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 Derailed: Lessons Learned from Leaders Who Failed by Tim Irwin
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Derailed: Five Lessons Learned from Catastrophic Failures of Leadership by Tim Irwin I found this book to be overly simplistic and generalized. Tim took the downfall of 6 different corporate leaders and identified five key character deficiencies he believes contributed. He breaks character in to four key areas: authenticity, self-management, humility, and courage. I do believe the deficiencies were clearly there but I also believe that the derailments may have been more complex than Tim describes. Tim is attempting to present this material in the same form as “From Good to Great”. However, he simply doesn’t have the same amount of research and connections between the CEO train wrecks. His dogmatic assertions are not based on scientific study but rather on an intuitive surface level. That being said, there is no doubt that these CEO’s would have been better leaders if they had developed these character qualities. Tim does a good job of explaining each quality and showing how they could have a positive impact on business leaders today. I particularly appreciated the way he presented the quality of courage and how it has an impact on the leadership provided. Tim asserts that derailment is a process and I believe we would all agree. However, I’m not sure that it will always happen in the same order. After profiling the 6 leaders, identifying character deficiencies and showing the downward process they follow, Tim gives two chapters to explain how we can avoid a similar downfall. He does a fine job but I believe that much more could have been said. I probably would not recommend this book. I found the book simplistic and boring. I believe that you could find better books on leadership qualities and leadership deficiencies than “Derailed”. View all my reviews >>
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