Tune In to Wow Leadership
10 Lessons Learned from America’s Favorite Shows
Recommendation
Sheri Staak examines examples of good and bad leadership traits in action, using characters and plotlines from America’s favorite TV shows. She discusses NCIS, Homeland, The Simpsons, Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and many others. Most real-life leaders fall somewhere in the middle on the spectrum from great (“WOW”) to terrible (“DUD”), but Staak’s choices illustrate the extremes. She covers rotten bad guys, like The Simpsons’s evil boss Monty Burns. She admires the leadership traits of better-than-gold good guys, such as cop-show heroes Leroy Jethro Gibbs of NCIS and Steve McGarrett of Hawaii 5-0. She explains that good leaders demonstrate honesty, authenticity, humility, respect for others, and a desire to constantly learn and improve. But the duds are narcissistic, egotistical bullies, who are quick to blame others and can’t communicate. Despite her simplistic premise, readers who like TV will enjoy Staak’s approach. Those not vested in American TV series may have difficulty with her references. getAbstract recommends Staak’s lessons to managers, supervisors and pop-culture fans who’d enjoy finding some actual information amid the merriment and mayhem of television.
Summary
About the Author
Sheri Staak, who blogs about leadership on The STAAK Report, often mentors young professionals. She was a vice president at Pharmacia, Pfizer and the former Upjohn Company.
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