Leadership

Rating:
Summary: Before you support the Matrix: Pause to Refresh.
Review: Some people have built careers with self-centered photo-op's depicting the suffering of others. Some people did it from the beginning, as young District Attornys handcuffing Wall Street traders in their place of business before the clicking press--destroying careers and reputations under later unsubstatiated indictment. And some people did it at the end with the tragic events of 9/11, having one of the lowest ratings of any previous such leader only the day before the disaster. Such leaders would not have sold many leadership books on 9/10/01. Yes, some people do look good on film as the resolute-faced leader. The problem evolves when there is no human misery available, some people create misery in order to fix their need for power. Is that the Jones-ing kind of leadership we U.S. and world citizens need to read and learn? Isn't that kind of leadership what we plain citizens have in gross abundance already--leaders who care only for their own personal power addiction, who give only spin toward their responsibility to the lives of the common folk or the spirit of the U.S. founding fathers? Isn't it time... for a Pause that Refreshes? And in doing so, perhaps we clearly see the photo-optical illusion of some people.

Rating:
Summary: Character Leadership Education
Review: This is perhaps the most insightful book on leadership on the market today. Rudy Giuliani talks about rules, struggles, problems, choices, tragedy, strategies, decisions -- even baseball and business. He tells us how his life experiences helped him to grow as a leader. You learn math from a mathematician and physics from a physicist. So too do you learn leadership from a leader. As well as drawing on his personal leader-building experiences, Rudy Giulani cultivated his leadership skills through a lifetime of reading the kind of books, such as Norman Thomas Remick's "West Point: Character Leadership Education", that develop ones leadership philosophy through studying the greatest leaders of all time. "Leadership" by Rudolph Giuliani is a book that has something for everyone.

Rating:
Summary: Mixed Bag of Authority
Review: Rudolph Giuliani knows what it takes to lead our country, at least as far as the emotive strength in the midst of an enormous uncharted crisis. He stood candidly, without the pretense that he was unaffected. He felt the same pain as anyone who lost people in the attacks. He lost his spiritual advisor--a priest, as well as others.

Leading New York is akin to leading a blue whale. At a certain point, the whale chooses its own route. The mayor's job, in part, is about convincing the whale to go somewhere.

Giuliani gained an unusual credibility about leadership ideas during and since the attacks. He had already proven himself as something more capable than LA's mayor as someone who could break out out mediocrity, and more visionary than Chicago's mayor as someone not content with merely maintaining. Giuliani raised the bar, and then jumped it well before September 11 catapulted him into new territory.

Giuliani, like Bush, like any American leader, never trained or studied for what response was wisest during a national-level attack. They don't cover this in "how to be a leader" courses. Yet, like Bush, he improvised as best he knew and we saw what muster he could produce. Though almost out of office on September 11, he demonstrated he was not the lame duck a lesser man might've been.

My trouble with a Giuliani-penned book is not in what he has to say about macro-leadership. He has the right stuff. But part of leadership is in the microleadership.

His personal life publically flailed before our eyes. Granted, his struggle against prostrate cancer is impressive, and I hope in the long run, it is behind him. But his marital failure is scandalous. Bill Clinton's scandal was horrible, but Clinton was ashamed of himself as noted by his Adam and Eve like denials. Giuliani, however, didn't seem to have the same issues. I suspect he's not proud of himself, but, in turn, he seems to not be particularly penitent.

I must recomend this book. It brings insight into a clearly complicated man. He's not the perfect leader, but, despite his personal failures and struggles, he still was a keystone in the rebuilding of America's confidence.

Anthony Trendl

Rating:
Summary: Because he deserves it
Review: I bought a copy of this book for myself and I bought two more copies to give as gifts. I'm going to read it and I'm sure I'll find it fascinating. But that's not the point. The point is, this man DESERVES to have a huge bestseller. We owe it to him. And we all know why. This is our chance, Americans, to thank Mr. Giuliani. And if you live in New York City, it is absolutely morally essential that you buy this book. This man proved he has backbone. So come on people, let's make those bones lovely for him.

Rating:
Summary: I am Giuliani...before me there was only darkness...
Review: This is the gospel according to Rudolf Giuliani, the former prosecutor who, as mayor, encouraged the New York City law enforcement community to believe it could do anything it wanted and get away with it. Diallo, Louima - - those are only the best known victims of a culture of repression that was part and parcel of the Giuliani administration. He may or may not have made the city a safer place to be. He unquestionably made it a less tolerant one.

This is Giuliani's official biography, and without 9/11, it would have been viewed a good deal less positively. Remember that Rudy was around a long time before 9/11 - - and the results were decidedly mixed.

Rating:
Summary: A voice from the mountain
Review: Listening to Giuliani speak about leadership is like listening to God talk about religion. There is no other source as qualified to discuss the topic. This is perhaps the most compelling and insightful book on the market today. I bought it to learn more about the former mayor's thoughts on the 9-11 tragedy. I got that and tons more. There are a thousand reasons why this should be the next book you read.

Andy Bellin
Author of Poker Nation

Rating:
Summary: leadership worth following
Review: I picked up this book casually on my way into a bookstore... to add to those which i would peruse. I quickly found myself thoroughly engrossed in this extremely lucid and extraordinarily frank account of Rudy Giuliani's mayoralty. The book is divided into three parts: the first of which is entirely concentrated on the day of September 11th as experienced by the man and his team; the last is concentrated on the recovery efforts post 9/11, the logistics, etc.; and the middle section is filled with Giuliani philosophies/experiences/lessons ranging from Arafat at the UN to the Yankees (of course) and accountability. An incredibly easy, candid and insightful read. Highly Recommended. (even to the remnants of anti-Rudy factions)...

Rating:
Summary: Giuliani has spoken!
Review: He writes it and it's about himself. He talks about his struggles, his strategies, his September 11 experience, and his advice. He talks about his leadership and how he wanted to do things. He gives you suggestions and teaches you how to make the right choices when an unexpected problem stumbles upon you. He talks about making decisions, making rules, putting strategies into use, and much more. Want to how he felt when the unwanted September problem had befallen upon him? Want to know great information in business and making choices? Or are you a leader of some group and you want excellent advice? Well it's for all of you!

Rating:
Summary: Phenomenally useful and interesting
Review: It seems everybody on Earth has either written a leadership book (e.g., Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld, Michael Dell, the Who-Moved-My-Cheese Guy) or had one written about them (e.g., Ghingis Khan, Jesus, Blue's Clues). So it's awfully presumptuous, our great admiration for his last months of leadership as NYC's mayor notwithstanding, for Rudy Giuliani to call his leadership book LEADERSHIP.

But what is Rudy Giuliani if not presumptuous, audacious, in-your-face? And, in the final analysis, the book delivers. Big time. There is great advice here, as there is in most books about leadership and management, but the richness of Giuliani's book is the texture, illustrating the points with fascinating "inside" stories from a career that merited giving this kind of advice even if he had not become "our Churchill" after September 11.

In fact, one of the great joys of this book, and a great piece of information to remember, is that Giuliani started writing this book well before the events of 9-11. Our lasting image of him is as a universally loved leader and stateman who transcended politics, but Rudy didn't GET to that position by accident. He knew when to fight, when to coddle, when to get tough, when to mend fences, when to take an unpopular position, when to take risks. He was an incredibly effective, though controversial, prosecutor, and an incredibly effective, though controversial, mayor. This book tells you all the stories, and shows you why he was so successful. Absolutely, the September 11 stuff is gripping, maybe the best material we can get our hands on about the event. But this was no quickie project designed to capitalize on the mayor's strength during that crisis.

This book was a long time coming, as was Giuliani's performance when the eyes of the world were on him. There is just so much great information, so many great stories, so much good advice, that you'll simultaneously find yourself rushing to take it in, and slowing down to make it last.
-Michael Craig

Rating:
Summary: Don't confuse leadership with management
Review: First off, don't get me wrong this is an interesting book. From the man who helped a city recover from a dreadful event; he is an inspiration.

Also, Giuliani is a fantastic *manager*, who was able to get the city of New York running better than it had for years.

My main criticism is the title, and the derivations of some of the anecdotes. From my reading, Giuliani doesn't clearly understand the difference between *leadership* and *management*.

Sure, he has a great technique for aiding communication, for setting KPIs and ensuring they are met. But these are management tasks, not leadership.

My greatest disappointment with this book was hoping to find some of his ideas and insights into that much harder topic of leadership but all I got were some great ideas on how to manage a city (a city that has a population greater than my entire country...).

So, buyer beware! This is an interesting book and gives you some insight into the man (even if you need to read between the political lines) but don't expect a book on Leadership!