Lead On!: A Practical Guide to Leadership [Paperback]

“A warm yet specific book which cuts to the heart of leadership issues and savvy.”—The Bookwatch

Informal, even conversational in style, Lead On! is nevertheless a serious handbook from which aspiring leaders can learn how to achieve seemingly impossible goals. The book is replete with examples from the author’s experience and from the history of the nuclear navy, where the price of failure can be death.
 
Civilian managers will find that many of the principles discussed here can be employed with profit in private industry. The old school of motivation by coercion never accomplished much with submarine sailors, who are among the navy’s elite, and the author has found that what works with this new breed of mariner-technician can be of enormous value in dealing with the members of an entrepreneurial organization.

Praise for Lead On!

“A wealth of advice on military leadership that is also pertinent to civilian managers.”—The Retired Officer

“It is a particular pleasure to see an officer from the ‘silent service’ publish his thoughts and viewpoints. In a light and breezy style . . . Admiral Oliver [expresses] some current thinking on critical issues.”—USNI ProceedingsPREFACE
 
I was inordinately fortunate during my early professional career. I worked for some truly awful leaders.
 
Thus, during the subsequent free time that life sometimes provides, I always had a full wagonload of professional grist waiting to grind. The important questions were always the same. Why had my bosses acted without ló'