Leadership

Rating:
Summary: Rudy's Personnel Story of September 11th 2001
Review: Imagine there was no infamous September 11th 2001! And this was just another autobiography of a former New York City mayor.

Rudolph W. Giuliani known as "Rudy" was never accused of being ordinary. And September 11th forced him into instant recognition through out the world.

Chapter one of Leadership by Rudolph W. Giuliani is his personnel story of September 11th. Rudy comments that the day was an exceptional clear summer morning at Peninsula Hotel on 55th Street at 8:45 A.M. Now, fast forward to 4:30 A.M. after midnight at a friend's apartment in Manhattan the next day--as Rudy waited for the sun to come up. "Now it was our turn to fight back," he yelled.

Like a boxer, Rudy campaign hard for the New York City's mayor's race. Then, New York City wad the crime ridden city in the early 1990's. The City was to change when Rudy took command.

Rudy goes into his management techniques and strategy from "First Things First" to "Recovery" in his book: Leadership. Advice: Read the book with pen in hand and underline key passages. Learn the lessons from Rudy's book and use them at work.

Rating:
Summary: A MAN AFTER MY HEART
Review: LEADERSHIP By Rudolph W. Giuliani, The Mayor of New York at one time.

Those who have their entire life in politics often become spin artists rather than thinkers.
Rudolph W. Giualiani

I liked his book he has a good plan to live and lead by and was not embarrassed to change his mind when he finds that some of his ideas were not as good as the ones he listened to, recognized, and adopted. But mostly I liked his book because he know 'where the buck stopped.' It stopped with the leader, CEO, governor, president of a corporation or city or state. You can take the criticism and the kudus because that is what you are being well paid and enjoying the perks for.

Giuliani recognized the fighting standards his father gave him when he was very young and they paid back when he implemented them. He learned to communicate with the masses and individual humans. He practiced giving speeches many times and made it pay off. He liked words and would spend a lot of time picking just the right words to express exactly what he wanted to get across.

Everything worth the effort he would have his people make a plan not to just do the job, but to do the job better than it had been done before. Each plan would have a way to measure it for success and to measure it against all other plans. He wanted his people to be enthusiast while doing the job, do the job right and strive to do it better every time. Reports of progress would be made every week.

He made a couple of statements in his book that made me think. When he refused to let the Authority Palestinian President Yasser Arafat attend a party in New York, kicked him out, in 1995, because as Rudy said he would not 'stay bribed.' You could give him more land (Palestinian) and he would say he could not do what he said he would do, and come back for more land or something else.

By kicking, Yasser Arafat out of the party Rudy caused him to 'lose face' and Arafat had to get him back somehow with something he could help do in New York to regain face? For an Arab to 'lose face' is the same as insulting someone who is not Arab. The Arab will feel that he is bound to avenge the 'loss of face' if it takes his death, and he doesn't ever forget that loss of face until that it has been revenged! That may be one area where we should know the Arabs better; maybe it's too late now. No! It's not too late change Arabs to where they are a little flexible about insults. There are other groups in world that may have to change to. It's education.

Again, I think of the old bible, which had very inflexible rules. Most of these humans who think of life and death being the only way are still going by the old bible. There are many shades of gray.

Giuliani got an education from being raised in a normal family with normal rules in his time. His thinking, before acting was as a result of the 'old fashioned way' and the fact that he had a brain which he used.

Giuliani liked the organization chart as a tool and used it like living tool as it should be used. He learned it keep it up to date. He had it in his brain all the time. He know the name of people where they fit in the chart and used them for their strengths but knew their weakness' also. If he saw a weakness in area, he would assign a person with strength in the area of failing, maybe a deputy, to make up for the weakness.

All in all, this is a good book for someone in a position of responsibility to buy and use as a reference. I'll give the author four stars for an excellent book on management.
Roger L. Lee

Rating:
Summary: Intriguing
Review: This book has both dull and exciting sides to it. If you are interested in learning about the "backstage" of politics and especially Mr. Giuliani then you will be intrigued and would want to follow all the stories to the end. This book is a mixture of 9/11 events and biographical stories of Rudy's life and also our country in general. I personally liked this book despite of some boring paragraphs, because I want to be a lawyer and Giuliani describes how he rised to the top. Its full of interesting details and facts that can be beneficial. I admire this man a lot and recommend reading this book. However, it could be more exciting. At the same time if you want comedy and entertainment read some fiction! Its a great non-fiction historical and memorable book!

Rating:
Summary: Terrific
Review: I devoured this book...having always admired Mr. Giuliani before 9/11 and then observing his actions after 9/11, I was anxious to read this book. I was not disappointed...in fact, it was so helpful in focusing on effective leadership and the responsibilities that go along with being a leader, that I bought 5 more copies for my management team.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing book....exceptional structure
Review: I would have to say as a first time author Rudolph Giuliani, had done an exceptional job with this book. Me being a teenage leader in school and the community have found this book very effective to the many struggles and obstacles i overcome every day. People who will read this book will find that the exceptional structure by giving bold answers, great chapter titles, good points supported by strong cases and examples will see how great the book is. The tone i feel is amazing and is great as you feel he is talking directly to you as if you were having lunch with him or something. I recommend this book highly!

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Summary: Plutocracy In One City
Review: This could be one of the most dangerously deceptive and breathtakingly hypocritical books ever written. Aside from the rehashed 9/11 material, the book is divided into a series of banal Oprah-isms that no one would disagree with (my personal fave: Stand Up To Bullies, in which case Giuliani should consider standing up to himself) sprinkled with partisan political propaganda.

On the talk show circuit, Rudy says he ran New York City "like a business." He cites David Osbourne's and Ted Gaebler's influential 1992 book Reinventing Government as scholarly authority for his policies. Violating his own bromide ("prepare relentlessly"), America's mayor obviously didn't read it very carefully, because that book's Introduction actually has an entire sub-section titled "Why Government Can't Be Run Like a Business." Later, Osbourne and Gaebler have kind words for the Canadian and German universal health insurance systems, which are anathema to Giuliani, most other Republican politicians, and the pharmaceutical special interests that fund their campaigns.

In Appendix A, Giuliani has the chutzpah to claim "credit" for his city's 6.3 percent unemployment rate in October 2001, which was actually WORSE than the national average! It's true that that the city's unemployment rate was lower when he left office than when he came in. Unfortunately for the Rudy Fan Club, it's also true that Giuliani's New York lagged far behind the national economic boom throughout the 1990s. On his watch, New York never had an annual unemployment rate under the national average -- not once. What is more, his assertion that "New York City posted its strongest seven-year job gain on record" is misleading because it fails to account for population growth. To cite just one historical counter-example, in the supposedly bad old days of 1968 the city's unemployment rate was only 3.1 percent (half a percent better than the national average, by the way). In the Giuliani era, the unemployment rate was routinely double or triple that level. It also goes without saying that the distibution of income in 1968 was not nearly as skewed to the wealthiest 1 percent as it is today.

According to Giuliani's own figures, he inherited a projected $2.2 billion deficit from his predecessor in 1994. In 2002 his successor inherited a projected $5 billion deficit. Oops, make that a projected $6 billion deficit. According to a study by the centrist and non-partisan Citizens Budget Commission, at least two-thirds of the city's deficit was created by factors unrelated to September 11. It is now impossible to deny that former city comptroller Alan Hevesi, whose reports Giuliani flippantly dismissed (see page 157), was correct all along when he warned that New York City was sitting on a fiscal and economic time bomb. The crushing property-tax increases that have been imposed by Giuliani's hand-picked successor to balance the budget are the true monuments to Rudy's so-called "legacy."

I take it all back: Giuliani did indeed run New York like a business -- like Enron. Way to go, world's greatest mayor.

The core of the problem, which many New Yorkers don't yet realize, is that their city is this close to having a two-tier, Third World-type economy. In fairness, Giuliani didn't start this trend (it can be traced as far back as Mayor Lindsay) nor is it unique to New York, but Rudy raised it to an art form. The bulk of his so-called "tax cuts" were really corporate welfare ("corporate retention" is the politically correct euphimism). In recent decades, New York has evolved what some experts describe as a dysfunctional "economic mono-culture," whereby the city places too many eggs in too few baskets in the financial and real estate industries. In effect, New York's middle class pays one of the highest tax burdens in America to subsidize a relative handful of entrenched downtown and mid-town special interests. The unintended consequence is that economic growth is strangled in unfavored industries. It's not too much of an exaggeration to say that the only jobs in Manhattan are for overpaid bankers, brokers, attorneys and the low-wage immigrant janitors who mop up after them.

This should demonstrate how nonsensical it is for Giuliani to portay himself in this book as some sort of disgruntled neoconservative Democrat fighting for the forgotten middle class. Peel away the rhetoric and the hype, and he is the most un-middle class-friendly Wall Street elitist you can imagine. This should also discredit the media folklore that his administration was some radical break from the past, when in reality it was the crowning culmination of thirty years of myopic fiscal and economic policy.

Rating:
Summary: Good Reminders
Review: There is nothing revolutionary about Mayor Giuliani's book for leaders. It does, however, serve as a great reminder for leaders about some solid principles that will work in most any management or leadership context.

The heart of the book, in my opinion, is the stories related to the 9/11 tragedy. The courage, discipline, humility and strength shown by the Mayor and his staff is exemplary.

Rating:
Summary: Why Giuliani isn't a great leader
Review: Giuliani isn't a great leader because he exploits things to his benefits. For one he exploits religion and art. Does anyone remember the Brooklyn controversy when Giuliani denounced "The Holy Virgin" as anti-Catholic for his senatorial advantage. Well its great that he has an opinon except, he never bothered to see the exhibit, "Sensation." And by the way he calls himself Mayor of America and on what grounds? He's anti everything that isn't Giuliani

Rating:
Summary: An amazing book on leadership
Review: Giuliani has given us an amazing book on 'leadership'. Filled with excellent examples that make it highly readable, he covers the many aspects of leadership and presents the following points:

-Everyone's Accountable, All the Time: Leaders need to accept the blame if things go wrong - and expect similar standards all the way down the chain.

-Underpromise and Overdeliver: "A leader must manage not only results but expectations." Avoid mentioning what you've done until you've actually accomplished something.

-Develop and Communicate Strong Beliefs: "those who look to you for answers ... have a right to know how you see the world." A leader "must bring people aboard, excite them about his vision, and
earn their support.

-Organise Around a Purpose: Most organisations start off well, but over time lose focus on their real reason for existence.

-Reflect, Then Decide - don't rush: the longer you have to make a decision, the more mature and well reasoned that decision should be.

(For a detailed summary visit my site via the 'more about me' section)

All in all, a fantastic book that comes highly recomended.

Rating:
Summary: Great Insight for all elected officials
Review: As an elected official myself, I really appreciated Rudy's insight and practices in organizational management. I have recommended this book to my fellow governmental leaders. There is a lesson here for all of us, in creating opportunities for everyone empowered with responsibility to rise to the challenge, while empowering others to share in decision making and leadership roles. Some of his own observations about how he approached problem solving, and "making his case" will stay with me forever. I know I will be much more effective from the lessons I have learned from this book. A must read for those who already have assumed a leadership role!