Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing and a waste of time
Review: "For example, I feel that polygyny is morally wrong, but I recognize that a sizable fraction of the world's current population...would disagree with me. While my own views are strongly held, I would be disinclined to try to impose my aversion to polygyny on peoples for whom it is a time-honored and respected practice." At that point, I stopped reading this book further. If the author can't 'impose' his views on others regarding multiple marriages, I wondered if he would have ever imposed his views on the those leading Enron, Tyco or Worldcom if they had sought his counsel? Even up to this point in the book, I felt that the author's views were not applicable to the business world where we often don't have the luxury of time and distance that the author does in formulating his opinions. I'm also disappointed in Warren Bennis' advocacy for this book as I'm a big fan of Bennis' books and have read most of them. Now, I will have to be more careful about books Mr. Bennis recommends. There are far better leadership books in the market than this one. My copy is going straight in the trash.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing and a waste of time
Review: "For example, I feel that polygyny is morally wrong, but I recognize that a sizable fraction of the world's current population...would disagree with me. While my own views are strongly held, I would be disinclined to try to impose my aversion to polygyny on peoples for whom it is a time-honored and respected practice." At that point, I stopped reading this book further. If the author can't 'impose' his views on others regarding multiple marriages, I wondered if he would have ever imposed his views on the those leading Enron, Tyco or Worldcom if they had sought his counsel? Even up to this point in the book, I felt that the author's views were not applicable to the business world where we often don't have the luxury of time and distance that the author does in formulating his opinions. I'm also disappointed in Warren Bennis' advocacy for this book as I'm a big fan of Bennis' books and have read most of them. Now, I will have to be more careful about books Mr. Bennis recommends. There are far better leadership books in the market than this one. My copy is going straight in the trash.
Rating: 
Summary: I highly recommend this one!
Review: As a leader, I found this book to be a great staff-development tool-- challenging enough to stimulate a good discussion and accessible enough that people actually read it. The author delivers on the promise of offering off-beat ideas and he makes you want to know more--more history, more philosophy, and to read more good (old) novels. I gave this to all my managers and found out that many of them bought it for friends for Christmas--the highest compliment.
Rating:
Summary: A Personal Philosophy of Leadership
Review: As the foreword to the book makes clear, Steven Sample has been immensely successful as a university president with a leadership style based on common sense, optimism and a personal philosophy of leadership. Readers looking for a dramatic, non-traditional idea of leadership will not find it here, despite the title promising a "contrarian" idea of leadership.
The first few chapters of Sample's book make clear that leadership comes from common-sensical values such as nurturing the growth of lieutenants and maintaining open communication lines with those lieutenants. For instance, Sample makes clear that undermining lietenants' authority or cutting off their communication to the leader spells sure death to the leader. This seems commensensical enough, and I doubt Sample is the first one to make this point.
What is "contrarian" is Sample's choice of inspiration: Machiavelli. Instead of responding to other "leadership" materials, Sample spins out a personal philosophy of leadership based on a selective reading of Machiavelli. Sample would like his readers to prioritize Machiavelli and other "supertexts" to the exclusion of pat, journalistic answers to leadership and management style. Fair enough. The exiled Florentine, Shakespeare and Plato make great teachers, and it's probably time that managers revisit them after being 20 years in the work force. These (Western) supertexts provide timeless lessons that are more digestable and practical than Sun Tzu et al.
While Sample's reading of Machiavelli puts a good spin on an unpalatable text, Sample makes the point that leadership is not for idealists. You've got to get your hands dirty, make unpopular decisions, and "give the devil his due." Sample's exhoratation to develop Machiavellian instincts is tempered by his equally strong argument for God (or conscience) in a leader's life.
Sample's philosophy of leadership is personal and "contrarian," but it is also exemplary. Highly recommend!
Rating: 
Summary: 3-Stars On The Gray Scale!
Review: First, let me say this book captures some wonderful aspects of leadership. The book is written well and captures the authors thoughts and ideas succinctly. Ultimately though the content goes in circles and he ends up presenting something not that different from any of the other books on leadership. If one steps back and looks at the forest presented here, it is that in order to be an effective leader one need make good decisions, evaluate data carefully, think freely, posses both Machiavellian tendencies and play the role of servant leadership to one's followers, and one needs to communicate and listen well. OK, so we have heard all of that before, so what is different? Well, one of the highlights is a section on what the author calls "supertexts". Great leaders ought to read the classics. Really. Forget newspapers and especially trade publications and read the story of Jesus in Matthew, the story of Paul in Acts, the story of Moses in Exodus, read Plato, Hamlet, Dante's Divine Comedy, etc., as understanding the human condition is far more valuable than the latest news articles or trade flash. This is a radical concept and a rare one coming from a leadership and business approach. It is summarized as "you are what you read". A novel and unique approach on what enables good leadership. I also loved the sections on "knowing which hill you are willing to die on" and the "art of listening. Both provide an enlightened view of well-covered topics. Overall, the book presents some great points but ultimately ends in the leadership paradox. Few can really articulate this well and fewer still can solve this paradox in practice. Books like this one often can derail effective leadership, which rely on a creative blend of all approaches depending upon the situation, by giving "sound bites" of information and directives which when taken out of context usually fail. In the end it is a person's ability to successfully navigate the paradox of giving direction and empowering others, making quick decisions and waiting for more information, and driving others and serving others, which will determine their success as a leader. The book implies this paradox, but throughout focuses on the trees and not the forest.
Rating: 
Summary: The long road to a balanced paradox
Review: First, let me say this book captures some wonderful aspects of leadership. The book is written well and captures the authors thoughts and ideas succinctly. Ultimately though the content goes in circles and he ends up presenting something not that different from any of the other books on leadership. If one steps back and looks at the forest presented here, it is that in order to be an effective leader one need make good decisions, evaluate data carefully, think freely, posses both Machiavellian tendencies and play the role of servant leadership to one's followers, and one needs to communicate and listen well. OK, so we have heard all of that before, so what is different? Well, one of the highlights is a section on what the author calls "supertexts". Great leaders ought to read the classics. Really. Forget newspapers and especially trade publications and read the story of Jesus in Matthew, the story of Paul in Acts, the story of Moses in Exodus, read Plato, Hamlet, Dante's Divine Comedy, etc., as understanding the human condition is far more valuable than the latest news articles or trade flash. This is a radical concept and a rare one coming from a leadership and business approach. It is summarized as "you are what you read". A novel and unique approach on what enables good leadership. I also loved the sections on "knowing which hill you are willing to die on" and the "art of listening. Both provide an enlightened view of well-covered topics. Overall, the book presents some great points but ultimately ends in the leadership paradox. Few can really articulate this well and fewer still can solve this paradox in practice. Books like this one often can derail effective leadership, which rely on a creative blend of all approaches depending upon the situation, by giving "sound bites" of information and directives which when taken out of context usually fail. In the end it is a person's ability to successfully navigate the paradox of giving direction and empowering others, making quick decisions and waiting for more information, and driving others and serving others, which will determine their success as a leader. The book implies this paradox, but throughout focuses on the trees and not the forest.
Rating:
Summary: Great new perspective on leadership
Review: Having heard about the now-legendary USC leadership class that Steve Sample and Warren Bennis co-teach, I rushed to get my hands on a copy of this book. I saw that Bennis wrote in the foreword that this book "has the look of a classic," and I'm inclined to agree. This is written by an unusually gifted practitioner who's able to distill his experience into some very colorful and startling lessons. I'll admit that some of those lessons were a bit jarring at first -- but they've forced me to reconsider my simpler assumptions and to find new ways of thinking about problems. This is exactly the kind of book you'd want to be reading in these topsy-turvy times.
Rating:
Summary: Ain't no "classic"
Review: I don't see what the fascination with this book is. It's not a horrible book, but it isn't as wonderful as some reviewers have said. I like some of the ideas in this volume -- the notion that many decisions don't have to be made instantaneously and that being highly informed of current events is overrated, for example. However, I wasn't fond of a number of things. First of all, for a scholar, there are no footnotes and no bibliography. This is especially disappointing since Sample suggests that we should read more of the enduring books than the current ones (to be fair, he includes a brief list in one of the chapters). Besides, isn't following the example of a 400-year-old book NOT being contrarian and following the conventional wisdom? Second, there's too much generalization. I prefer concrete examples that I can sink my teeth into. Third, the text often doubles back on itself, leaving the reader with a zero net gain of knowledge. For example, the author recommends that decision-making be highly structured (i.e., decisions are made by the immediate superior) but that all levels of the organization interact. In a subsequent chapter, Sample suggests that a leader sometimes swoop in on his subordinates and make an unexpected decision to throw them off, a suggestion that reflects Machiavelli's advice.
Sample is no fool, but his book exemplifies something that he himself states -- how difficult it is to judge social science. His operating theories about leadership may be correct, but it takes more than just a book about his personal experiences in two universities to validate them.
Rating:
Summary: Very illustrative
Review: I love this book. It's concrete, has a lot of examples and make your eyes open to the real world.
Leadership is a good place to be, but you know it is a tough spot to be only when you have no escape. This book shows you the real work of being a Leader.
Rating:
Summary: Becoming a Heretic
Review: I really liked Sample and Bennis's approach - it certainly encourages a different perspective. I'm very interested in writers who are trying to shake up some of the sacred cows of management. Management herecy I think it's called. Actually what a lot of it is, is taking the every day practice of management and thinking differently about it. Alongside this book on leadership I would recommend Smart Management:Using Politics in Organizations by David Butcher and Martin Clarke (pub. by MacMillan) on the subject of organisational politics. It had a similar effect on me.
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