Beyond the Hammer: A Fresh Approach to Leadership, Culture, and Building High Performance Teams
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Leader’s Edge: Leadership
Beyond the Hammer: A Fresh Approach to Leadership, Culture, and Building High Performance Teams
By: Brian Gottlieb
Forbes Books, 2024
216 Pages
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Summary
Brian Gottlieb started selling pots and pans door to door after his graduation from high school. He then started a home services business in the back of a friend’s warehouse, on a plastic folding table, with $3,000 in cash. For the first several months, execution meant doing whatever was needed to stay in business for another day. He soon realized that for his company to grow, he needed to build a team. Over time, his company grew to employ more than a thousand individuals, diversifying into multiple states, business units, and product lines. The company eventually received the Better Business Bureau’s Torch Award for Ethics, and Inc. 5000’s list of fastest-growing companies. It was also named the best place to work in his state. When he eventually sold his group of companies, the businesses had annual sales in excess of $150M. Gottlieb is a graduate of the Harvard Business School’s Executive Education Program.
The first half of the book is an extended narrative of a hypothetical leader, George, and his home renovation company that is struggling to survive. Through a series of discussions with a kind fellow business executive, his new mentor shares five foundational pillars of leadership. Through following these five principles, George turns his company around and leads it into a new period of growth and profit.
In the second part of the book, the narrative shifts from storytelling to strategy, with an actionable blueprint for weaving these five pillars into any business. The book’s two-part format was designed to demonstrate problems and solutions in a way that is engaging, informative, and inspirational. The book seeks to help leaders picture themselves, not only in the problems but in the solutions, and integrate the principles into daily operations.
Leader’s Edge
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