When I first heard about the book "No Yelling: The 9 Secrets of Marine Corps Leadership You Must Know to Win in Business," by Wally Adamchik, I was intrigued. I've never been in the military (though my father and grandfather were). As such, I don't have any real-life context for what their management style is like. However, I've worked with some awesome people who had tremendous business and organizational skills that they picked up in the military, and I wanted to see if this book would be useful to me in my work.

Let me start with this: Wow - am I glad I decided to read this book!

This book takes 9 core principles of management and gives each of them a chapter. The topics are:

• Integrity
• Technical Competence
• Set the Example
• Self-Awareness
• Take Care of People
• Make New Leaders
• Commander's Intent
• Culture and Values
• Rehearsals and Critiques

This book is not preachy, dry, or mechanical. It is not rigid and robotic. This is a tremendous collection of object lessons to convey the essence of each of the 9 topics, and provide vivid examples of what these principles look like when they are applied effectively. There are also some great stories that illustrate the risks of operating in conflict with these principles.

Adamchik does a masterful job of framing each of the topics, and weaves his collection of anecdotes together with insightful commentary on why they are essential, why they are effective, and how things fall apart in their absence. You also get a clear example of how communicating trust, practicing effective delegation, and other practical skills can accelerate the development of a team.

Full spectrum storytelling

Inside this book, I found a full spectrum of stories - funny ones (such as one that occurs when he gives a vague instruction like, "Go do something productive." - and hilarity ensues), serious ones (such as one in which a commander takes full responsibility for a mistake made by junior members of his unit), humbling ones (as in stories that show the power of "being a part of the team" as a manager), and much more.

I also came away with some areas where I felt compelled to do better in the future than I've done in the past. What more can you ask for in a book?

Pick up a copy and you'll see "Semper Fi" in a whole new light - and you'll probably pick up some insights that will help you grow as a leader.

Related items

• "No Yelling" companion site
• Where do you invest your 10%? (8/15/2006)

No, I don't profess to have a magic answer to this problem. However, I've just finished reading a book with a view on this. It's "Leadership Made Simple," by Ed Oakley and Doug Krug and it has some practical insights to help deal with some challenging topics for leaders.

They present a well-organized, concise "Framework for Leadership" (apparently they've trademarked this term), which provides techniques, guidance, and examples to help improve team performance. This book is a quick, engaging read and could be very valuable, particularly if you have team dynamics issues you're dealing with. I also feel this book could be a good add to the library of a new manager / aspiring leader.

This book provides a nice blend of philosophical guidance, coupled with some specific techniques for working through organizational alignment / organizational change management quandaries.

There are some great examples in the book that underscore what I like to think of as "management curiosity" - seeking to understand and learn from each situation the team works through. You'll find some excellent things for your toolbox in the section on Effective Questions, and a discussion of the relationship between good questions and the quality of the answers you receive.

Along the same lines, I found the "Questions To Think About" topics at the end of the major sessions particularly insightful, and the anecdotes in this book were very well constructed.

A difference of opinion

In fact, one of these anecdotes brought out an issue where my opinion differs a bit from the authors'. In the book, there is a discussion about the value of "Focusing Forward" to drive success in the future.

"Joy does not occur when we focus on what's not working - on our mistakes and failures. Instead, we facilitate joy in the workplace when we focus forward - on what is working, the successes we have already achieved."

OK, so I don't totally disagree with this notion, but I feel you lose a lot of learning if you ignore your mistakes and failures. It's like a mentor of mine once pointed out to me:

A lot of sports teams find huge value in reviewing tapes of past games to identify areas where they made mistakes, and trying to consciously understand why they made those mistakes in the past.

If you approach your mistakes and failures with a spirit of learning and growth, you'll get a lot more out of life than if you just ignore them.

In any case, I enjoyed this book and will hang on to it and refer back to it for some good tools.

Other titles to consider

• If you're in the market for a more "how to" guide, I recommend you also pick up a copy of Lisa Haneberg's "High Impact Middle Management."
• Another excellent book on achieving organizational alignment is "Execution," by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan.
• Finally, if you want to get into the zen of leadership, pick up my favorite "why to" book, "Managing with Aloha," by Rosa Say.