It’s an easy to follow book with good concepts and tips for any leader. In my option it’s good for new as well as established leaders.

Thank you NetGalley, BooksGoSocial and the authors for a free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

"Leadership & Culture: Why Managers Fail and Leaders Prevail" by John and Katie McCann is a comprehensive guide that deserves a solid four stars for its insightful exploration of leadership principles, fostering positive workplace culture, and empowering individuals to become inspiring leaders rather than mere managers.

The book starts by addressing a critical statistic: 82% of employees would consider quitting their job due to a bad boss. The authors make a compelling case for aspiring to be a leader rather than a boss, emphasizing the transformative impact that true leadership can have on employee satisfaction, dedication, and organizational success.

One of the strengths of this guide lies in its practical and actionable advice. Whether you're a new manager, an experienced leader, or a business owner, the McCanns provide valuable insights and tools to enhance leadership skills and cultivate a positive workplace culture. The emphasis on being an empathetic leader who inspires and influences sets the tone for creating a motivated and dedicated workforce.

The book covers a wide range of topics, from understanding the importance of company culture to exploring the levels of leadership and addressing challenges like impostor syndrome. The inclusion of real-world examples, such as lessons from top companies like Apple and Walt Disney, adds depth and relevance to the concepts presented.

The authors highlight the role of emotional intelligence in successful leadership and provide practical strategies for developing this crucial skill. The guide also delves into the significance of relationship management, integrity, and the willingness to embrace mistakes as vital to organizational growth.

One minor drawback is that certain sections, while informative, could benefit from a more in-depth exploration. For instance, the discussion on developing relationship management skills could be expanded to offer more practical scenarios and examples.

In conclusion, "Leadership & Culture" is a valuable resource for anyone seeking to enhance their leadership skills and create a positive workplace environment. John and Katie McCann deliver a well-structured guide filled with actionable insights, making it a must-read for those committed to becoming inspirational leaders capable of steering their teams toward success. Whether you're a seasoned leader or an aspiring one, this comprehensive manual provides the tools and knowledge needed to transform your approach and make a lasting impact on your organization.

Structure

The book is broken down into five key skills, and then further into related chapters with subtopics on each skill. From building trust to inspiring motivation, Leadership and Culture starts from the ground up.

The length of the book makes it approachable to pick up. At 210 pages in its entirety, it concisely covers the skills, examples and action points to succinctly set you on the path for success.

Although I read the book in chronological order, I would argue that it would be possible to go back to any of these sections at any point and revisit the content. To an extent there are references to early chapters and content as a foundation, but this wouldn’t stop anyone from being able to read a section standalone.

On a practical level, it means the book can be picked up countless times and never lose its value, regardless of how many times you pick it up again. I can see myself picking this up and revisiting the book, especially if there are certain skills I want to brush up on, or scenarios where I am inexperienced in handling them!


Ideas

The content of the book would be especially great for either aspiring or first time managers, or as a refresher of fundamentals for the more experienced. The book’s content is both approachable and relatable, whilst demonstrating the extensive research that asks up each idea. Throughout, I was able to visualise the examples in the practical terms of my own experience at work.

Not only do the scenarios in the book ring true, but then the author’s have outlined practical action points for managers to adopt to resolve conflict or pressure in a way that promotes positivity. It’s as much a practical guide as it is a compilation of case studies of what can happen when things go wrong.

I think this also has value for all employees. As I mention in the introduction, culture isn’t strictly created by the few at the top. It’s about the whole workplace. Sure, managers and senior staff will have a lot of influence over it, but not entirely.

Leadership and Culture has value in helping us understand where workplace culture isn’t working and raise awareness. Often, we can recognise that something isn’t quite right but are unable to identify a problem exactly. The topics and downfalls explored in this book are ones that I can see happening in every workplace at some point in time. Even in big name companies! Many of the examples within are names we know.


Summary

Leadership and Culture is all about positive change. If you are looking to make positive change in your life in 2024, or would like to start making improvements in your workplace, this book is a great place to start!

Leadership and Culture, Why Managers Fail and Leaders Prevail lays its premise out in the title. Management without attention to leadership can result in a total attention on task management without recognition of the people who are doing the work, why they do it, and how to motivate excellence in the workplace. The authors lay out some clear steps and areas requiring attention. This book is an easy read and a bit of primer on some basic leadership philosophy and will be useful to newer managers/leaders and can be a pick me up for more experienced leaders.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This book is available now.

Studies of ‘The Great Resignation’ during Peak Covid have shown that the number one reason why people leave organisations is due to Toxic Culture. So, establishing a healthy organisational culture, which can attract and retain talent, is one of the key responsibilities of a head of an organisation.

What makes this potentially worrying for Trustees and Investors, is that Gallup Studies suggest that Executive Recruitment turns out to be disappointing in some 82% of occasions. This means that businesses cannot bank on recruiting what they need. They may have to grow it, instead.

And that’s where this book comes in, as it offers an analysis and recipe for growing the leaders who will ensure that workplaces can thrive.

Starting off with a vision of Leadership as ‘influence, nothing more and nothing less,’ the author explains how leaders can have, and develop, the influence to lead teams successfully. Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is an essential quality for Leaders (!).

But so also is integrity. Referring to President Eisenhower’s claim that ‘the supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity,’ the author insists that a good leader must be someone who is consistently dependable to role model the observance of a strict moral code, with a harmony between thoughts, words and actions.

Drawing on inner qualities like this, an effective leader needs to develop 4 specific sets of skills: self awareness and then self management, as well as social awareness of the workforce and then an appropriate empathetic coordination of the team.

Summing this up leads to a five step program. Start with yourself. Build Trust. Build culture. Get out of the way. And Celebrate Successes and Failures.

In explaining these ideas, the book is well referenced to the wider body of literature on Leadership. Examples and quotes are used well, and there are useful exercises for self reflection.

A minor quibble with the book is that in places it succumbs to the contemporary fashion of exalting leadership by bashing management. The title of the book sets up the contrast and then we get simplistic contrasts, such as between an ‘empathetic leader’ and a ‘disconnected manager,’ whereas in reality it is perfectly possible for a manager to be empathetic.

Leadership and Management are different sets of skills that heads of teams have to dip into at different times. Yes a person can deploy the wrong set of skills on occasion, but to disparage the sets themselves, as if one is right and the other is wrong, is to perpetuate an overly simplistic view of what makes organisations work. Organisations can have too much management, and need more leadership. But organisations can also have too much leadership, and need more management. Unless someone coordinates (ie manages) leaders, its all too easy for organisations to end up with ‘too many cooks spoiling the broth.’

Overall this is a very readable book which should be accessible to all readers. The ideas are broken down into easily digested sections, which makes it useful for dipping into as an audiobook or for short focused daily reading sessions. I read the digital version which also conveniently hyperlinked its bibliography.

A useful book about leadership, albeit with the caveat that in places it potentially oversimplifies the relationship between leadership and management

A very well structured book, read in support of ongoing Leadership apprenticeship, discussing key leadership management principles and scenarios.

Good book with solid advice about leadership, management and company culture.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.