Dad of Divas' Reviews: Book Review - Chess Not Checkers

Saturday, April 4, 2015

Book Review - Chess Not Checkers

Chess Not Checkers
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About the Book
As organizations grow, the demands on leadership change. The same old moves won't cut it any more. In Chess Not Checkers, Miller tells the story of Blake Brown, newly appointed CEO of a company troubled by poor performance and low morale. Nothing Blake learned from his previous job seems to help him deal with the issues he now faces. The problem, his new mentor points out, is Blake is playing checkers—he needs to play chess or he's going to lose.

The early days of an organization are like checkers: a quick game with mostly interchangeable pieces. Everybody does a little bit of everything, the leader included, and things are so frantic you just have to react as fast as you can. But as the organization expands, you can't just keep jumping from activity to activity. You have to think strategically, look ahead, leverage every employee's specific talents. That's chess. And this approach creates unprecedented levels of performance.

Adapting four strategies from the game of chess, Miller reveals four moves high-performance organizations make. They bet on leadership, act as one, win the heart, and excel at execution. Chess Not Checkers is an accessible and easily applied guide to help leaders elevate their own leadership and the performance of their entire team.




My Take on the Book
In my work with employees you definitely have to think strategically. In this book the author has brought forth a new way of thinking in regards to how you are to consider this work. I have to say that I appreciated the analogy of praying chess instead of checkers here. Not that I am calling my employees pawns, not even close. What I liked in this though was the strategic strategies that the author shares that will help you best align your employees and your own thinking so that you and your company can be the most effective that you can be. This was a well written book that will give you some great assets/resources that you can learn from and utilize immediately!



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