Tales from the Top: 10 Crucial Questions from the World's #1 Executive Coach
Though Alexander's "ten crucial questions" aren't revolutionary-"What's life all about for you?" "Would you do anything differently if you knew you had only a year to live?" "Are you running your business or is it running you?"-he makes the usual threadbare management clichés ("Treat your customers like royalty") say something new by avoiding the hyperbolic vigor common to American business writing, instead employing a dry style that can verge dangerously close to sarcasm:  "Many business leaders find focusing on what is truly important difficult, because doing is so much easier than thinking." Alexander also pinpoints the major drivers of business dysfunctionality: fear, frenetic busyness, arrogance and ignorance. His solutions are quite sensible: write down the one thing that scares you most about your current situation; do three things a day that only you can do really well to uniquely help the business; don't guess what your customer wants. Though the advice sounds practical enough, the real-world results Alexander has achieved aren't quantified in this book, and the CEOs Alexander has coached aren't named. Still, Alexander has written the rare palatable guide to executive coaching.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.