The Leader's Checklist,10th Anniversary Edition

Michael Useem is the William and Jacalyn Egan Professor of Management and Faculty Director of the Center for Leadership and Change Management and McNulty Leadership Program at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. His university teaching includes MBA and executive-MBA courses on management and leadership, and he offers programs on leadership and governance for managers in the United States, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. He works on leadership development with many companies and organizations in the private, public and nonprofit sectors

I am familiar with the author's work and purchased the first edition of "The Leader's Checklist" -- the advice and checklist formats with adjustments for India and China as well as for Team Leaders and Boards is really spot on with great concepts and examples. This is an easy read and can be referred to as an accessible framework for self development or if you want to coach others. I like how he talks about the importance of closing the "knowing -doing" gap -- the need to reflect, be self-aware and take action. Some of the examples he uses are fantastic and span different contexts (corporations, military, sports, etc.). Unfortunately some of the examples don't hold up well 10 years later -- J&J and its credo (talcum powder lawsuit), the Civil war "reconciliation of a nation" - now that I have learned more about what happened during reconstruction, and AIG - more than just poor decisions, also some ethical questions about business practices. Maybe adding a note that the checklist can hold up over time but there are factors beyond the checklist that influence good and bad management practices.

Very interesting book on leadership that will provide you an opportunity to look at leadership as a framework for better organization performance. All the sixteen principles are extremely valid and well examples via real stories about leaders. My personal appreciation is for giving an idea of applications for those principles not only for corporate world but also for other business scenarios.

I read business books like this as motivation and to get new ideas - or a reminder of ideas - and this book definitely provides this. It's a useful resource - plenty of strategies to implement and jam-packed with examples.

Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

16 Mission Critical Principles that are meant to serve as a trigger for leadership to take action.
Each principle is therefore a prompt to generate a set of questions that will help a business leader to test and refine their approach to a challenging situation.
These personal, leadership and company checklists are not written on tablets of stone - they are meant to be explored, debated and customised to the unique business challenges that leader faces.