If you pick up Icons
and Idiots: Straight Talk on Leadership expecting to pick up some insights
on what separates great leaders from the not so great, I am afraid you will
sorely disappointed. Bob Lutz, the octogenarian, automotive executive who held
a plethora of high powered roles with GM, Ford, Chrysler, BMW and Exide offers
some entertaining opinions on his fellow automotive executives that he
witnessed in action, often up close and personal.
Lutz makes a few things abundantly clear; he was (and is) a
mover and shaker in the automotive industry, he has a VERY high opinion of
himself, and he is certainly not shy about expressing his thoughts about his
colleagues and the leaders he has interacted with during his career.
The most telling and entertaining profiles are of automotive
industry colleagues who’s leadership and personalities Lutz dissects and more
often than not flays with a rapier wit and the light touch of a verbal
bludgeon. Clearly Lutz is beyond
worrying about winning friends and influencing people, which in the end makes
the book so entertaining.
While you can glean that Lutz played a masters hand in the
politics of middle to senior to C-suite management, always properly positioning
himself for next steps and willing to make the beneficial compromise; I’m not
certain that you will gain much in the way of useful leadership strategy here.
Bottom line; Icons and Idiots, does
live up to its promise of doling out straight talk.
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