Becoming a Leader the Annapolis Way

Rating:
Summary: A Must Read For Today's Leaders
Review: Excellent book. As a career Naval Officer, I have seen first hand how critical each of the leadership principles discussed in this book are. Throughout fleet, these are the skills, and values which distinguish the highly successful leaders from the mediocre. In a straightforward manner, the authors elucidate the 12 fundamental lessons which have been carefully honed over the course of the Naval Academy's long and impressive history of turning out admirable military, government and business leaders. When earnestly applied, these tenets will prove to be of significant value to leaders and organizations, whether military or civilian. In this highly enlightening book, Johnson and Harper blend sound psychological and sociological knowledge with gripping real life examples. In addition to being informative and thought provoking, the book is a fun read. I strongly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Teaching Leadership in a Time Practiced Way
Review: The military academies were among the first to understand that leadership is a subject that can be learned just the way you learn a language, mathematics or computer programming. It is a mixture of theory and practice. You teach the theory, and you assign 'homework' that enables these theories to be put into practice.

In the military acadamies you are teaching one of the hardest leadership tasks, how to make people perform in the crucible of combat. Here leadership is more important than in most companies. It is a field that the academies study very closely. The graduates of the program are those who lead the Navy in time of peace and peril.

This book concentrates on the Navy way of teaching leadership. It is not necessarily the way that is suited for every environment, but after all, it is only one book. And after all, some people will do better than others -- we are after all, just people. This book describes the way that the Navy has trained its officers for a long time, it works for them, and as a business manager there are certainly techniques that are applicable to business practices.