Three Star Leadership

You can get a lot of value from the stories the author has collected from former Marines and with which he has filled this book. Alas, the organization, writing and editing make it hard to draw wisdom from the stories.

There are major inconsistencies throughout the book. Take the cover. The title is No Yelling but the cover picture shows a Drill Instructor yelling. And once you've left the cover behind the subject of yelling seems left behind as well.

Inside the book there are inconsistencies in the way contributors are identified. Some are identified with full company names, like Fawcett Boats or Russell Construction. Others are identified with company descriptions such as "Major Software Company" and "National Logistics Company." Still others are identified by position such as "Physician's Assistant." One fellow is described as working for a national consulting firm, but offers two long examples of work as the manager of a laundry.

Authorities are referred to but not identified. On page 102 we find that "Researcher Cynthia Fisher put it this way …" We get no information about who the researcher is, what she researches, or why we should view her as an expert. There are no index, no notes, and not even a list of contributors to help us.

The book cries out for an obvious organizing principle. The title is no help. The order of the nine "secrets" seems random. Adamcik has some of "laws of leadership," but they turn out to be not much help.

On page 64 Adamcik introduces his "First Law of Leadership" which is: "It's all about you." These "laws" pop up in different places in the book. Presented that way, almost at random, they're not very effective. They might have been a good way of organizing the material which would have given a clear structure to the book.

Even the stories can be a problem. Many of them appear unedited and drone on for a couple of pages. Sometimes it's hard to tell why a particular story/example was chosen for inclusion or to illustrate a particular point.

The telling point for me was in how long it took me to finish the book. I read a lot and I read quickly to gather information for my blog and other writing which includes a book review every week or so. But I found myself bored and distracted and time and again I put the book down. I finally quit reading a little over half way through.

The US Marines are the world's largest elite fighting force. The leadership practices that the Marines use have proved themselves on battlefields and in boardrooms. Successful business leaders like Fred Smith of FedEx learned their leadership trade in the Marines.

That's why it's sad that this book simply doesn't engage the reader, and squanders the knowledge that might have been drawn from well selected, edited and organized real-life examples. It's sad that the author who appears to use this material effectively in his consulting practice and in speeches couldn't come up with a better book.

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