How to Think Like a CEO : The 22 Vital Traits You Need to Be the Person at the Top

Rating:
Summary: Insightful!
Review: Author Debra A. Benton discusses how chief executive officers succeed. She bases her information on interviews with hundreds of major corporations' CEOs and with well-known leaders and public figures. The experiences of so many CEOs make the book fascinating. Readers will be intrigued by the many success stories. Benton also extrapolates and explains the key principles behind the success of these executives. The book is an excellent, well-written guide that includes some well-known success principles and some that may be less well-known. The short, snappy, easy-to-read style is accessible. A helpful summary at the end of each chapter captures the major principles covered. We at getAbstract recommend this book to those on the way up in management, those interested in getting into management, and those who wish to apply these principles of success in their own careers.

Rating:
Summary: Solid perspective.
Review: Forget the people who claim that this book is a rehash. They need to read it again and stop skimming chapter titles and skipping pages. Yes, a lot of this material is covered in other leadership books. There are basics that every reader of this type of book simply has to know. The author can't assume that they know, so she presents the basics.

Buy this book for the unique content: The quotes. Real quotes from real CEO's. Dozens of real life examples of what goes on in the life and in the mind of the man (or woman) at the top.

If you want to see what motivates a CEO, it's in this book. If you want to see what a day in the life of a CEO is like, it's in this book. If you want to see how a CEO handles pressure situations, it's in this book.

The quotes alone are worth the 10 to 15 bucks. The easy, specific examples of things that you can say and do to improve your situation at work are just a bonus.

As a small business owner, I would like to thank Debra for helping me to bridge the gap between my home business and my career. This book showed me how the skills that I developed as an entrepreneur could be applied to my consulting job.

What prevented the book from being 5 stars? Author self reference. I realize that 'Lions Don't Need To Roar' is a great book, and cross promotion is all the rage, but borrowing the bulk of entire chapters from 'Lions' is a bit much.

Still, a great read.

Rating:
Summary: Who reads these books? It's complete tripe
Review: Only very naive or stupid people can take this junk seriously. It's not gonna get you one millimetre closer to CEO anything... or anywhere at all actually, it's just a waste of time and insult to your intelligence.

Rating:
Summary: I wish I'd known this when I started my career 12 years ago.
Review: Some people could say this is common sense. But my years in corporate America has taught me it's not common practice. Benton lays out in a clear, succinct manner what the best leaders in business or in politics do to be effective. You'll recognize a lot of the traits in yourself and a lot in people that you admire. More importantly you'll be reminded of the importance of various attributes and will be given examples of how to use this information for yourself -- to become the effective individual that you want to be.

Even if you don't aspire to being "CEO" you still have to work with one so you might as well know and understand how they think to make your own life better.