Leadership Book Review and Reflection: Assessment 1

This document presents a student's detailed reflections on four key leadership books: "Faith in Leadership," "Good to Great," "Intelligent Leadership," and "Leadership by Rudolph Guiliani." The student analyzes the core concepts of each book, including faith-based leadership, the transition from good to great companies, the principles of intelligent leadership, and Giuliani's leadership during and after the 9/11 attacks. The student critically evaluates the authors' arguments, expressing personal opinions and insights, and connecting the theories to contemporary leadership contexts. The assignment fulfills a requirement for an assessment, emphasizing the student's understanding and application of leadership principles within both for-profit and not-for-profit environments. The student also discusses the books' strengths and weaknesses, providing a comprehensive overview of the leadership lessons presented.

Running head: ADVANCED LEADERSHIP AND DECISION MAKING
ADVANCED LEADERSHIP AND DECISION MAKING
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Task 1- Faith in Leadership by Robert Banks and Kimberly Powell
From the book Faith in Leadership by Robert Banks and Kimberly Powell I understand
how faith in leadership teaches leaders how to effectively live out with their faith at work. Faith
in leadership also helps the clergy men and members in an organization to have a better
understanding of the business leaders. The resources are meant to target the people working in
the main stream; also it helps them in meeting the unique challenges which is presented in a
secular working environment. After reading the chapters from the book I find that each and every
chapter is written by different authors from different backgrounds. After further research work I
have found that each and every author who has presented their thoughts in the book are
accomplished consultants, practitioners of faith based leadership from diverse background in
different kinds of organizations. As discussed by the author Benjamin William, where he says at
the Christian form of leadership is very much different because it is known to have a different
form of start up. The starting point of building the faith in leadership is with Jesus Christ and the
vision of the kingdom which came to inaugurate. I think that the authors present in the discussion
very easily tackles the unique challenges which stresses down the Christian leaders in working
in the mainstream of the business organization. I firmly agree with the author that a leader should
be implicit rather than being explicit. However reading the chapter I have reached a conclusion
that leadership which is having faith in God makes the work to be beneficial, fulfilled and keeps
the organization healthy. The book will be a great value to those in leadership who want to
explore the issues and problems which are faced in having faith in a leader and how a particular
leadership style impacts the workplace. I think that this book is a great value to those who are in
the leadership roles of the organization. It will also those person who are struggling with the
relevance of strong Christian convictions in today’s pluralistic community. The book raises a

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very potentially distinctive question to its readers which the leaders usually tend to avoid in
difficult situations. The writer Dee Pee raises a very important question that is “what is the
connection between people’s personal conviction as well as their public responsibilities?” The
most interesting part which I liked the most is that the book explores its readers with various
contributions from the wide measurement of the Christian tradition (Banks and Powell 2000).
The book has properly explained how and whether faith should play in the leadership or not.
However, the book consists of various individual essays which are written by enormous writers
from all around the world. I personally liked two of the authors where Isabel Lopez writes about
how he is successful in finding wisdom and purpose in chaotic times and William Diehl who has
addressed the difficulties of sharing personal faith with the co workers in an organization.
Task 2 – Good to Great by Jim Collins
Jim Collins the author of the book had asked a question in his last book that can a good
company become a great company in the coming years, if so how is it possible. The author in
this book concludes that it is very much possible for a good company in becoming a great one by
working hard and meeting its goals. Jim and his research tem which consisted of twenty one
person had worked hard in their management research firm in order to find the possible reasons
which can help a company to achieve its goals and establish further. I really feel that they have
worked hard all the days where Jim along with the team had read and encoded more than 6000
articles generated interview transcripts and created huge amount of computer data in the five
year project before publishing the book. In the book Good to Great Collins has successfully
discussed about those companies which have achieved its success and has made the Fortune 500.
After reading the articles I have found that Jim has included more than 1400 companies. From
those companies Jim and his research team has found out 11 of the most successful companies

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which has met their marling criteria. Walgreens, Circuit City and Kimberly Clerk are few from
the successful companies. Stellar Success is something which Collins has highlighted out in his
book. The Stellar success is termed as the HedgeHog Concept which is termed by the author of
the book.
After further research and analysis I have found out that the HedgeHog Concept is a
product as well as a service which provides a company the factors to achieve and outshine its
strengths and success with the worldwide competitors. Later the author has discussed how the
concept has helped many companies in driving their economic engine and how to be passionate
about it. However there are various companies from different kinds of industries which are
engaged with the vision and strategies formed by Collins (Collins, 2009). The particular part
which I did not like in the book is where Collins in his approach has asked the business leaders
and top management teams to be convivial and extrovert in different points of decision making
for their organization. I think that the business leaders and entrepreneurs should stay humble,
open minded and extrovert when making any decision for the company. I have found out that the
research team has successfully contrasted the good to great companies with a selective set of
companies which has failed to leap from the good to the great. The findings of the book will be
highlighting the readers and shed light on the areas of the managerial department of the
organization. It will be able to point out the strategies of the selected companies. The things
which are really shocking to me are that the research team has been successful in finding the
level 5 leaders of the organization. The author has well combined the culture of discipline with
the ethics of entrepreneurship and has resulted in getting magical results. The way the author
concluded the book was really very impressive where he asked the good companies in order to
think differently abut the role of technology in their business organization.

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Task 3 – Intelligent Leadership by Alistair Mant
Of all the books where I have read about the leadership styles and leadership theories,
the book Intelligent leadership by the author Alistair Mant has proven to be one of the best in the
market. The book contains an irresistibly perceptive journey which brings alive the two most
important qualities of leadership styles that is the intelligent leadership style and leading
leadership styles. These are the two factors which are able to count the most in achieving the
goal to lead a successful life of leadership in the workplace. The book portraits a good read to the
readers of the book which are full of inspirational stories of the unexpected leaders in workplace
who have strived hard to achieve success in their lives. The author has also found out a beautiful
way out in explaining the bottom line of management with the example of the bicycle and the
frog. I think that the bikes are the most interesting thing a man can have. A person can take his
bicycle apart and open up all the parts it is build up of. A person can very clearly take apart the
pair of wheels and add a new set of the wheels if possible. He can also apply at few places where
it is required, opening the joints and greasing the parts will be helpful. If someone is not liking
the coloring and graphic designs of the bicycle, he can also open the parts and repaint it and keep
and leave it open in the air or a covered place leaving it to dry. After few weeks he can just
reassemble the parts and get back to it by putting the parts back together. It will be likely to work
again better than it used to work before (Mant, 1999).
Whereas when it comes to a frog if someone cut off a bit of a frog, it is certain that the
frog would not be feeling better. It will have a negative impact in the performance of the frog
and the body will have to compensate for the loss. The more bits which are chopped from the
frog, it will be likely to become less happy. If some more parts are chopped off from its body
then the frog will die. I feel that in the bottom line structure there are few organizations which

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are like the bicycles and few acts like the frog. The main issue which is discussed in the book is
that many organizations firmly believe that there are various tasks in the core of the organization.
Few believe that things are not obviously part of the core which can be ignored like cutting out
the mudguard from the bicycle. This therefore becomes a problem when people decide what is
the core and the peripherals of the organization. They fail to understand the organic relationship
between the two. The author has well depicted the gender differences in organizations and
describes how he has helped a lot of employees from destroying their career and has pointed out
their dysfunctions and recognizes what were the threats which have led them to fail in their
higher job opportunities. So, overall this book comes with both good and bad things. I have also
learned how to focus in the visions of the organizations and help the company achieve its
mission by intelligent leadership.
Task 4 – Leadership by Rudoph Guiliani
The author of the book Rudoph Guiliani had barely escaped with his life after the
collapse of the first tower on the 11th September terror attack in the World Trade Center which
had posed a great challenge in the history of New York. In his book of leadership he has
explained how the fires burned furiously near the site as the other buildings were in a verge of
collapsing down. He described his leadership qualities that how after the moments of the
calamity how he managed not only to steer the city, this also showed the world how he acted as a
model of courageous leadership. In his book of leadership, Guiliani vividly explores the horrors
and chaos of the twin tower catastrophe. I found that he has thoroughly explains the various rues
of management which he had enforced in gaining a competitive advantage of the emergency
situation. The rules which he has explained in the book will be very much helpful to the rulers.
Gulianini makes it clear that anyone in leadership positions either of a organization or from the

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head of a large corporate firm or an owner of a shop in the streets. Leadership can be used by a
person in order to inspire others as well as achieve a concrete result. Giuliani has provided
various important facts, figures, names, time and support ti support his thought of how building a
proper leadership can be better in the next days. He has discovered ways in what makes a good
leader and how he will be striving through the process of becoming a good leader.
In his book of Leadership Giuliani provides the readers a knowledge of leadership by
giving his personal opinions and examples from his own career that is from lawyer till the time
he became a mayor. A person should perform his own SWOT analysis in order to understand the
strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats a person has. It is not that a leader has to rule a
city or has to run a business organization, but can change his life by implementing certain
methods I their own life to change their behavior. I find the book to be very motivational in
terms of leadership. A person has to learn a lot from the leadership styles of leadership. The book
is very easy to read as because it is written in normal language. There is also a lot of information
given the author in order to support the things which has happened with Guilian and the phrases
from where he has passed through (Pennebaker & Lay 2002).
Task 5 – Living in more than one world by Peter Drucker
Peter Drucker is one of the most efficient leaders of synthesizing management who is
known for propounding the core teachings into the guide to personal a well as a professional
transformations. The works which are proposed by the leader in the book shows how the readers
can apply Drucker’s recommendations in order to lead a more meaningful life and fulfilling life
than others. He also explains how can a person achieve his missions and success by following
the traits which are provided by the author in his book. Being multi – dimensional is the only key

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to achieve happiness in life is represented according to the book. The book is also packed by
very useful and helpful tips provided by the author of the book on how to reevaluate ones own
work is discussed in the second part of the book. The most important thing which the author has
described in his book is that how a person can lead and achieve a successful career in his own
life. The author has very clearly described that a person in order to succeed in his life should be
open minded in choosing two careers in his life. If the person does not like the first career then
he can choose the other career which will act as a window to a successful career. I have found a
total list of life which is kept central to the book. The ongoing exercise of achieving a successful
career is by helping the immediate family which a person holds. A person should also be closer
the colleagues with whom they work in an organization. He should be aligned to the current and
future goals he has with his friends. He should also maintain a good relation with the people in
various professional networks. The author also says that how a person can learn from the
ongoing learning activities which include the present and future goals present (Rosenstein,
2010).
It can be understood that for a business legend Peter Drucker, the secret to a meaningful
life is thriving in more than a world. He is known for having a diverse set of interest’s pursuits
and activities. In this book of a journalist and Drucker reveals how by following the key
principles which are analyzed by Drucker can help a person build a multifaceted career and life
for himself.

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References
Banks, R., & Powell, K. (2000). Faith in leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Collins, J. (2009). Good to Great-(Why Some Companies Make the Leap and others Don't).
Mant, A. (1999). Intelligent leadership. Allen & Unwin.
Pennebaker, J. W., & Lay, T. C. (2002). Language use and personality during crises: Analyses of
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's press conferences. Journal of Research in Personality, 36(3), 271-
282.
Rosenstein, B. (2010). Living in more than one world: How Peter Drucker's wisdom can inspire
and transform your life. ReadHowYouWant. com.