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Conflicting loyalties. Terminations. A changing culture. New competitive threats. These phrases describe the challenges facing many of today's most successful businesses. They also describe the challenges facing another profitable organization-television's Soprano family. As the boss of the family, Tony Soprano knows the difficulties of being an effective leader in an environment of change, complexity, and crisis. He has experienced the struggle to find and keep talent. And as for loyalty fuhgetaboutit! When it comes to business, you need more than loyalty if you're gonna avoid swimming with the fishes. Today's environment can leave even the most efficient boss feeling powerless, unable to make decisions or implement them. Tony Soprano knows that if you wanna get things done, you can't continue to lead as you have in the past. Author Debbie Himsel has been exposed to virtually every leadership theory and development methodology. In Leadership Soprano Style, she makes a clear case that Tony Soprano is the Jack Welch of his particular industry-that his management style brilliantly illuminates a NEW set of leadership principles, and that underbosses around the world can learn a great deal from Tony, flaws and all. Himsel shares these principles with readers, using Tony as a catalyst for understanding the leadership tools and techniques that are necessary to whack the competition and win in business. Chapter highlights include:
* Who's the Boss: A Simple, Clear Structure.
* The Strategic Goal Is to Make Money.
* The War for Talent.
* Understanding Your Deeper Need to Kill the Competition.
* Sit-Downs and Other Conflict Management Tools.
* Coaching the Poobahs and the Goombahs.
* Give It to My Face: Receiving Feedback.
* Charisma: More Than a Flashy Tie and a Cheap Cigar.
* If Your Organization Were Part of the Mob.

I Got A Book You Cannot Refuse to Read!, 2006-09-14
Want an interesting and entertaining way to get a lot of business management points across to your employees; or perhaps you are looking for something to enhance your own leadership style? May I recommend that you get a copy a very knowledgeable but slightly unorthodox business book called "Leadership Sopranos Style: How To Become A More Effective Boss". It is not your typical dry and humorless regurgitations of old management mantras. This book, with tongue-in-check at times, explores the world of management through the leadership style of that fictional TV anti-hero Tony Soprano. That should be enough to shake up the old school managers but once you relate to what the author Deborrah Himsel is really saying about his style you will find a real personal vehicle for leadership growth.

This book in no way endorses the mob, whacking managers who fail to achieve but does point out the advantages of looking people "right in the eye" and letting them know what it is that you expect from them. It also takes a look at Tony's approach to conflict resolutions with sit down meetings. Once you realize that most all of these references to Tony is most just a cleaver and entertaining metaphor to make a point you will not only enjoy the book but also learn something valuable from it.

Himsel's book gives the reader many newer and sometimes edgy insights to the workplace and those you need to work with. She does a craftsman's job of presenting strategy and management leadership principles. The book is charming and a pleasure to read even if you are not going to be a big Fortune 500 executive. You also do not have to have been fan of the TV show, or in fact, had ever even seen it to make the leadership connections.

The book receives the American Authors Association's top book rating of FIVE STARS!

The American Authors Association's- Best Business Book 2006

Finally, a Leadership Metaphor With Substance, 2004-12-12
Too many leadership books are so into becoming the next popular "quick airplane read" that they lack substance and espouse only one or two key ideas that are then endlessly reinforced in a story. Here, instead, a witty leadership development practitioner who knows what she's talking about (Himsel was on the INSIDE of several corporations versus some academic ivory tower) tells it like it is, reveals deeper layers of management know-how, and uses a "hook" that will most readers. The book covers more than the mere leadership surface, providing both reminders and new insights about leadership strategy, org charts, feedback and coaching, mediating conflicts between direct reports, staying on top of your professional development, the whole nine yards. For those that are tempted to dismiss the book because you are not a Sopranos watcher or because you don't emulate the leadership style of a mob boss, you'd be making a mistake. Himsel immediately and deftly provides perspective on how her metaphor works, that she is not endorsing Tony's violent or illegal behavior, and that there are lessons to be learned from the leadership principles by which the anti-hero operates without buying into his moral principles. The pop icon gangster vehicle simply lets her teach leadership theory and practice through an edu-taining, edgy, and humorous writing style. And there are many practical tactics offerred. For example, her detailing of Tony's "sit-downs" with key players shows how the savvy leader keeps tabs on the dynamics on his team and becomes active when intra-team or intra-team conflicts jeopardize the vibrancy of the business. If you're not a Sopranos regular, not the worry! Himsel sufficiently clues in non-Sopranos fans about the background of her many vivid examples from the series so that the vehicle works . Check out this book or you might find yourself swimming with the fishes!!!