Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #114037 in Books
• Published on: 1988-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 170 pages

Customer Reviews

Commonsense approach? More like idiots guide...
While I may be accused of approaching this book from too advanced a level having recently been promoted to Major, I was still astounded by the basic level of information imparted by the author. I am not sure how the American Officer selection process works, but I can safely say that if an Officer Cadet did not start RMA Sandhurst, Cranwell or Dartmouth with this level of knowledge, then he should never have been selected to attend in the first place. Any Officer or SNCO who requires this book to improve their leadership skills should never have been promoted or commissioned.

Large swathes of the book simply lift excerpts from other military accounts and diaries, without adding any meaningful analysis or insight, while the second half of the book is reduced to long lists of 'How to' that are again so insultingly basic that, if you still need to learn this, then you should never have been allowed to be placed in a position of leadership over others.

This book may be of use to the aspiring Private soldier who lacks in common sense but wishes to better himself, or by (much) lower management in civilian firms who have never been taught the basics, but as a doctrine to improve (military) leadership it falls way short of the mark, and should never ever even be opened by the serious military professional or competent civilian.

How Colonel Dandridge M. Malone rose to the rank he did, yet still managed to produce such a dire work, is breathtaking. I would have expected so much better.