Review: One of the best all-around books on leadership I've seen yet....
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 09 17, 2012
As a person slightly addicted to business productivity and self-improvement books, I have come across thousands of books on leadership and productivity. Most of them focused on one particular aspect of leadership (such as the mental or social aspect) while neglecting the others. I can say from experience that this leads to a limited view of leadership that is ineffective in today's fast paced world.Over the years, there have been relatively few books that have been able to combine the many different elements of leadership into one complete whole and make sense. This book happens to be one of them. Designed for the express purpose of passing leadership skills to the next generation of leaders, I found that the contents of the book were applicable to anyone who wished to develop or enhance their leadership skills.What I like about this book is that it breaks the abstract concept leadership down into its concrete core elements and walks you through those elements in a variety of ways (tips, journal activities, and practice exercises) rather than just passively providing information which can easily be forgotten. As a result, you interact with the book on a much more meaningful and impactful way.The book is also really comprehensive, covering just about aspect of leadership on a personal and community basis. The book covers budgeting, physical fitness, political strategies, communication, team-building and organizational development and more.  This was the first leadership book that I read that covered all of those issues within one book. All of these skills will make anyone (especially a young person) effective in whatever they wished to do. Looking back, I only wish I had this book in my own high school and college years because it would have saved me from some unwanted experiences!I was also really impressed with the resources section at the end of each chapter because it provided a wealth of print and Internet resources that I am definitely going to follow up on. It was well-researched and had an incredible list of books.One of the potential negatives of the book is the simplicity of the content. As I mentioned earlier, the book is designed for high school and college students, so the language focuses on that age groups. Those looking for complex acronyms and business strategies will not find it in this book.  Still, I found all of the information in this book extremely helpful, insightful and inspiring.Overall, it was a well-organized, comprehensive book that I recommend to anyone. In particular, though, I think high school students, volunteers (teenagers), as well as college students in the business, social sciences and education fields will get a lot out of this book. I am keeping this as resource and will periodically return to it when I get time.