Bradly Fletchall

<– This Guy…

Books

By on February 9, 2017

Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win is great for so many reasons…If you like military and war stories, this book has plenty of those. If you’re into leadership books, this book is outstanding. If you are looking for a kick in the ass to get your life on a better path, this book might be your ticket. Jocko Willink and Leif Babin are true American patriots and heros. They were the leadership of Task Unit Bruiser in Ramadi Iraq part of Seal Team Three with notable members Michael Monsoor, Kevin Lacz and Chris Kyle of the American Sniper book and subject of the same title movie. This book helped me solve a major challenge I was having at work with my team around IT Change Management. Our teams were having trouble getting changes approved and it was causing a lot of frustration with everyone involved. Chapter 10: Leading Up and Down the Chain of Command had all the answers. Jocko and Leif faced very similar issues getting missions approved with their leadership, back out plans, verification steps, making leadership comfortable and clearing a path for his team to do their jobs. It all applied. Read this book.
How To Win Friends and Influence People is a true classic. I’ve read it a few times now and firmly believe it should be required reading as a freshman in high school and again as a freshman in college and probably every few years just to make sure you don’t forget. Dale Carnegie first got this published back in 1937. Even though its been updated again in 1981, some of the phrases are clearly from another time. A time when words had meaning. The story about the very upset child was particularly attention grabbing for me as I have several small children and if more people with children would read that passage, home life would be much better for many. We are all in the customer service business which is really the relationship business and this book has a better path for handling nearly every situation. Times change but all of our chief complaints stay largely the same. People in Dale Carnegie’s 1937 world were just as angry about or concerned with poor service, late deliveries, damaged products, jerks and know it alls or tantrumming children as any of us are today.