Leadership

I learned so much from this book. This man is a true hero in the ancient Greek tradition. He is a leader with great ideas, strong practicality, and a flawed personal life. Even with all his personal faults I would not hesitate to follow him. I hope he becomes the next President of the United States and this book will tell you why.

I had to read this for a college class and it is honestly only one of two books I could not finish, ever. This was horrible. This is a poorly written, annoying book, in which Giuliani shows how full of himself he really is.

I particularly couldn't stand when Giuliani commented that he was upset that 9/11 happened, but glad that it gave him a chance to show what a great leader he was. Why would you make a comment like that?

Personal opinions and politics aside, New York City is better off because of Giuliani. In this book, he is not afraid to tell us why he did such a good job as Mayor of NYC. Now I know, his ego is huge, he's pompus, I have heard it all... but the results are there-- the City is cleaner and safer because of him! I saw him speak during a Leadership series, shortly after 9-11. It was one of the most amaizing seminars I have ever seen. I don't care how "off" people think his tactics were, what he did to NYC during his tenur was nothing short of incredible... and who is was to the city, and to the country during the days / weeks after 9-11 - he was "america's mayor". And to me he still is...

Throughout the book Giuliani tells us how he turned the City around. I found his philosphy and actions taken enjoyable to read. And craziest thing is that the strategies are simple! Even when he discusses his actions on 9-11... they are so pure and simple.. Don't get me wrong, I know that 9-11 was not simple... but the way he breaks down the first thoughts in his mind about what to do.. your like "wow he makes that sound so easy"

It is full of politics, so those not interested in politics, may not find this book enjoyable.

Whether you like Rudy Giuliani or not, the changes made to New York City during his terms as mayor were good for the city. He was a Republican mayor in a Democratic city and state, but he left the city running smoothly and passed along his methods of accountability, including COMPSTAT, gladly to his Democratic successor, Michael Bloomberg.

Don't be reluctant to read this book because it is written by a Republican. Giuliani worked with Democrats to achieve results for his city. He was glad to pass on the improvements to a Democrat whom he believed the city needed because NYC needed a businessman to operate it. Bloomberg qualified, in Giuliani's opinion.

Don't be reluctant to read this book because it is written by a Catholic. He insisted on everyone in his team being treated with respect regardless of their religious beliefs.

Don't be reluctant to read this book because he became involved in an unfortunate divorce. Despite the failures of his personal life, he still loved and served the city.

You might not like Giuliani but this book is not about him. It is about extremely effective leadership methods that transformed a city in which people had stopped believing. It is about recognizing the bad management that had caused people and businesses to desert the city and about making changes to reverse this exodus. It is about reducing crime, increasing hospital efficiency, improving services, etc. while decreasing budgets.

It is about communication between the public, his employees and administrators and himself. It is about accountability. It is about honesty. It is about treating others with dignity. It is about selecting good people and letting them do what they are skilled at doing (and not being afraid to remove those who are not able to do the job). It is about determining priorities, making decisions and following through. It is about loyalty, independence, strength, purpose, and fighting for what is right even if you know the inevitable result will be lawsuits. It is about standing strong and never giving up.

It is about transferring your vision to your team and to the public so that they are all a part of the process and of the success. It is about giving all of them credit for the results.

It is not a book that makes Giuliani a hero. Yes, he uses examples from his own life and experience to demonstrate the principles of leadership that brought success. How else can he explain his leadership principles?

But he gives credit to those who exemplified leadership to him. He was mentored and he is now mentoring through this book. He is repaying the world for how it has blessed him.

In each chapter, he discusses one leadership principle and uses examples from his entire life, not just from the 9 11 disaster. You could read only the chapters of interest to you and still benefit from them.

Even if you do not like Giuliani (as I notice in many reviews), please do not throw out the baby with the bathwater. Even if you do not like his political beliefs, you can still use his leadership principles to make the changes you believe in.

I am a Canadian and obviously neither Republican or Democrat. But I watched the improvements in NYC because of Giuliani. I saw how his methods especially COMPSTAT were copied by many major US cities. I want someone who uses these leadership principles in our Canadian cities.

Do I agree with everything Giuliani did? No, but I am glad that I read this book. I found the content inspiring.

Nothing all THAT new under the sun. We've all known what we need to do, and what we should do, and somehow didn't do. This is a good reminder of that.

It's got enough meat that it's earned a semipermanent spot on my shelf and I'll be returning to it many times. In some cases Rudy pulls punches and gets it wrong (endorsing Cuomo), but in many cases he doesn't pull any punches. Dinkins didn't get it. The UN stinks. Arafat was a hypocrite crook. Koch threw people under the bus (which Rudy did too at times). The "Republicans are mean and awful" mantra is nothing but slander and bias. Mean and awful is what New York was BEFORE he got in, which should be telling you something.

I'm left wanting that he didn't quite make it to the next echelon and didn't fully explain it, but it's no foregone conclusion in American politics. Right or wrong, generally "Hizzoner" is a terminal position. Even so, there's plenty to learn from here.

A reread from 2005 - this time for a course. Plenty of self-promotion, with some good wisdom throughout. Certainly an accomplished leader.

I read /Leadership/, by Rudy Giuliani:

https://onlinepmcourses.com/book-revi...

The beginning of the book was pretty interesting, as Giuliani starts with 9/11 and his response as mayor. That made the book worth the price of admission...

The rest of the book was almost as poor as expected.

Kudos to Giuliani, though, for his fantastic leadership in responding to the events of 9/11... and then even more so for cashing in to the tune of many millions, consulting to governments all over the world.

Don't bother with the book unless someone is paying you to read it.

Frustrated that my brain is stagnating, and wanting to make a change in work, life and who knows what else, I turned to some serious writing to see if I could learn anything.
Not from this I couldn't. The Mayor has a particular style and a particular job which, over a hundred pages into it, I was finding difficult to apply to anything I did. I began to suspect that he had leadership qualities but was finding it difficult himself to understand why! So the book is sitting unfinished at the moment, although I may return to it.