This book is insightful and energizing. I particularly liked the sections on Andy Grove and Robert Crandall.
Thinking Outside of the Box-Put into Practice
This book pierces the corporate veil. The author takes you inside the executive suite.
Clearly written, precise accounts showing how today's top executives apply their individual attributes and personalities in solving and avoiding business crises. The book demonstrates that managing is 4 parts art and 1 part management theory.
This book is both entertaining and insightful. It held my attention like few other business texts.
You Had to Be There
The most popular social figures of any age are characterized by being very effective one-on-one and in small groups. Their methods are often lost when translated into writing, because a great deal of their effectiveness depends on a state of mind, demeanor, style, and body language that are hard to capture when you haven't seen them.
Drawing on personal observations and interrogations in MBA classes, Gerald Meyers has created leadership style categories in this interesting book that are sometimes hard to grasp by those who have not yet met the leaders the co-authors outline. Although he shares many interesting case histories, the case histories are a little too brief in some cases to reveal much about the underlying person and what he (these are all men) does as a leader. That was why I had to grade the book down one star.
Some of the categories were instantly recognizable to me, such as Sizzle Sellers (the perennial salesman as CEO), Healers (those who bind together capable people after a major fiasco by the previous CEO), Saviors (those who follow a major fiasco that leaves the company devastated, and with few choices), and Dealmakers (finding common ground that expands value for the company, while creating a win for the person being negotiated with). I could name my own examples of these.
I had more trouble understanding Unorthodox Operators (which seemed to me to be a question of strategy orientation rather than style), Peacemakers (this seems like a variation on healers, with a negotiating issue at hand), and Brilliant Brutes (these may simply be smart leaders who like to zing their staffs and operating people -- it's a style, but is it worth memorializing?). You'll have to decide for yourself. These categories may have meaning for you based on meeting other executives than I have.
These are obviously not the only styles there are. Other styles including those for avoiding crises, styles for turning crises to advantage, and styles for containing crises. Those styles are beyond the scope of the book. However, I would commend to you reading Built to Last, which addresses style elements that are at odds with many of the ideas here and which help avoid crises in the first place.
I, too, meet lots of top CEOs, and there are other styles of crisis-solving that one can find. A style that I find particularly compelling is that of changing the business model by encouraging innovation in that area. I think that style will be a dominant one in the future. Another will be the person who can develop an organization that generates strategies that work in any business environment. So don't let your thinking be too limited by these style types. Better ones may be emerging.
The typology will be especially useful to boards of directors as they consider what kind of a CEO they want to lead the company next, and what sort of leadership team should be developed.
After you have considered these styles, ask yourself these questions: (1) Which style (if one of these) do you use? (2) What are the drawbacks of that style in crisis and noncrisis situations? (3) What style would work better? (4) Why? (5) What style would you most like to have others apply to you?
Too many of us are not conscious enough about our own styles. Some of the people in the profiles seemed quite surprised by how they are perceived by others. That's perhaps the greatest vulnerability you can have in employing a style.
Dealers, Healers, Brutes and Saviors is an essential read for rising and aspiring executives. It gives you a fly-on-the-wall perspective from behind the scenes through inside stories of executives who rescued their companies. It provides a useful framework for incorporating eight management styles of leadership worth considering during times of rapid and radical change. Don't miss it.
Once you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.
It is unlikely that there ever was a senior executive who has not had to face a crisis. It comes with the territory. But how he handles and resolves the challenge determines his fate.
Gerald Meyers understands crises. As the former chief executive of American Motors and now University of Michigan professor, he speaks from experience, which lends credibility to his 8 crises-solving management styles.
Professor Meyers presents the reader with insights from his guests lecturers, a group of former chief executives each of whom have faced major crises in running their businesses. Given Meyers background, one would think that he would pontificate about the pros and cons of the decisions these executives made, but he doesn't. Instead, he let's them speak for themselves, giving us their perspective on the challenges they dealt with. Yet, even though it's a one-sided account, the reader walks away with an appreciation of the enormity of the task that these chief executives faced, and the style they used to bring their companies out of the crises.
Praise for Dealers, Healers, Brutes & Saviors "These revealing stories capture what it takes today to lead your company through a crisis." ?Heath Meriwether; Publisher, Detroit Free Press "I urge all senior managers to read this book.? Most crises are sudden, with intensity building in a couple of days like a tropical storm. Gerry?s wisdom will prepare you before it becomes a category-4 hurricane." ?Dr. Ilker Baubars, Senior Deputy Dean, Graduate School of Industrial Administration, Carnegie Mellon University "Dealers, Healers, Brutes, and Saviors is must reading for any executive, who too often does not recognize a crisis until it?s too late. Gerald Meyers?s keen insight into crisis management has been invaluable to many corporate CEOs, including me." ?John R. Hall, Retired Chairman of the Board and CEO, Ashland, Inc. "There?s a huge range of responses that are feasible when you?re faced with a crisis. Knowing how real people chose, acted, and succeeded in managing their crises is critical to solid decision-making. That?s what this book is all about and why it is worth the investment." ?Edward A. Snyder, Dean, The Darden School University of Virginia "Confronted by crisis, the successful leaders profiled in this fast-moving, readable book universally embrace risk, take charge, move quickly, often, save their companies." ?James A. Henderson, Chairman and CEO Cummins Engine Company
based on 10 reviews
