Review of the book "Lead Well and Prosper"

I was recently contacted by Nick McCormick, author of the book Lead Well and Prosper, and was asked to review his book on my blog. I love to read business related books, especially ones that are focused on the topic of leadership, so I was pleased to accept the request.

Lead Well and Prosper is a quick read. It is the kind of business book that you keep on your bookshelf and reference to remind yourself of the core basic fundamentals that leaders need to follow in order to be effective managers. The book also provides helpful tools in the back of the book as good suggestions in how to better maximize effectiveness.

The subjects that are covered in the book are coveted longstanding principals that Mr. McCormick points out as being critical if you are to achieve the status of a "good" manager. He also points out that being a "good" manager will separate you from your peers by virtue of "good" managers being few and far between.

There is a management practice or principal covered in the book that will speak to each individual. One such topic that I personally am completely on the same page as Mr. McCormick and feel that in today's business world more leaders need to follow is in Chapter 5, which is titled “Listen.” In today's business world, all too often the art of listening and paying attention has been pushed aside for the "art" of multitasking. Have we as leaders forgotten that as much as 70% of all communication is in fact listening? Mr. McCormick reminds us in his book that we should be giving our team members our undivided attention and that bringing a laptop to a meeting or answering your phone when you have a team member in your office are both leadership errors. In Mr. McCormick's words, these types of actions will lead to members of your team shutting down and not coming back to you when they have quality ideas that they would like to pitch to you, which include the ones to which you could add greater value. I could not agree more! Again, this is just one example of the "15 successful strategies for becoming a good manager" that Mr. McCormick covers in his book.

Pick this book up once a quarter and take it to lunch in order to get a good refresher and to ensure that you are executing the basics well. It is an investment of your time that will be well worth the effort.

Thanks again to Nick McCormick for the offer to read and write about my experience with his book titled Lead Well and Prosper. I wish him all the best in his future writing endeavors!