June 23, 2011

Leading Team Alpha by Joel DiGirolamo

Dean, the main character, finds himself dealing with some tough business decisions and decides to reach out to a former professor for leadership advice.  Unlike other business books, this is a fictional novel, but is filled with leadership principles. 

DiGirolamo takes the reader through Dean’s decision making, his relationship with his team, and dealing with difficult workers.  The key concepts covered in the book include selecting team members, motivating them, ensuring their work aligns with the organization, remaining goal focused, and job satisfaction.

When I started this book, I was drawn into it immediately because of the easy-to-read novel format.  I could relate to Dean and some of the challenges he came across.  Readers can easily identify with this main character and recognize very quickly who the difficult characters will be in the story.  DiGirolamo has good descriptive dialogue so readers can quickly pick up on the communication techniques used and apply them in their own business settings.

I had some trouble buying into a story toward the end of the novel because it was a complicated situation that was resolved relatively quickly.  I also felt a section about a work trip did get a bit off-track.  There were so many dynamics happening just within the office that DiGirolamo could have kept the story there.  One thing that may have helped readers grasp the core principles is by having a ‘takeaways’ section at the end of each chapter.  Overall though, I thought it was a good book about leadership and a light read for a business book.

Disclaimer: I received this book free from Reader's Favorite.

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