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October 2023 MBR The Business Shelf
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Midwest Book Review
Nov 1, 2023, 2:11:39 AM11/1/23
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The Business Shelf
Founder vs Investor
Elizabeth Joy Zalman, author
Jerry Neumann, author
HarperCollins Leadership
c/o HarperCollins Publishers
www.harpercollins.com
9781400242764, $29.99, HC, 288pp
https://www.amazon.com/Founder-Investor-Venture-Capital-Startup/dp/1400242762
Synopsis: From Google to Facebook to Twitter, Every iconic tech company was once a startup. And while these companies like to paint an origin story full of surefooted confidence, the truth is usually something different: the early life of most startups is pure chaos.
This chaos comes from the vastly different motivations and incentives between those with the vision and those with the money. From fundraising paranoia to boardroom coups, with the publication of "Founder vs Investor: The Honest Truth About Venture Capital from Startup to IPO" co-authors Elizabeth Zalman and Jerry Neumann focus on the gulf between what founders and investors promised to do and what they ended up actually doing.
"Founder vs Investor" is the brutal and unvarnished truth showcasing each side's perspective, of the pitfalls of this tenuous relationship -- where bad blood can turn sure things into shattered dreams. It is the only book written by insiders with the temerity to pull back the curtain on the world of high growth venture-backed startups.
Critique: A fascinating, informative, and stellar study of tech company turmoil based on the differing perspectives and goals between creators and financial investors inside the tech companies that have come to so dramatically and fundamentally influence our lives, our economy, our politics, and our culture. While also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $10.99), "Founder vs Investor: The Honest Truth About Venture Capital from Startup to IPO" is unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, corporate, college, and university library Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.
Editorial Note #1: Elizabeth Joy Zalman is an infrastructure and information security expert. She is a two-time founder and CEO of venture-backed companies, building the first to a successful exit and the second to a multi-hundred-million-dollar business. Elizabeth has raised more than $100 million in venture capital from the most renowned investors in the world. She is a frequent speaker and guest at industry events and tech podcasts, in addition to being an investor and advisor herself.
Editorial Note #2: Jerry Neumann is a twenty-five-year veteran of venture capital. He has invested in some of the most successful venture-funded companies of the past three decades, including Datadog and Trade Desk, and has worked alongside dozens of entrepreneurs as investor, board member, and advisor. Jerry also teaches entrepreneurship at Columbia University, and authors articles on his popular blog, ReactionWheel.net
Creative Together
Steven Kowalski
Page Two Press
https://pagetwo.com/book/creative-together
9781774581629, $17.95, PB, 298pp
https://www.amazon.com/Creative-Together-Sparking-Innovation-World/dp/1774581620
Synopsis: In our era of rapid technological advances, changes, and disruptions, entrepreneurs and business managers are being called on to innovate like never before. The trouble is, simply demanding or encouraging innovation and collaboration doesn't work. Innovation doesn't just happen. It's the result of one of the most powerful and sustainable forces available to us: creativity.
If you want innovation, you must activate creativity. And in the new world of work, going it alone won't work any longer. We have to get creative together. Drawing on his decades of experience as a coach, consultant, and organizational development expert, conscious creativity authority, with the publication of "Creative Together: Sparking Innovation in the New World of Work", Steven Kowalski leads you on a three-part journey to reclaim your creativity and co-create with others.
First, you will rewrite the story of who you are as a creator. Then, you will learn to adventure together with others -- bringing your whole, creative self into a new way of working together. With stories drawn from real, lived experiences, research-backed insights, and powerful questions that will open you to new possibilities, you will master Kowalski's GIFTED methodology to unlock your creativity, and tackle the biggest threat to conscious creativity -- Creative Disruption Disorder.
Despite what you may think, you have what it takes to embrace the new story, take accountability for your creative power, and create together within a world in flux. Once you claim your potential, there's no turning back. By participating in your life with conscious creativity, you will transform the landscape of your future. You will become anew, with a deep faith in your resilience and resourcefulness, and a future full of possibility for yourself -- and for the companies, organizations, and causes whose mission you share.
Critique: Impressively well written, organized and presented, "Creative Together: Sparking Innovation in the New World of Work" is a thoroughly 'reader friendly' and comprehensive instructional course and an ideal 'how-to' manual for deftly instilling creativity into personal and cooperative efforts in the work place -- and in life. Of special and particular value to readers with an interest in Business Management/Leadership, Workplace Culture, and Self-Improvement, "Creative Together: Sparking Innovation in the New World of Work" is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, corporate, college, and university library collections and supplemental MBA curriculum studies lists. It should be noted that "Creative Together: Sparking Innovation in the New World of Work" is also available for personal reading lists in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99).
Editorial Note: Steven Kowalski (https://www.stevenkowalski.com) is a leading voice in the global movement for conscious creativity with more than 25 years of experience as an organizational development expert. Through his firm, Creative License(TM) Consulting Services, he works with clients to shape organizational cultures and reinvigorate how teams co-create new value. As a coach, speaker, and consultant-partner, he facilitates the creativity of scientists, engineers, business leaders, and professionals across industries. Steven holds a PhD in adult learning and organizational creativity from UCLA, and is the author of more than 100 workplace learning programs.
The Entrepreneurial Brain
Jeff Hays
HarperCollins Leadership
c/o HarperCollins Publishers
www.harpercollins.com
9781400243198, $22.99, PB, 288pp
https://www.amazon.com/Entrepreneurial-Brain-Waves-Entrepreneurship-About/dp/140024319X
Synopsis: When your biggest superpower is also your most critical weakness, it helps to have a manual on how to control it. Entrepreneurs are creative, bold thinkers and risk-takers capable of great accomplishments. At the same time, for every success story, there is a counter story of an epic collapse caused by a lack of a moral compass, values, or proper guidance.
The author of "The Entrepreneurial Brain: How to Ride the Waves of Entrepreneurship and Live to Tell About It", Jeff Hays knows the highs and the lows having ridden that rollercoaster many times in his life and career and provides a much-needed user's manual for entrepreneurs everywhere and the people in their work and personal lives.
With "The Entrepreneurial Brain", you will:
Gain insights into the mindset entrepreneurs need to develop in order to survive. And when Hays says survive, he means it: Your money, your relationships, your sanity, and even your life are at stake if you don't come to understand why you are the way you are, and how to manage it.
Learn specific business tools to enjoy even more success than you've imagined. From real-world step by step instruction in how to raise money for your venture, to how to build a build an email list and market to that list, Hays shares hard won experience that isn't taught in any theoretical school.
Increase your perspective on the common pitfalls you need to avoid. Hays has learned the pitfalls the hard way, letting his entrepreneurial brain drive him off a cliff over and over again. Failure has been one of his greatest teachers, showing him how to work with his brain and how to work with others.
Access the wisdom and insights of mentors and other leaders. Throughout this groundbreaking instructional guide and how-to' manual, Hays shares the transformational wisdom he learned from his own mentor along with insights and perspectives from a variety of industry leaders and influencers to help you experience all of the ups, and more, while protecting yourself against some of the downs.
Critique: Essential reading for anyone aspiring to, or already engaged in, and entrepreneurial venture of any kind, anywhere, "The Entrepreneurial Brain: How to Ride the Waves of Entrepreneurship and Live to Tell About It" is thoroughly 'reader friendly' in style, organization, and presentation. Impressively comprehensive, exceptionally insightful, "The Entrepreneurial Brain" is an important and highly recommended pick for community, corporate, and academic library Business/Entrepreneur collections and curriculum studies lists. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of MBA students, academia, entrepreneurs, corporate executives, business managers, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "The Entrepreneurial Brain" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $12.99).
Editorial Note: Jeff Hays (http://jeffchays.com) is a serial entrepreneur and filmmaker with a long colorful history of visionary projects. In the mid-nineties he started Capstone Entertainment, a film and television production and distribution company. Within its first year the company generated over $10 million in revenue and received numerous awards in the children's programming category. Since then he has started over twenty companies including DealsthatMatter.com, NextFitness, Podfitness, Zingback, MyCompanyRecords.com and Talk 2 Technologies. The companies he's founded have collectively raised over $100 million in capital through both private investors and VCs. Recently he has also launched several wildly successful crowd-funding campaigns, in addition to personally funding several ventures. He holds eight patents in the tech industry.
Belonging Rules
Brad Deutser
Matt Holt Books
c/o BenBella Books
www.benbellabooks.com
9781637744024, $30.00, HC, 272pp
https://www.amazon.com/Belonging-Rules-Crucial-Actions-Performance/dp/1637744021
Synopsis: The need to belong is innate and enduring, yet often elusive. Genuine belonging requires a bold approach, one that offers both depth and credibility to the work required from leaders whose organizations are craving a sense of connection, security, and acceptance.
With the publication of "Belonging Rules: Five Crucial Actions That Build Unity and Foster Performance", Brad Deutser offers nuanced, direct guidance for navigating both the pre-existing and ever-evolving social and organizational demands of today's workplace. The five rules within, based on extensive research and application, create a framework to dissect and decode the complex, complicated, and controversial issues of the modern workforce.
An executive coach and award-winning management consultant Brad Deutser gives leaders the confidence to address the most critical societal imperative -- belonging. His approach doesn't tell leaders what to do, rather he provides leaders with the how to: Identify the heart of existing power structures and societal mandates; Reframe the impact of inclusion at an individual and organizational level; Challenge and fundamentally redefine the relationship with diverse stakeholders.
Leading can be uncomfortable. "Belonging Rules" is a guide will empower leaders to shift attention, understanding, and effort toward bridging differences and uniting the "movable middle" which depowers the extremes, driving necessary change and desired performance.
Critique: Instructive, informative, inspiring, effective, "Belonging Rules: Five Crucial Actions That Build Unity and Foster Performance" is especially and remarkably well written and organized, as well as impressively 'reader friendly' in style and presentation. While an extraordinary and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, college, and university library Business Management/Leadership collections and supplemental MBA curriculum studies lists, it should be noted for students, academia, business managers, corporate executives, entrepreneurs, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Belonging Rules" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.99).
Editorial Note: Brad Deutser (https://deutser.com) is the visionary leader behind Deutser and Deutser Clarity Institute (Houston, New York, Bermuda and Arizona). Brad is recognized for his ability to navigate complex, contentious, ambiguous business and people challenges, both inside and outside organizations. He is sought after as an authority and innovative thinker on matters of organizational change, belonging, DEI, and complexity in leadership. He is also the author of "Leading Clarity: The Breakthrough Strategy to Unleash People, Profit, and Performance".
The Boldly Inclusive Leader
Minette Norman
BrainTrust Ink
www.braintrustink.com
9781956072112, $24.95
https://www.amazon.com/Boldly-Inclusive-Leader-Transform-Differences/dp/195607211X
The Boldly Inclusive Leader: Transform Your Workplace (and the World) by Valuing the Differences Within explores the concept of 'boldly inclusive' leadership, crafting an invitation to leaders (and would-be leaders) to reformulate the skill of directing others through a variety of self-examinations and pathways that, Minette Norman admits, follow no singular blueprint of success. Indeed, the heart of this message lies in its encouragement of leaders interested in fostering inclusion in new ways. These varied paths to success lie, themselves, in disparate opportunities that traditional leadership approaches usually miss, from adopting new skills based on truly listening to others to fostering the kinds of self-awareness that don't consider empathy and compassion to be business liabilities.
As Norman considers the various incarnations of inclusive leadership, she peppers her findings with case history examples. These both personalize the efforts and demonstrate their own diversity of approaches, solutions, and revelations. The Boldly Inclusive Leader is a "put your money where your mouth is" kind of book. Plenty of books and leaders parrot the ideal of inclusion, but have few guidelines to define this concept and even fewer roadmaps on how to actually achieve it. Norman tackles both in a vivid challenge to the status quo and the processes of corporate leadership that too often thwart their own stated ambitions and altruism. Especially thought-provoking are the considerations and examples of unconscious bias in the workplace, which every leader needs to consider and acknowledge.
Norman's honest and penetrating exploration of critical DEI issues makes this a book that not only belongs in any serious business literature collection, but also should spark spirited dialogues on diversity and inclusion in corporate boardrooms and in business and leadership book clubs and groups. Not one to repose on a library shelf until its lending popularity is spent, The Boldly Inclusive Leader deserves and requires high-profile exposure to a wide audience who would take the first steps towards empowerment and enlightenment in the process of managing, directing, and encouraging leaders and workers to be all they can be, regardless of gender, race, age, or life outlook.
EDITOR'S NOTE:
The Midwest Book Review is an organization of volunteers committed to promoting literacy, library usage, and small press publishing. We accept no funds from authors or publishers. Full permission is given to post any of these reviews on thematically appropriate websites, newsgroups, listserves, internet discussion groups, organizational newsletters, or to interested individuals. Please give the Midwest Book Review a credit line when doing so.
The Midwest Book Review publishes the monthly book review magazines "California Bookwatch", "Internet Bookwatch", "Children's Bookwatch", "MBR Bookwatch", "Reviewer's Bookwatch", and "Small Press Bookwatch". All are available for free on the Midwest Book Review website at www (dot) midwestbookreview (dot) com
Anyone wanting to submit books for review consideration can send them to:
James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review
278 Orchard Drive
Oregon, WI 53575-1129
To submit reviews of any fiction or non-fiction books, email them to Frugalmuse (at) aol (dot) com (Be sure to include the book title, author, publisher, publisher address, publisher website/phone number, 13-digit ISBN number, and list price).
James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review
Founder vs Investor
Elizabeth Joy Zalman, author
Jerry Neumann, author
HarperCollins Leadership
c/o HarperCollins Publishers
www.harpercollins.com
9781400242764, $29.99, HC, 288pp
https://www.amazon.com/Founder-Investor-Venture-Capital-Startup/dp/1400242762
Synopsis: From Google to Facebook to Twitter, Every iconic tech company was once a startup. And while these companies like to paint an origin story full of surefooted confidence, the truth is usually something different: the early life of most startups is pure chaos.
This chaos comes from the vastly different motivations and incentives between those with the vision and those with the money. From fundraising paranoia to boardroom coups, with the publication of "Founder vs Investor: The Honest Truth About Venture Capital from Startup to IPO" co-authors Elizabeth Zalman and Jerry Neumann focus on the gulf between what founders and investors promised to do and what they ended up actually doing.
"Founder vs Investor" is the brutal and unvarnished truth showcasing each side's perspective, of the pitfalls of this tenuous relationship -- where bad blood can turn sure things into shattered dreams. It is the only book written by insiders with the temerity to pull back the curtain on the world of high growth venture-backed startups.
Critique: A fascinating, informative, and stellar study of tech company turmoil based on the differing perspectives and goals between creators and financial investors inside the tech companies that have come to so dramatically and fundamentally influence our lives, our economy, our politics, and our culture. While also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $10.99), "Founder vs Investor: The Honest Truth About Venture Capital from Startup to IPO" is unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, corporate, college, and university library Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.
Editorial Note #1: Elizabeth Joy Zalman is an infrastructure and information security expert. She is a two-time founder and CEO of venture-backed companies, building the first to a successful exit and the second to a multi-hundred-million-dollar business. Elizabeth has raised more than $100 million in venture capital from the most renowned investors in the world. She is a frequent speaker and guest at industry events and tech podcasts, in addition to being an investor and advisor herself.
Editorial Note #2: Jerry Neumann is a twenty-five-year veteran of venture capital. He has invested in some of the most successful venture-funded companies of the past three decades, including Datadog and Trade Desk, and has worked alongside dozens of entrepreneurs as investor, board member, and advisor. Jerry also teaches entrepreneurship at Columbia University, and authors articles on his popular blog, ReactionWheel.net
Creative Together
Steven Kowalski
Page Two Press
https://pagetwo.com/book/creative-together
9781774581629, $17.95, PB, 298pp
https://www.amazon.com/Creative-Together-Sparking-Innovation-World/dp/1774581620
Synopsis: In our era of rapid technological advances, changes, and disruptions, entrepreneurs and business managers are being called on to innovate like never before. The trouble is, simply demanding or encouraging innovation and collaboration doesn't work. Innovation doesn't just happen. It's the result of one of the most powerful and sustainable forces available to us: creativity.
If you want innovation, you must activate creativity. And in the new world of work, going it alone won't work any longer. We have to get creative together. Drawing on his decades of experience as a coach, consultant, and organizational development expert, conscious creativity authority, with the publication of "Creative Together: Sparking Innovation in the New World of Work", Steven Kowalski leads you on a three-part journey to reclaim your creativity and co-create with others.
First, you will rewrite the story of who you are as a creator. Then, you will learn to adventure together with others -- bringing your whole, creative self into a new way of working together. With stories drawn from real, lived experiences, research-backed insights, and powerful questions that will open you to new possibilities, you will master Kowalski's GIFTED methodology to unlock your creativity, and tackle the biggest threat to conscious creativity -- Creative Disruption Disorder.
Despite what you may think, you have what it takes to embrace the new story, take accountability for your creative power, and create together within a world in flux. Once you claim your potential, there's no turning back. By participating in your life with conscious creativity, you will transform the landscape of your future. You will become anew, with a deep faith in your resilience and resourcefulness, and a future full of possibility for yourself -- and for the companies, organizations, and causes whose mission you share.
Critique: Impressively well written, organized and presented, "Creative Together: Sparking Innovation in the New World of Work" is a thoroughly 'reader friendly' and comprehensive instructional course and an ideal 'how-to' manual for deftly instilling creativity into personal and cooperative efforts in the work place -- and in life. Of special and particular value to readers with an interest in Business Management/Leadership, Workplace Culture, and Self-Improvement, "Creative Together: Sparking Innovation in the New World of Work" is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, corporate, college, and university library collections and supplemental MBA curriculum studies lists. It should be noted that "Creative Together: Sparking Innovation in the New World of Work" is also available for personal reading lists in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99).
Editorial Note: Steven Kowalski (https://www.stevenkowalski.com) is a leading voice in the global movement for conscious creativity with more than 25 years of experience as an organizational development expert. Through his firm, Creative License(TM) Consulting Services, he works with clients to shape organizational cultures and reinvigorate how teams co-create new value. As a coach, speaker, and consultant-partner, he facilitates the creativity of scientists, engineers, business leaders, and professionals across industries. Steven holds a PhD in adult learning and organizational creativity from UCLA, and is the author of more than 100 workplace learning programs.
The Entrepreneurial Brain
Jeff Hays
HarperCollins Leadership
c/o HarperCollins Publishers
www.harpercollins.com
9781400243198, $22.99, PB, 288pp
https://www.amazon.com/Entrepreneurial-Brain-Waves-Entrepreneurship-About/dp/140024319X
Synopsis: When your biggest superpower is also your most critical weakness, it helps to have a manual on how to control it. Entrepreneurs are creative, bold thinkers and risk-takers capable of great accomplishments. At the same time, for every success story, there is a counter story of an epic collapse caused by a lack of a moral compass, values, or proper guidance.
The author of "The Entrepreneurial Brain: How to Ride the Waves of Entrepreneurship and Live to Tell About It", Jeff Hays knows the highs and the lows having ridden that rollercoaster many times in his life and career and provides a much-needed user's manual for entrepreneurs everywhere and the people in their work and personal lives.
With "The Entrepreneurial Brain", you will:
Gain insights into the mindset entrepreneurs need to develop in order to survive. And when Hays says survive, he means it: Your money, your relationships, your sanity, and even your life are at stake if you don't come to understand why you are the way you are, and how to manage it.
Learn specific business tools to enjoy even more success than you've imagined. From real-world step by step instruction in how to raise money for your venture, to how to build a build an email list and market to that list, Hays shares hard won experience that isn't taught in any theoretical school.
Increase your perspective on the common pitfalls you need to avoid. Hays has learned the pitfalls the hard way, letting his entrepreneurial brain drive him off a cliff over and over again. Failure has been one of his greatest teachers, showing him how to work with his brain and how to work with others.
Access the wisdom and insights of mentors and other leaders. Throughout this groundbreaking instructional guide and how-to' manual, Hays shares the transformational wisdom he learned from his own mentor along with insights and perspectives from a variety of industry leaders and influencers to help you experience all of the ups, and more, while protecting yourself against some of the downs.
Critique: Essential reading for anyone aspiring to, or already engaged in, and entrepreneurial venture of any kind, anywhere, "The Entrepreneurial Brain: How to Ride the Waves of Entrepreneurship and Live to Tell About It" is thoroughly 'reader friendly' in style, organization, and presentation. Impressively comprehensive, exceptionally insightful, "The Entrepreneurial Brain" is an important and highly recommended pick for community, corporate, and academic library Business/Entrepreneur collections and curriculum studies lists. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of MBA students, academia, entrepreneurs, corporate executives, business managers, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "The Entrepreneurial Brain" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $12.99).
Editorial Note: Jeff Hays (http://jeffchays.com) is a serial entrepreneur and filmmaker with a long colorful history of visionary projects. In the mid-nineties he started Capstone Entertainment, a film and television production and distribution company. Within its first year the company generated over $10 million in revenue and received numerous awards in the children's programming category. Since then he has started over twenty companies including DealsthatMatter.com, NextFitness, Podfitness, Zingback, MyCompanyRecords.com and Talk 2 Technologies. The companies he's founded have collectively raised over $100 million in capital through both private investors and VCs. Recently he has also launched several wildly successful crowd-funding campaigns, in addition to personally funding several ventures. He holds eight patents in the tech industry.
Belonging Rules
Brad Deutser
Matt Holt Books
c/o BenBella Books
www.benbellabooks.com
9781637744024, $30.00, HC, 272pp
https://www.amazon.com/Belonging-Rules-Crucial-Actions-Performance/dp/1637744021
Synopsis: The need to belong is innate and enduring, yet often elusive. Genuine belonging requires a bold approach, one that offers both depth and credibility to the work required from leaders whose organizations are craving a sense of connection, security, and acceptance.
With the publication of "Belonging Rules: Five Crucial Actions That Build Unity and Foster Performance", Brad Deutser offers nuanced, direct guidance for navigating both the pre-existing and ever-evolving social and organizational demands of today's workplace. The five rules within, based on extensive research and application, create a framework to dissect and decode the complex, complicated, and controversial issues of the modern workforce.
An executive coach and award-winning management consultant Brad Deutser gives leaders the confidence to address the most critical societal imperative -- belonging. His approach doesn't tell leaders what to do, rather he provides leaders with the how to: Identify the heart of existing power structures and societal mandates; Reframe the impact of inclusion at an individual and organizational level; Challenge and fundamentally redefine the relationship with diverse stakeholders.
Leading can be uncomfortable. "Belonging Rules" is a guide will empower leaders to shift attention, understanding, and effort toward bridging differences and uniting the "movable middle" which depowers the extremes, driving necessary change and desired performance.
Critique: Instructive, informative, inspiring, effective, "Belonging Rules: Five Crucial Actions That Build Unity and Foster Performance" is especially and remarkably well written and organized, as well as impressively 'reader friendly' in style and presentation. While an extraordinary and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, college, and university library Business Management/Leadership collections and supplemental MBA curriculum studies lists, it should be noted for students, academia, business managers, corporate executives, entrepreneurs, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Belonging Rules" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.99).
Editorial Note: Brad Deutser (https://deutser.com) is the visionary leader behind Deutser and Deutser Clarity Institute (Houston, New York, Bermuda and Arizona). Brad is recognized for his ability to navigate complex, contentious, ambiguous business and people challenges, both inside and outside organizations. He is sought after as an authority and innovative thinker on matters of organizational change, belonging, DEI, and complexity in leadership. He is also the author of "Leading Clarity: The Breakthrough Strategy to Unleash People, Profit, and Performance".
The Boldly Inclusive Leader
Minette Norman
BrainTrust Ink
www.braintrustink.com
9781956072112, $24.95
https://www.amazon.com/Boldly-Inclusive-Leader-Transform-Differences/dp/195607211X
The Boldly Inclusive Leader: Transform Your Workplace (and the World) by Valuing the Differences Within explores the concept of 'boldly inclusive' leadership, crafting an invitation to leaders (and would-be leaders) to reformulate the skill of directing others through a variety of self-examinations and pathways that, Minette Norman admits, follow no singular blueprint of success. Indeed, the heart of this message lies in its encouragement of leaders interested in fostering inclusion in new ways. These varied paths to success lie, themselves, in disparate opportunities that traditional leadership approaches usually miss, from adopting new skills based on truly listening to others to fostering the kinds of self-awareness that don't consider empathy and compassion to be business liabilities.
As Norman considers the various incarnations of inclusive leadership, she peppers her findings with case history examples. These both personalize the efforts and demonstrate their own diversity of approaches, solutions, and revelations. The Boldly Inclusive Leader is a "put your money where your mouth is" kind of book. Plenty of books and leaders parrot the ideal of inclusion, but have few guidelines to define this concept and even fewer roadmaps on how to actually achieve it. Norman tackles both in a vivid challenge to the status quo and the processes of corporate leadership that too often thwart their own stated ambitions and altruism. Especially thought-provoking are the considerations and examples of unconscious bias in the workplace, which every leader needs to consider and acknowledge.
Norman's honest and penetrating exploration of critical DEI issues makes this a book that not only belongs in any serious business literature collection, but also should spark spirited dialogues on diversity and inclusion in corporate boardrooms and in business and leadership book clubs and groups. Not one to repose on a library shelf until its lending popularity is spent, The Boldly Inclusive Leader deserves and requires high-profile exposure to a wide audience who would take the first steps towards empowerment and enlightenment in the process of managing, directing, and encouraging leaders and workers to be all they can be, regardless of gender, race, age, or life outlook.
EDITOR'S NOTE:
The Midwest Book Review is an organization of volunteers committed to promoting literacy, library usage, and small press publishing. We accept no funds from authors or publishers. Full permission is given to post any of these reviews on thematically appropriate websites, newsgroups, listserves, internet discussion groups, organizational newsletters, or to interested individuals. Please give the Midwest Book Review a credit line when doing so.
The Midwest Book Review publishes the monthly book review magazines "California Bookwatch", "Internet Bookwatch", "Children's Bookwatch", "MBR Bookwatch", "Reviewer's Bookwatch", and "Small Press Bookwatch". All are available for free on the Midwest Book Review website at www (dot) midwestbookreview (dot) com
Anyone wanting to submit books for review consideration can send them to:
James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review
278 Orchard Drive
Oregon, WI 53575-1129
To submit reviews of any fiction or non-fiction books, email them to Frugalmuse (at) aol (dot) com (Be sure to include the book title, author, publisher, publisher address, publisher website/phone number, 13-digit ISBN number, and list price).
James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review
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