Scan barcode
coachadnycbooks's review against another edition
4.0
Books about leadership can be pretty cheesy and boring. This was neither of those. Excellent stories to support the points and I found the points about chemicals in our brains and how they relate to good vs. bad leadership particularly fascinating. This book offered me some inspiration as I continue to grow my own leadership skills.
jmerchant's review against another edition
4.0
Very interesting theories, seems very plausible. Though towards the end it feels like it takes on a slightly political slant. He does try to balance it out, which helps.
This is an approach to teams I find more to my liking. While as team lead or lower management you may not have the capacity or authority to build it the it's presented, it makes sense to have closer team unity as much as possible.
This is an approach to teams I find more to my liking. While as team lead or lower management you may not have the capacity or authority to build it the it's presented, it makes sense to have closer team unity as much as possible.
mercenator's review against another edition
3.0
I feel like back when this first came out it would have been groundbreaking, but at this point empathy and advocacy for people in the workplace isn’t really anything new?
vladcalin's review against another edition
1.0
Very disappointed of it, it's just a rewording of "Start with why" but with poorer arguments and some more self-help cliches. If you already read "Start with why" by the same author, don't bother with this one.
And some arguments are just plain assumptions not backed by anything. For example, the author assumes that all cancer and heart illness deaths are caused by the stress at work and by comparing the total death numbers, he concludes that being stressed at work is more deadly that terrorism. Very poor paragraph that basically made me drop the book instantly.
And some arguments are just plain assumptions not backed by anything. For example, the author assumes that all cancer and heart illness deaths are caused by the stress at work and by comparing the total death numbers, he concludes that being stressed at work is more deadly that terrorism. Very poor paragraph that basically made me drop the book instantly.
ldv's review against another edition
4.0
The first part is about teams and leadership specifically. It looks at four hormones and how they impact our success with goals and people. It's good stuff.
The rest of the book looks at corporate success and failures, and society, from this lens. Interesting reading, but not as inspiring. Still, on the whole the book shed some light on aspects of my own life and perspective that was beneficial, so I recommend it.
The rest of the book looks at corporate success and failures, and society, from this lens. Interesting reading, but not as inspiring. Still, on the whole the book shed some light on aspects of my own life and perspective that was beneficial, so I recommend it.
thevalkyriereader's review against another edition
5.0
Big thoughts and a good foundation for budding leaders.
teibrich's review against another edition
3.0
Hm, I am somewhat underwhelmed by this book: I very much agree to the content, but I didn’t find a lot of new ideas. In essence the key message seems to be: build a circle of trust and safety and don‘t focus on (short term) numbers but focus on people and building relationships. I very much like the analogy to a family (you wouldn‘t kick someone out because inflation is increasing) and the final chapter on concrete advice for working with our device addiction.
turner_of_the_page's review against another edition
3.0
It was fine, but I was expecting it to be more.
“Start with why” by the same author was significantly better and I would recommend it to anyone.
This book becomes a bit repetitive with dubious neuroscience and too many military examples which are really just surface level generalizations “you wouldn’t want to be in a foxhole with someone you don’t trust”.
There is extreme repetition of the author making up examples of behavior and how the author believes they affect the human brain’s processing of endorphins, dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin.
A little science in a leadership book is fine, but the author crossed into some pretty big claims which I feel were not substantiated, so would have preferred either deeper scientific literature being referenced to explain the mechanisms or simply less authoritative claims.
The book is rife with shoddy statistical writing and claims.
“People who claim to be happy live 35% longer.”
A fine statement cited from a study, but the author presents this as a causal relationship (implying you need these good brain chemicals listed above to live 35% longer), but he does no accounting for correlation.
Someone with cancer or heart disease is likely to report being less happy at the time of the study, while reasonably having a shorter life expectancy.
If you are going to make claims about lifespan and mortality, it seems ridiculous to ignore the two leading causes of death and instead point the reader towards oxytocin levels in the brain from forming social bonds.
This is one example, but there are a dozen. Things like “Social media use up 600% over the last 7 years. Could this be explaining why millennials are so unhappy?”
I can agree with the author that I believe social media contributes to dissatisfaction with one’s own life, but this just feels like he had made the conclusion first and then searched for stats to support it. The 600% over 7 years reference period was something like 2007-2014. The point in history where the new technology of social media went from obscure to ubiquitous.
Imagine if I wrote “Car accident fatalities up 600% in 7 years. This is why young adults are so unhappy.” But the time period for the claim was back in the Model T days where cars went from rare to extremely common.
“Start with why” by the same author was significantly better and I would recommend it to anyone.
This book becomes a bit repetitive with dubious neuroscience and too many military examples which are really just surface level generalizations “you wouldn’t want to be in a foxhole with someone you don’t trust”.
There is extreme repetition of the author making up examples of behavior and how the author believes they affect the human brain’s processing of endorphins, dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin.
A little science in a leadership book is fine, but the author crossed into some pretty big claims which I feel were not substantiated, so would have preferred either deeper scientific literature being referenced to explain the mechanisms or simply less authoritative claims.
The book is rife with shoddy statistical writing and claims.
“People who claim to be happy live 35% longer.”
A fine statement cited from a study, but the author presents this as a causal relationship (implying you need these good brain chemicals listed above to live 35% longer), but he does no accounting for correlation.
Someone with cancer or heart disease is likely to report being less happy at the time of the study, while reasonably having a shorter life expectancy.
If you are going to make claims about lifespan and mortality, it seems ridiculous to ignore the two leading causes of death and instead point the reader towards oxytocin levels in the brain from forming social bonds.
This is one example, but there are a dozen. Things like “Social media use up 600% over the last 7 years. Could this be explaining why millennials are so unhappy?”
I can agree with the author that I believe social media contributes to dissatisfaction with one’s own life, but this just feels like he had made the conclusion first and then searched for stats to support it. The 600% over 7 years reference period was something like 2007-2014. The point in history where the new technology of social media went from obscure to ubiquitous.
Imagine if I wrote “Car accident fatalities up 600% in 7 years. This is why young adults are so unhappy.” But the time period for the claim was back in the Model T days where cars went from rare to extremely common.