The premise of the book is great and the author really delivers. Great read. Highly recommended. .

This book is full of practical and insightful ideas on how senior executives can deal with the nuances of their roles. These ideas can also help those people who wanted to move up the corporate ladder and maintain satisfaction in life as well.

The author Vishal Agrawal presents this book from his personal experience, making this book an easy read and enjoyable. It feels like he is coaching the reader along the way.

I live to read this book again in the future.

I receive a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest opinion.

Give to Get. I found several takeaways from Give to Get. He mentions that one of the most important skills is perseverance or grit. There are a lot of smart talented people but they do not succeed because they don’t have grit.
The section of lions and goats was one of the most impactful. I even found a picture of a lion to put on my home screen to remind me to be the lion. A lion is poised, powerful and regal. As a lion you only have to roar when absolutely necessary.
The goats are indecisive, fickle minded and poor decisions makers. Don’t be the goat.
He advises to never go head to head with a peer or subordinate as you never win in the long run.
He gives advice for when you are the new person on the team; even when it’s a new team within your current company. You can find an internal mentor. You should get to know people on your team and build relationships.
I found his discussion on casual Friday interesting. ‘How do you dress in on the battlefield; in armor? You don’t stop wearing armor just because it is Friday.’
A leaders needs to be in the battlefield with his associates. Don’t be a spa leader.
He recommends creating a stakeholder map. He conducted what he called listening tours. He would go to different departments and meet people and ask to understand what they do. Once you build these relationships it also helps you to connect with people.
He talks about three types of team members and how to handle each of them and how they can impact your career - Ambassadors, skeptics and distractors.
Your career depends on your ability to let the company know your value.
I could relate to his recommendation that a quick end to a failing project is much better that keeping it on life support that causes a decrease in morale.
I would definitely recommend this book. Although some of the items may not be new, he shares them with great examples to bring them home and they are a great reminder on what you could be doing to improve your career.

Succinct . Very valuable lessons about how to overcome culture-within-a-culture. Actions speak louder than words, indeed!

In Give to Get, Vishal Agarwal compresses lessons from his 20+ years of corporate experience as a commercial negotiator (he is known for being the lead transaction advisor for the iconic 2006 KenGen IPO while at PwC) for the senior leaders in this slim volume. His main thesis is that for a senior leader to excel, he must be willing to give more than he anticipates to receive. In addition to his hard work, he will able to cultivate trust and loyalty among his colleagues.

That is why Agarwal advocates for two important tools that go hand in hand that every executive should have in his toolkit. a stakeholder map and a playbook. Vishal says just like a company, you should be able to know who your key stakeholders; from your superiors, team members as well as industry colleagues. A corporate executive should be able to know more about the people that he works with apart from just their job titles, descriptions and deliverables. By knowing a few personal details, you are able to build more authentic relations and know how to communicate effectively to them. By dedicating some time in stakeholder engagement, you will be able to know who can help you achieve your business (and maybe even some personal) goals as detailed in your playbook or game plan.

Though he targets senior executives with this book, readers who are starting out in their corporate careers would be able to easily adapt the book's lessons to their professional situations so that they can stay ahead of the game; or to use a "Vishal-ism", be a lion and not a goat. As someone who reads a lot of business and leadership material, there was nothing earth-shattering in this book. However, Vishal's approaching is refreshing since he illustrates his points with examples that Kenyan readers will easily resonate with. Give and Get will be a useful tool is continuing the conversation around in building a thriving corporate culture in Kenya with its idiosyncrasies. Most business books in the Kenyan market are penned by Western authors but Give to Get is proof that Kenyans can publish good books that can be enjoyed by global readers.