Genre: Business
Fiction
Description:
“Leah, the newly promoted manager at Blaise International, faces a
common challenge: how to turn slow sales and uninterested employees into a
booming enterprise. Uniting her team and avoiding employee layoffs seem
impossible. Until she meets the Professor, Their weekly lessons on the power of
story help Leah turn her employees and leadership team from unmotivated
individuals into a community with a common goal. Alongside Leah, learn the
three ways to experience story and how to identify a misaligned story. The
Professor teaches that the way we present ourselves through verbal and
nonverbal cues — employee recognition, team meeting behaviors, and identifying
employee burnout — impacts not only our own path, but also the paths of others.
Saturday Morning Tea is a powerful tale of leadership and ambition that proves
how story has the power to change everything.”
Author:
“As an author, international speaker, consultant and coach, Tony
Bridwell has been making a difference at some of the world’s largest
organizations for the past 20 years. He is the former Chief People Officer of
Brinker International and a past partner with global consulting firm, Partners
In Leadership. Currently, Tony is the Chief People Officer for Ryan, LLC, the
global leader in Tax Consulting.”
Appraisal:
This was described as business fiction. I wasn’t sure exactly what to
expect, but after reading it think that’s a fair label, although depending on
the picture that label paints for you it may or may not be exactly what you
expect. Leah, a newly-minted manager meets “the Professor” at a local tea spot
one Saturday morning. They get talking about Leah’s difficulties and the
Professor lends his advice. This turns into a regular Saturday get together with
the chronicling of what they discuss being the first part of each section in
the book. Their discussion is a fairly realistic telling of what you might
expect to hear from an intelligent up-and-coming, yet inexperienced manager and
her mentor. Definitely fiction and definitely discussing business. The style is
reminiscent of what fables and other stories that mentors and other more
experienced people have used for thousands of years to illustrate points as
they educate those who can benefit from their knowledge and experience. It isn’t
fiction in the sense of entertaining like a good novel or short story, but by
presenting the information as a story it makes it easier to take in and digest.
At the end of each section the lessons you hopefully are coming away with are
laid out much more explicitly, in my opinion to review the first time around
and for easy reference down the road.
This is one of a series Bridwell has and continues to write. I think this particular volume is especially
interesting because I think he makes a good case for his approach to teaching,
using stories, and how that approach can help in managing and mentoring others.
Well done with an excellent lesson.
Format/Typo
Issues:
No significant issues
Rating: *****
Five Stars
Reviewed
by: BigAl
Approximate
word count: 13-14,000 words
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