Big Shoes - How Successful Leaders Grow Into New Roles by Sander A Flaum

"Big Shoes: How Successful Leaders Grow Into New Roles" by Sander A. Flaum is a quick read that has some interesting and important takes on leadership. It seems to be aimed at those seeking the position of CEO of a larger organization, but many of the concepts are relevant for others in leadership positions as well.Again, it's a short quick read. It has six chapters and only 120 pages. Just right for a flight or a weekend morning that you want to work on self-improvement. While a new job is not necessarily like a war zone as the author suggests at the beginning of chapter one, I do agree that running a business can be very daunting. This first chapter focuses on a strategy for the first few months of obtaining a new leadership position. Flaum's advice is to waste no time and get right to it. I think he's right.The next chapters discuss topics such as creating the right culture, planning, improving people skills, paying forward, staying edgy and on top, dealing with change, an
d persistence. All of these are topics we've seen before in various books on leadership, and in some much more in depth. However, Flaum's simple and direct approach, even if he does use "academic language" here and there, is refreshing and he provides relevant and current examples to illustrate points.It was the final two chapters that I enjoyed the most, and which prompted me to move the book from three stars to four. I really liked Flaum's honesty regarding what it takes to make it to the top positions in today's corporate environment. He lets you know what you might have to sacrifice and even goes so far as to say you might not really want to become a CEO of a large corporation. The last chapter on finding balance was great, and I really liked the "walk out" story.People can learn to be better leaders. Anyone desiring to lead, or already in a leadership position, should work toward improving leadership skills in order to lead their organizations more successfully. "Big Sh
oes" is a good little book with some honest assessments of leadership, and deserves a place among leadership texts on the leader's bookshelf.

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