any aspect of business operations. A well thought through integration of both Eastern and Western Strategy, it entertains and enlightens both the master and novice. Other texts in the field (Guerrilla Marketing, Marketing Warefare, etc), offer a beginning prospectus on warefare and strategic application but Jerry manages to go further as he carefully explains the necessity of strategies and tactics in all operations. From cover to cover, the text is packed with one example after another. Not only do they vividly illustrate the principles, they make it an enjoyable read as well. For the experienced strategist to the new manager, this work provides inspiration for not only competing but consistently winning. Bravo Jerry, this is the premier work in the field.

The book is short and so are the sections. And for some reason, it gives the book a certain charm. You can take a minute or two and read the next section, and if you want put it down. There is a lot of information in each section. The first part of the book is biographical in nature. The more interesting part, in my opinion, is the second part. This is where the editor really shined and his admiration and understanding of Lewis shines through. Each section deals with Lewis' thoughts on certain subjects. It is not really biographical...it is picking the brain of a giant. The book is truly wonderful and I suggest it for all Lewis fans, or for those serious about becoming more acquainted with his thoughts. Would make a great gift.

This book is a part of the Leaders in Action Series, which contains many biographies of great leaders throughout history, all of which are extremely stellar. Each book is divided into a biography section and an analysis section, the latter of which is always very insightful. The chapters are short, so reading can be spaced throughout a few weeks, which is very helpful.

But beyond the series itself, this book is hands down the best biography I've read on C.S. Lewis, barring his own autobiography. Terry Glaspey traces three main attributes of Lewis throughout his life: imagination, reason, and faith. Threaded all throughout Jack's life, these three things set him apart as a leader, and Glaspey brings them out beautifully. The man had such faith in God that he couldn't help but glory in fantasy and intellect, and after reading this biography I want nothing else but to lay hold on these traits and incorporate them into my own life.

I would first and foremost recommend Lewis' autobiography, _Surprised by Joy_. But for the facts Lewis left out and for a delightful analysis of Lewis' life and writings from an outside stance, this book can't be beat.

I had only read the Chronicles of Narnia, which I had found to be very profound, yet I had never really understood the breadth of the contributions of C. S. Lewis before reading this small volume. Mr. Glaspey does not waste words in this interesting biography. I have not read anything else about Lewis, but I feel that I know and understand so much about him because of this book. This book is divided equally between the life of Lewis and His teachings. If anything was a could be improved it would be that much of the teaching is paraphrased and summarized by Glaspey. I am certain that larger excerpts of Lewis own very eloquent words would have been better. I appreciate the small bibliography of other biographies of Lewis included at the end. This book does a wonderful job of highlighting a christian genius.