How To Lead Smart People

by Arun Singh, Mike Mister

BRAND NEW, Exactly same ISBN as listed, Please double check ISBN carefully before ordering.

Genres: Leadership, Business, Nonfiction, Management, Self Help, Personal Development, Psychology

256 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2019

Reviews

[Steven Leonard · Rating 4 out of 5]

#Leadership is a subject that I spend a fair amount of time discussing, teaching, reflecting on, and practicing. It also presents its share of challenges, one of which is leading people who can have widely diverse measures of intelligence. #Agility and #adaptability come in handy.

That's also where 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘰 𝘓𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘚𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘗𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦: 𝘓𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘴 comes in handy. It's a practical guide aimed at guiding professionals who suddenly find themselves leading teams of highly knowledgeable and self-reliant people. To lead highly capable, intelligent people, you you have to elevate your mental game, cultivating assertiveness, deep listening, inclusive decision-making, self-awareness, and adaptability... so you can lead without being too controlling or restrictive.

In the first section, "Leading Me," topics like assertiveness, authenticity, emotional intelligence, impostor syndrome, resilience, and trust focus on developing your foundational skills. These chapters help you refine your personal style and how you show up as a leader. The second section, "Leading the Team," zeroes in on leading people with equal or greater expertise. Lessons here include coaching, credibility, decision-making, delegation, feedback, having necessary conversations, managing conflict, and team dynamics. The final section, "Leading the Organization," widens the aperture on strategic thinking, visioning, mentoring, networking, and storytelling.

When it comes to leading smart, talented people, one quote stood out to me: “𝘚𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘴𝘢𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘰𝘥𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘭.”

Nothing stifles a team of smart people more than muzzling them. They need to be part of the solution or that solution will prove elusive.

[Narek Saribekyan · Rating 1 out of 5]

In the world where leadership advice is overflowing, "How to Lead Smart People" unfortunately falls into the category of forgettable reads. The book aspires to offer valuable insights into managing intelligent individuals, but instead ends up feeling like a collection of rehashed ideas and banal statements.

Throughout the pages, the author presents an array of what they consider to be groundbreaking tips. However, as a reader with even a basic understanding of leadership, I found these suggestions to be simple, commonsensical, and lacking any depth or nuance. It feels as though the book was written with the assumption that readers have never encountered leadership principles before.

The book's structure is bland, with each chapter following a predictable pattern: presenting a problem, providing a short anecdote, and then concluding with an easily digestible solution. The lack of originality and substance makes it difficult for the reader to engage with the content or gain any new perspectives on leadership.

Ultimately, "How to Lead Smart People" fails to provide readers with the insightful and innovative strategies that it promises. For those seeking a thought-provoking exploration of leadership in the modern age, I would recommend looking elsewhere.

[Ernestasia Siahaan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Manage your expectations with this book. It tries to cover a lot of aspects of leadership, so it can seem very on the surface.

Here's how I use it to my advantage. The book has three big sections: leading oneself, leading the team, leading the organisation. Within the three sections, it has multiple topics, e.g. on multitasking, coaching, etc.

Because the book covers a lot of topics, you may not find all relevant for you at a given moment. Therefore, I choose one topic per section that I want to focus on for a given period of time (or choose two-three topics from one section only), set a goal for myself based on that topic and aim to reach it by the end of the period. Afterwards, reflect and choose other topics to move on to.

[Harley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just finished ‘How to lead smart people’ by Arun Singh & Mike Mister. I give this book a 10/10 due to its ‘ease of read’ - a reference book that can be read cover to cover. Each topic outlines a case study and then gives clear and expert tips on how to lead in that scenario. My biggest take away is on having difficult conversations - more often than not, it’s not the receivers feelings we are afraid to confront but our own, clear and honest conversations are owed to the receiver and the organisation.

[Dan Hanly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent.

It's the perfect book for new managers and veterans who want a quick refresher. Everything is broken down into some clear and open advice on certain topics, and as a result, it's the type of book you can jump back into for advice when you hit a road block in your own professional journey. I'm keeping this book close!

[Emerald Fallarme · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an easy read with a lot of helpful insights for both someone in a member role and a leadership role. As former, I agree with a lot of points and I would to recommend this to leaders of the team that I will be working with.

[Hani · Rating 4 out of 5]

The content of the book is very relevant to knowledge workers in the 21st century especially those in challenging industries such as technology, legal, finance, etc.
I felt the book tried to cram in too much advice that it diluted the quality of the writing on each point of advice.

[George Papanikolaou · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gold

[Houssein · Rating 3 out of 5]

The majority of the topics is common sense, but this is still a brief and useful documentation. A conclusion is missing though.

[Matty · Rating 4 out of 5]

More of a reference then an actual book. But a good reference. I bought and actual physical copy so i can flip back to a few topics from time to time.

[Sobee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perfect book for New Managers!

[Aidas Bendoraitis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very structural and full of practical tips.

[Prasanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent guide for the newbies who are aspiring to climb any leadership role. Explaining with the usecases makes things very clear to understand.

[Jer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe better if you were reading it in small bites, but just didn’t really hit as an audio book - very “yup…” and not much else.

[Alfath F. R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

the font is so small and leadership in the book focused on the company environment. I m not really related into the context.