economics-textbook

Sharanya

I've learned a lot from this book and, after checking it out from the library for a month, decided to get my own copy for reference and for training.

Looking forward to more books from Mr. Taormina!

But with Lukacs¡¯s help, you can manage to read Hegel with much more ease. I think Hegel¡¯s contemporary readers had no such difficulty in reading his works. Kant¡¯s propositions and the problem of British empiricism and continental rationalism were the common sense to them. But that kind of knowledge should be obtained, to us, with hard work through reading history of philosophy. Moreover, we can¡¯t sense the historical events like French revolution as vividly as Hegel and his contemporaries felt. We can¡¯t share the same horizon with Hegel. To overcome such obstacles, Hegel¡¯s time should be reconstructed. To do so, Lukacs traced back unpublished manuscripts from Hegel¡¯s gymnasium days to just before writing ¡®Phenomenology of the Mind¡¯. And that, he links Hegel¡¯s personal history to his contemporary events, to show why Hegel thought so. Lukacs¡¯s illustration is easy and graphic enough to grasp who Hegel is. It¡¯s the touch of master. As you know Lukacs is a celebrated Hegelian Marxist philosopher. He opened up the track Frankfurt school and other Hegelian Marxists followed. This book is so much aged. Lukacs wrote this book when he escaped from the hand of Nazi to Moscow. But I haven¡¯t heard of any big name with Hegelian trait since World War II. Only Marxist reads Hegel now. And in the field of philosophy, Hegel and Marxism is out of fashion. So you can¡¯t expect any master like Lukacs write a intellectual biography on Hegel. If you try Hegel, this book is ¡®must¡¯.

Practice: Challenge the process
Commitments: (1) Search for opportunities and (2) Experiment and take risks

Practice: Inspire a shared vision
Commitments: (3) Envision the future and (4) Enlist others

Practice: Enable others to act
Commitments: (5) Foster collaboration and (6) Strengthen others

Practice: Model the way to the desired objectives
Commitments: (7) Set the example and (8) Plan small wins

Practice: Encourage the heart of everyone involved
Commitments: (9) Recognize individual contribution and (10) Celebrate accomplishments

Those who conduct "360 Feedback" programs could do much worse than to base evaluations on criteria suggested by these practices and commitments. They provide the thematic infrastructure of the material which Kouzes and Posner present within seven Parts. The first introduces key concepts and terms: "Knowing What Leadership Is Really All About." Each of Parts Two-Six is devoted to one of the five Practices. Kouzes and Posner conclude with Part Seven, "The Beginning of Leadership', followed by two appendices which enable the reader to complete "The Personal Best Questionnaire" before reviewing "The Leadership Practices Inventory."

There are dozens of outstanding books on leadership and this is one of the best. I am especially impressed by the balance Kouzes and Posner maintain throughout between theory and practice. More specifically, they introduce and explain various core concepts and then draw upon real-world situations to illustrate those concepts. Obviously, "Encouraging the Heart" (Part Six) introduces ideas which Pouzes and Posner develop in much greater depth in a sequel volume which bears the same name. They conclude this book as follows: "We have said that leaders take us to places we have never been before. But there are no freeways to the future, no paved highways to unknown, unexplored destinations. There is only wilderness. If you are to step into the unknown, the place to begin is with the exploration of the inner territory." Those who agree (as do I) with these final remarks are urged to check out David Maister's Practice What You Preach, Tim Sanders' Love Is the Killer App, David Whyte's The Heart Aroused, and Larry Davis' Pioneering Organizations.