Would You Work for You?
By Sam Geist
Addington & Wentworth
ISBN: 1-896984-12-6 -
Nonfiction / How To / Professional / Technical

Reviewed by David Leonhardt, MyShelf.Com
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Would you work for you? If you were your boss, would you like the way you treat you? Would you feel respected, wanted, valued? Would you feel like part of the team, or just an order-taker? Would you feel inspired? Would you want to give the company your best?

Author Sam Geist asks these questions and many more … so much so that Would You Work for You? seems at times more like a workbook than a business text. And with each "workbook" section, he asks again, "Would you work for you? Yes. No. I'm not sure at this time." Readers can be forgiven for feeling they should be able to answer "Yes" by the end of the book. However, if there is one thing the book lacks, it is a compelling and cohesive argument at the end that we should indeed be able to answer "Yes" by following Geist's advice.

The premise of the book is that leaders are good and bosses are bad. It's the same message he drove home to me in a face-to-face interview, as he rhymed off the differences between a boss and a leader. He sets the stage in the preface with this quotation from British department store founder H. Gordon Selfridge:

"The boss drives his men; the leader coaches them.
The boss depends upon authority; the leader on goodwill.
The boss inspires fear; the leader inspires enthusiasm.
The boss says: 'I'; the leader says 'WE.'
The boss says: 'Get there on time;' the leader gets there ahead of time.
The boss fixes the blame for the breakdown; the leader fixes the breakdown.
The boss knows how it's done; the leader shows how.
The boss says: 'GO;' the leader says, 'let's GO!'"

I like books that are interactive, useful, easy to read and easy to skim. Would You Work for You? is no work of literature, but it is a solid business book that meets every one of my criteria.

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David Leonhardt is author of Climb your Stairway to Heaven: the 9 habits of maximum happiness.