Recommended Reading

I just finished reading Bossidy and Charan's latest, Confronting Reality.

Like their last book, Execution, I found the content to be straightforward, intuitive for most. Yet perhaps the authors were told after the success of Execution that leadership was still more about PowerPoint and politics than actual execution - after all, if you don't know where to start you tend to be hamstrung. The message is to start with (get this) a business plan; one consisting of a hard look at internal, external and financial realities. Using many case studies from Allied Signal to Home Depot, the authors illustatrate how an unbiased view of these forces can shape a workable strategy and a thriving - I would say surthriving - organization. The book gets a bit repetitive but perhaps if I confront my own reality - that today's leadership requires this sort of basic business refresher - then it will have an impact on the leaders for whom it is directed who will take the time to read it.