Fun & Fearless Leadership

by Andrei Postolache

Coming out of Romania’s booming software industry, Fun & Fearless is a book of leadership stories and practices developed in unusual circumstances, in an emerging industry built from the remnants of an old world, by a generation that had no models before them to follow. The world of software is the background, but this is a leadership and management book that will help anyone willing to take a good look at themselves, improve their leading skills, be brave and have some fun doing it. Andrei speaks from his experience, starting out as software developer, moving to management and senior management and then on his own as a management and leadership consultant. He writes about leadership, of yourself, of a team, of a company. Packed with real life stories and insightful perspectives, Fun & Fearless Leadership addresses everything from the challenge of giving honest one to one feedback, to hiring better, promoting wiser, building great teams, understanding and shaping a company culture, and it does it all in a direct, no nonsense, honest way, telling it like it is. The Fun & Fearless system is split into 7 steps, starting with introspection in “A long, hard look into the mirror” and continuing with “Start strong”, “The miracle of compassionate radical honesty”, “Get the right people”, “Culture”, “Building fluent teams” and “The magic”. Never short on plainly stated truths and the occasional cold shower, Fun & Fearless Leadership ultimately ends up strengthening and empowering, encouraging you to optimistically grab the opportunities in front of you and rise to the occasion so you can become the leader you always knew, and maybe hoped, that you could be.

214 pages, Paperback

Published October 11, 2018

Reviews

[Cosmin Vladutu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very nice book. Good examples from the author's experience and a lot of things and paragraphs that makes you wondering if what you're doing it's ok or not (if you are on the right path to get what you want/expect or not). I read it twice and on the second time was a different experience, but still a nice one.

[Dmitry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book for the aspiring leaders who have had at least one "huh, this is more complex that it looks" moment on their journey. The closest I felt to actually sitting down with a seasoned leader and talking shop, warts and all. Where many books deliver good-sounding principles but only the convenient examples, here every piece of advice is discussed with brutal honesty: both strengths and limitations are exposed and discussed. You can see how it follows the approach it professes: Compassionate Radical Honesty.

Ok but that's a bit generic you might say. What is it about? What use did you get out of it? Well, it's about hiring, delegation, decision-making, building the team culture... It's hard to single out a topic because it covers *a lot of ground* - the 275 highlights I've made can attest to that.

My only complaint is style-related: I really like the direct and conversational writing style, but the lengthy run-on sentences are sometimes distracting. As well as some phrasings that sound distinctly non-English. If you don't mind that unfiltered, straight-from-the-source feel, this might be one of the best leadership books you'll read!

[Ancuta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely worth a read

It’s a fast paced, mostly accurate picture of the IT industry in this part of the world, sprinkled with funny personal notes.
Though the system the book describes is a combination of all the trendy practices our industry displays, it feels authentic in its examples.
I would recommend the book to a leader, aspiring or established, as it provides you with a starting point and a bunch of (sometime not so) subtle tips and tricks. References to other books are abundant so there’s plenty to go on even without a bibliography.

I enjoyed the chapter on building fluent teams: concise, balanced and quite inspiring.

[Robert Shaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

Andrei presents the information in a very personal way, drawing on his experience to explain the concepts in a clear way

[Dragos · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fast-paced book, written from down the trenches of leadership. It's also a mouth of fresh air and authenticity to read leadership advice from a city in Eastern Europe and not yet another book from Silicon Valley.

It doesn't sugar coat a thing, and therefore, it makes a great point of treating teams like humans just like you, that need to be treated with honesty for both good and bad moments. More exactly, they need to be treated with Radical Honesty which for me was the central point of the book.
Once I understood what the author meant by repeating this term, all the other chapters came up naturally.

For me at least, the chapters were a bit too short and spread so for sure I forgot some great points, but other than that it was a good read.

Also, Radical Honesty would also have been an awesome book title.