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Scrambled Eggs: fluffy to scorched organizational leadership recipes
Scrambled Eggs (SE) is a compilation of word meanings, principles, and maxims for the consideration of the organization CEO, senior executives, and aspirants to organization leadership. The author equates "management" with "process" and therefore, styles SE as an "organization leadership guide." SE advances "purpose" over "process" and strongly condemns the reverse!
James Woods Powers, writes of personal successes and failures, in four decades of diverse executive experience in organization leadership. Powers' experience includes combat military and civilian law enforcement leadership and thus contributes to SE's absence of political correctness. SE is not blunt but it is "factual." The book contains criticism but uses civil language. The book has the minimum elaboration necessary for understanding. The author avoids what he terms "regurgitating leadership claptrap" or "seminar or text leadership anesthesiology."
SE is a splendid counter to 400 page professorial texts written by those who have never lead an organization. With vast added experience in leading large volunteer charities and non-profits such as The United Way of Virginia and an editorial board of a chain newspaper, his principles of leading organizations are applicable to organizations of all characters. Readers interested in corporate (for profit) organizations substantially benefit from the principles offered in Powers' "Mission, people, and process, and... always in that order" philosophy.
Dr. Sheldon Cooper would not appreciate the absence of technobabble and stratospheric principles and would not recognize the humorous sarcasm which is freely salted in SE. The idea of scrambling eggs as a broad metaphor for organizational leadership principles is characterized by the subtitle, "fluffy to scorched organizational recipes." The theme is real-world simple, leading an organization, has no, absolutely no fixed principles, save "mission first." Thereafter, there are Captains Bly and Queeg as well as, Captain America, Captain Ahab, and Captain Kirk leadership styles. SE does not ignore the black principles of leadership survival in adversarial and political situations, unaddressed by the same old repetitive leadership "experts."
There are limited similarities in leading from the front lines and from the hilltop, the so called "follow me" leadership compared with leadership by directive. However, before the reader of this synopsis forms a "can't we all just get-along" attitude, the answer is "NO."
Leading an organization, especially, those in escalating size, is not like any other type of leadership! SE is not about the shoe store "manager" or the assembly line supervisor, even if the supervisor has five hundred employees. SE is not about tactics but addresses strategy and those with the ability to establish policy and goals for all aspects and functions of an organization.
Scrambled Eggs advocates study of diverse works and the opinions of others relating to leadership, organization ethos, even "management." Powers admits freely that he "does not know it all, nor has he experienced it all, nor has every leadership endeavor in an organization been a total success... and, for that matter, that some efforts or actions have been total flops... which are discussed!" Despite the claims, no leader has all encompassing experience.
SE reads like an entertaining textbook, wastes no reading time with professorial page number expansion to impress the intelligentsia, and seeks to "present" rather than "convince." SE is about Powers' organization leadership principles as suggestions in an arena of competitive thought.
James Woods Powers, writes of personal successes and failures, in four decades of diverse executive experience in organization leadership. Powers' experience includes combat military and civilian law enforcement leadership and thus contributes to SE's absence of political correctness. SE is not blunt but it is "factual." The book contains criticism but uses civil language. The book has the minimum elaboration necessary for understanding. The author avoids what he terms "regurgitating leadership claptrap" or "seminar or text leadership anesthesiology."
SE is a splendid counter to 400 page professorial texts written by those who have never lead an organization. With vast added experience in leading large volunteer charities and non-profits such as The United Way of Virginia and an editorial board of a chain newspaper, his principles of leading organizations are applicable to organizations of all characters. Readers interested in corporate (for profit) organizations substantially benefit from the principles offered in Powers' "Mission, people, and process, and... always in that order" philosophy.
Dr. Sheldon Cooper would not appreciate the absence of technobabble and stratospheric principles and would not recognize the humorous sarcasm which is freely salted in SE. The idea of scrambling eggs as a broad metaphor for organizational leadership principles is characterized by the subtitle, "fluffy to scorched organizational recipes." The theme is real-world simple, leading an organization, has no, absolutely no fixed principles, save "mission first." Thereafter, there are Captains Bly and Queeg as well as, Captain America, Captain Ahab, and Captain Kirk leadership styles. SE does not ignore the black principles of leadership survival in adversarial and political situations, unaddressed by the same old repetitive leadership "experts."
There are limited similarities in leading from the front lines and from the hilltop, the so called "follow me" leadership compared with leadership by directive. However, before the reader of this synopsis forms a "can't we all just get-along" attitude, the answer is "NO."
Leading an organization, especially, those in escalating size, is not like any other type of leadership! SE is not about the shoe store "manager" or the assembly line supervisor, even if the supervisor has five hundred employees. SE is not about tactics but addresses strategy and those with the ability to establish policy and goals for all aspects and functions of an organization.
Scrambled Eggs advocates study of diverse works and the opinions of others relating to leadership, organization ethos, even "management." Powers admits freely that he "does not know it all, nor has he experienced it all, nor has every leadership endeavor in an organization been a total success... and, for that matter, that some efforts or actions have been total flops... which are discussed!" Despite the claims, no leader has all encompassing experience.
SE reads like an entertaining textbook, wastes no reading time with professorial page number expansion to impress the intelligentsia, and seeks to "present" rather than "convince." SE is about Powers' organization leadership principles as suggestions in an arena of competitive thought.
160 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 20, 2021
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