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Each chapter is a different case study. Some chapters are worth reading. Some are not.
Stories are great and interesting but WAY too hard, because some of the stories are years long and extremely complicated situations I feel it is hard to draw a hard and clear correlation to the principles he's trying to relate. The stories are true and fascinating and TONS to be learned from them and the principles are true and inarguable points but as far so the principles directly relating to the stories, neh, that is arguable.
There are many useful lessons in the book, but each one comes with a lot of more or less unnecessary or unrelated background information that doesn't help build said lessons. Solely based on content the book is quite useful, but the delivery and presentation leave something to be desired.
Not what I expected or hoped for. This was primarily a collection of somewhat dated anecdotal stories, with then some fairly strained attempts to show how they related to the premise of leading up. To me, it was a backwards formula. I think I would have gotten more from a construction of principles or concepts spelled out, followed with specific real world examples of how they applied. Additionally, the chosen stories themselves were decades old and may have seemed fresh at the time, but haven’t...
Not what I expected or hoped for. This was primarily a collection of somewhat dated anecdotal stories, with then some fairly strained attempts to show how they related to the premise of leading up. To me, it was a backwards formula. I think I would have gotten more from a construction of principles or concepts spelled out, followed with specific real world examples of how they applied. Additionally, the chosen stories themselves were decades old and may have seemed fresh at the time, but haven’t...
Not what I expected or hoped for. This was primarily a collection of somewhat dated anecdotal stories, with then some fairly strained attempts to show how they related to the premise of leading up. To me, it was a backwards formula. I think I would have gotten more from a construction of principles or concepts spelled out, followed with specific real world examples of how they applied. Additionally, the chosen stories themselves were decades old and may have seemed fresh at the time, but haven’t...
The use of extended case-studies is a common approach in leadership literature, but in my opinion, not the most effective. While Useem has selected a number of engaging stories, and I appreciate his style of inserting brief "lessons" into the midst of the narrative (rather than saving all the principles for the end of the story), unfortunately, I found most of his observations and insights to be rather trite and not necessarily highly transferable to those of us who are not negotiating foreign p...
This book is even more important as a voter than as an employee. However, I started reading this book due to a prior boss. I was pleasantly surprised at the political and military examples that were used to illustrate both failure and success. Not everyone enjoyed the approach but I would recommend without hesitation.
This book is even more important as a voter than as an employee. However, I started reading this book due to a prior boss. I was pleasantly surprised at the political and military examples that were used to illustrate both failure and success. Not everyone enjoyed the approach but I would recommend without hesitation.
This book is even more important as a voter than as an employee. However, I started reading this book due to a prior boss. I was pleasantly surprised at the political and military examples that were used to illustrate both failure and success. Not everyone enjoyed the approach but I would recommend without hesitation.
This book contains some good lessons, but I really should have read it earlier in my career. After spending a couple of decades negotiating corporate and government bureaucracies, I'm pretty much already doing the kind of things suggested by the author. The book's strongest features are Useem's anecdotes about leaders who have succeeded - or failed - in managing their bosses during critical situations. He's a decent writer, and I thought his military examples - especially those from the Civil Wa...
Could not take out any valuable ideas after reading through one third of the book, chose not to waste time continuing.
Great book with many historical examples about communicating up the chain. Really details how well communicating up can help you win the trust of your organization.
Great book with many historical examples about communicating up the chain. Really details how well communicating up can help you win the trust of your organization.
I learned about this book at an education bloggers' conference where it was recommended to teachers selling tech innovation to entrenched administrations. That's the dry part.The book is a strange and highly effective experience. As a collection of management/OB case studies, the stories and lessons mapped by a Wharton professor are wildly uneven (the last chapter deals w/ the Bible, no thanks, and the "Into Thin Air" account is suspect too). But for the practical animal-training recommendations...
About half this book is worth reading, the other half is can be thrown out. Unfortunately, the chapters worth reading are interspersed among the irrelevant ones.
Based on actual stories. Thats a good thing in my book! not technical or boring, applies management and communication lessons to real world situations and even biblical ones...
Lots of reading between the lines, because the stories are not to the point and the generic points he distilles at the end are as common as they are useless. Yet, between the lines I liked the realization that (and specific chapter about) the one at the very top is not finally free, quite the opposite, has all the customers/shareholders/board to inform/influence/persuade (in short, leading up is reaching out to those important for higher up). That's how leading up has the same trickle-up effect
This book is a slog to get through. While there is some useful information, a lot of the chapters are repetitive, providing the same lesson but worded differently. Chapter 9 is the only chapter written well.
My favorite chapter in Useem's Leading Up is the 8th, entitled "Persuading the Ultimate Authority: Prophets Abraham, Moses, and Samuel Intercede with God Himself." I liked--but didn't like alot or love--several of Useem's other chapters in this book. If all were like this 8th one, I'd rate it as a 5-star overall.Leading Up explicates how followers can--and sometimes must--lead their leaders. One need not occupy the nominal "leader's" role, in other words, in order to exercise leadership as anoth...