Leadership

Rating:
Summary: Leadership Delivered
Review: Giuliani demonstrated the quality of Leadership it takes to reform a great city that was previously thought unmanageable.
For that strength he has been castigated for the warts that are
obvious instead of praised for his great qualities. In these times of naysayers it is refreshing to find a leader with the courage of his convictions. He rose to the occasion as every great leader has - including Giuliani's heroes. He lived up to his potential. By comparison Clinton is a tremendous disappointment because he 'played' when he should have worked and constantly failed to live up to his potential. We are all human and have faults but Giuliani demonstrated that man must rise above human frailties and do what MUST be done as circumstances dictate. A great book and a wonderful outline of the qualities needed to lead a great enterprise be it City, State, Enterprise or Nation. We need more people with his kind of performance in Public AND private life.

Rating:
Summary: Great Mayor but not a "leader"
Review: This book is a great title, provides and illustrates all the terrific efforts Mr. Guiliani did after 9/11, but it should have been named "Great Mayor" or "Management Lessons from a Mayor". A "leader" is someone that sets the standards others want to follow, but how can be Mr. Guiliani be considered a "leader" when he was cheating on his wife? When he got married he made the promise of loving and respecting his wife, and in that sense, is "cheating" the same as "loving" and "respecting"? One of the characteristics of a leader is commitment to his words, something that Mr. Guiliani owes to himself.

Nevertheless, the book is a very good title, and I recommend it having warned future readers that Mr. Guiliani is a great Mayor, a phantastic Manager, BUT NOT A LEADER!

Rating:
Summary: Interesting, but hard to follow at times.
Review: Rudy Giuliani says in the beginning of this book that writing is one of his favorite things. However, if I had the courage, I will tell Mr. Giuliani that I do not think that he writes as well as he thinks.

The book tends to be a tad scattered, and while Giuliani presents innovative and positive steps for the City of New York, it is debatable whether those processes were implemented fully.

(I personally believe that Mr. Giuliani was wildly successful in areas and came up short in others.)

-librarian-in-trainin

Rating:
Summary: Lot of useful advice for leaders in any situation
Review: Loved LEADERSHIP by Rudy Guiliani, New York's once
controversial but now beloved former mayor . . . the book was started and nearly finished before the September 11 attacks; however, he wisely rewrote large parts of it to include his reaction to the bombings and how his administration dealt with them.

There's a lot of useful advice here for leaders in any situation . . . yet what made it meaningful to me was the way in which it was presented; i.e., backed up by many real-life examples of how Guiliani has handled many crises in his career.

I liked the fact that there was not a lot of name-calling here . . . he did not go out of his way to badmouth anybody . . . rather, he emphasized exceptional leaders he has worked with over the years, and how they helped him--and me, too--understand such basic principles as preparation, accountability and strong self-definition.

Anybody interested in the subject of leadership should get
hold of this book . . . those who follow politics will also like it.

There were several memorable passages; among them:
Another way to avoid the pitfalls of "meeting drag" is to keep them moving quickly. A drawn-out meeting each day could easily have become a burden. To ensure a good pace I would make it clear why the participants were at the meeting--not to display mastery of the details of their areas of responsibility, but to share and receive information that would be useful to the entire group. Each participant should be aware that he or she was always welcome to speak, but never required to do so.

Until the World Trade Center attacks made it impossible, I attended the funeral of everyone who died in the line of duty in New York City. Being there not only showed people how important their loved one was, but had a reverberating effect, underlining the importance of the survivors as well. It's a lesson I learned form my father, who defined
himself by helping people when they needed him most. He used to
take me with him to wakes and funerals when I was a little boy, and I sensed how much it meant to our neighbors and friends that he made the effort. My father drilled the message into me with his trademark tenacity: weddings are discretionary; funerals are mandatory.

In, 1989, former New York State Attorney General Louis J. Lefkowitz,who was then in his 80s, came out to campaign with me one day. Louis Lefkowitz had run unsuccessfully as a Republican for mayor of New York City back in 1961, so he knew the uphill battle I'd face. I was sitting in campaign headquarters going over a position paper when suddenly he grabbed me by the arm and said, "Look, son, every minute you spend here you're not getting any votes. The people here are already going to vote for you, and if they don't they're crazy to be here. So
get out and into the streets. Those are the people who we have to convince." That's when I realized I had to create an organizational structure different from the one I used as U.S Attorney.

Rating:
Summary: A Leader Speaks
Review: Unlike some others who written raving reviews, I am not a "lover" of Giuliani, outside of the fact that I love him as God would have me love with him - without partiality. He is, indeed, a great leader, and demonstrated as much during the 9/11 attack.
The former mayor now gives his "prescription" for leadership, drawing on his experiences as a prosecutor, and mayor, and especially in light of 9/11. In chapters devoted to different aspects, Giuliani shows how loyalty, attention to detail, planning, and other qualities or habits have allowed his admiration to respond quickly and again, to the 9/11 tragedy. It seems he focuses a great deal on this, as he should. He was the mayor of the city at the time, and was God's man for the time. However, he is not a god, and should not be seen for any kind of worship himself. That would certainly be idolatry. The book is good.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Book That Everyone Should Read
Review: I bought and read Rudolph W. Guiliani's book, "Leadership", because of having read the Amazon.com reviews on it, especially the one dated October 6, 2002 called Character Leadership Education and the one by another author on leadership (Remick, Nov. 16, 2002) who lauded Rudolph Guiliani's leadership qualities. I have read the book (not just the reviews, as some do). Therefore, I believe my opinion should be useful and compelling testimony to anyone who is trying to decide whether to buy this book. "Leadership" was excellent. It presents Mayor Guiliani as a bonafide role model that our youth should look up to and follow (not like many of the sports, recording, and Hollywood stars, unfortunately). Rudolph W. Guiliani has performed yet another laudable service to America with "Leadership". This is a book that everyone deserves the opportunity to read. When you are finished, pass it on to someone who wants to learn, but cannot afford to buy books. Lack of money should not be an obstacle to the messages contained here. This is an outstanding book that everyone should read.

If you want to read the type of books that helped shape Mayor Guiliani's leadership character, I recommend your going on to read "West Point: Character Leadership Education....Thomas Jefferson" by Norman Thomas Remick, available here from Amazon.com.

Rating:
Summary: Giuliani for President
Review: Giuliani is a man of principle, pure and simple. He does what is right, not for personal gain, but for the good of society. A truly good man. I really hope Giuliani runs for President after Bush's second term!!

Rating:
Summary: Insights from the 9/11 Mayor
Review: Being stationed at the Pentagon, I was very close to the unforgettable events of September 11, 2001. I distinctly remember being immediately inspired by the leadership demonstrated by New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. I bought this book hoping to learn more about this heroic leader and gain some insights into how he prepared for and responded to the unprecedented and unimaginable horrors and challenges in the moments, days, and months following the attacks that claimed thousands of innocent lives. I was not disappointed.

I am convinced that no one can write "the definitive" book about the dynamic topic of leadership. The value of Giuliani's book was that he shared his personal leadership principles and then shared personal and often colorful stories of how he learned and applied those principles.

What I found most refreshing and of most value to me and I believe to those interested in developing as leaders was that he acknowledged and repeatedly emphasized how his experiences contributed to the leadership he demonstrated in response to September 11. Many people say that leaders are made, not born. Giuliani went a step further and humbly gave credit to his mentors and experiences in a way that made me reflect on why I am the type of leader I am today and want to be tomorrow.

Giuliani is the only person who could have written this once-in-a-lifetime book (at least I fervently pray that nobody else has a chance to write about his or her experiences as the mayor of a major metropolitan city leading up to and following a massive terrorist attack). I highly recommend this book, and believe the back cover comments complement my recommendation: "For having more faith in us than we had in ourselves, for being brave when required and rude where appropriate and tender without being trite, for not sleeping and not quitting and not shrinking from the pain all around him, Rudy Giuliani, Mayor of the World, is "Time" 2001 Person of the Year."

Rating:
Summary: Interesting, but self serving.
Review: It is an interesting observation that none of the readers heaping praise on Mayor Giuliani in this space are actually FROM New York City.
"Leadership" is an intersting book, worth reading for a few insights into the actuall actions of the administration on 9/11 and couple of interesting anectodes from Rudy's government.
On the whole, however, it is fairly typical of the dreadfull crop of utterly banal, pointless and self serving works of non fiction that are regularly produced by American political figures in the down-time between election cycles.
Rudy give us nothing new in this book, at least nothing that could not be learned from a quick review of his administration's mountains of press releases. Not surprisingly, the former mayor ignores many glaring problems in his administration, including his blatant disregard for civil liberties and his dreadfull treatment of critics (both in the press corp and the government...his attack on bullies is utterly absurd; he forgets how he used to call reporters "idiots" and worse in press conferences). Rudy also fails to acknowledge that the excessive fiscal policies that his adminstration pursued during his second term lead directly to the city's current fiscal crisis. We must not forget that while Mayor Giuliani took office with a wave of admirible fiscal restraint, he had led his city into a budget deficit in excess of 2 billion dollars BEFORE September 11.
This is an intersting book, but I highly recomend reading Andrew Kirtzman's political biography "Emperor of the City" before you read Rudy's book.

Rating:
Summary: Rudy for President
Review: All I'm going to say is this man should be president. What remarkable fortitude and vision in the face of disaster. Rudy has taken us beyond 9-11-2001 and then some. This book gives an intriguing glimpse into what makes this man so special. However, Rudy is special because he's ordinary--an ordinary American that has done good.