Patton on Leadership by Alan Axelrod

Patton on Leadership Reviews

• 
  Jim Bouchard

  General Patton has always been one of my heroes; Alex Axelrod teaches me why. His commentary on quotations from Patton and those who knew him provide excellent lessons for leadership in business and personal life.
  
  If you're a Patton fan; you'll love this. If you're not; you'll be pleasantly surprised!
• 
  Franco Arda

  Military collected more genuine intellects and risk thinkers than most if not all other professions ... and Patton was definitely one of them.
  
  Based on books and the brilliant movie PATTON, he was a truly charismatic personality. Tough, arrogant, bold and direct. And this book displays his characteristics beautifully.
  
  The uniqueness of 'Patton on Leadership' lies in the layout. After a short quote or an inscription in Patton's field notebook follows a more detailed description of the meaning/depth by the author. Still kept very short. The book is nicely structured by topics, numerous pictures of Patton which gives the book a nice, almost personal touch of Patton, as well as full page pictures of Patton incl. a typical Patton quote like on page 22 'When in doubt attack'. Typical Patton briliance; on the surface simple but profound in depth (our competitor/enemy might be in doubt too where boldness might strategically be the most effecitve solution).
  
  Patton shows deep understanding of strategy vs. tactics; 'be a steamroller in the overall strategy, but flexible in tactics'. The advantage of aggresiveness and boldness in execution and creating favourable circumstances. Readers interested in strategy will easily recognise that Patton was well read in history, in particular he must have read Clausewit's book ON WAR, Book III, the Chapter on 'Boldness', several times :-)
  
  It's rare to find a book of a military genius explaining strategy and tactis well. I've failed so far to be really inspired by the writings on masters like Alexander, Napoleon, Clausewitz and the like. Not with this book. Pattons wisdom is applicable and therefore useful. Great read and re-read.
• 
  B.E.

  I read this book years ago when I was working as management support. When my daughter was struggling with some of the things her leadership professor was saying, I found a copy of this book - just to show her there is another way to approach management. I've been reading it to her over the phone and plan on sending snippets via email. Not everything is pertinent, but it's still a damn good book. (And I even found a few inspirational quotes I can use to fuel myself for my own work.)
• 
  Steve Rangoussis

  General Patton's no nonsense approach to leading men has many lessons that are captured in this book. The importance of consistency, standards, accountability, and the ability for a leader to communicate effectively with his team (even using their vernacular) are all addressed. Another essential leadership book that is a must read.
• 
  Steven Ramirez

  The make up of the book with Patton quotes followed by an explanation made it an easy read. The best things I took away were points that seemed to be drops in a very large breadth of information. They were:
  
  - start off new people with positivity about the organization
  - make sure people understand where things are, what their success criteria is
  - involve all stakeholders in any decision making
  
  And a few others. All this feels familiar but it’s easy to forget in every day management. The part no one tells you in these books is that nothing comes naturally. You have to apply them and be fully aware when you do.
  
  The book is fine enough with general manager advice that I’d recommend it but it’s nothing groundbreaking.
• 
  Gene

  Axelrod beautifully blends Patton's proven wartime leadership approach with the applicability of today's modern business management environment. Axelrod takes multiple lessons from Patton's philosophy and crafts it into something anyone can relate to. Definitely a book I will read again and will add it to my annual TBR list.
• 
  عبدالعزيز زايد

  كتاب قواعد الجنرال بايتون
  للكاتب: الن اكيسورد
  المترجم: هالة النابلسي
  
  الكتاب قيم وهو عبارة عن دروس في القيادة الاستراتيجية والريادة، مستلهمة من القائد العسكري الجنرال ( باتون)، وباتون هذا قائد عسكري في الجيش الأمريكي، خاض الحرب العالمية الثانية. وقاد الجيش ا��ثالث في الحرب، انتصر باتون في معظم معاركه، نتطلع لمطالعة كتاب آخر للمؤلف.
• 
  Rebekah

  Extremely biased, unorganized, repetitive, and badly written. Whereas it wasn't entirely a waste of time, it was not quality material.
• 
  Todor Samardzhiev

  Patton is an amazing character, but the author comments felt generic and repetitive. I feel like the book could have been structured much better.
• 
  Dainna Lowrance

  Great book fabulous Insight on management
• 
  Lawrence Hung

  A page-turning book on leadership with one of the American genius military leader. I really learned a lot from the book, although it is always the case that adaptations should be advisable. However, the book outlines and explains the importance of speed, of determination to achieve, of leading by examples, etc., all sort of things today's leaders in business should have acquired of, in a very clear and logical manner. The best part of the book is of course how the author melds and make application of the military leadership to business practices. Many inclinations, including mine, still hold true today. A recommended book for everyone who want to sharpen their leadership skills with a great and monumental model.
• 
  Timothy Isenmann

  Most of the world views General George S. Patton as an egotistical, vane, power hungry, bloodthirsty warmonger. What he really was, was probably the greatest motivator, planner, organizer, tactician and strategist the US Army has ever produced.
  
  Through a lifetime of study and application, Patton amassed a core set of practices and techniques that successfully and smoothly transform into the business world. Mr. Axelrod reviews these precepts and expands on their application to real-world business needs.
  
  Any business manager would be well advised to study these methods to become a more effective leader, and realize what the General always viewed as the final objective: To Win!
• 
  Angel

  This has become one of my favorite books on leadership and on just
  getting things done. I borrowed it from my public library after a lucky moment browsing the stacks. I am glad I took it out, and it is definitely a book I am planning on buying as soon as I can.
  
  Here is my note on it from my personal blog:
  
  [
  http://itinerantlibrarian.blogspot.co...]
• 
  Todd

  Patton was certainly a leader to take note of, and Axelrod did a good job summing up Patton's words and deeds then distilling general leadership principles from them. The book was written crisply, though with a good deal of repetition. This makes it ideal for a busy person who might read it in bits and pieces. No need to take notes, the repeated lessons drill themselves home as one works through the book. A quick read that will help one appreciate the leader Patton was, and perhaps help one to sharpen one's own leadership skills too.
• 
  Meggen

  This was a really great book about leadership. It had some interesting, yet simple insights. The concepts were well presented and easy to understand, as well as to see how they can be applied to today's leadership opportunities. There are a few places where "colorful" quotes are used. If you can get past the Patton language every now and then you will glean many useful nuggets of leadership truth.
• 
  Davis Parker

  Any book that gives you 183 page-long lessons is inevitably going to be a disorganized mess. There is no way for the human mind to remember, much less internalize, such a variety of often contradictory messages--which is quite a bummer because there is much to learn from Patton. He was aggressive, demanding, audacious, inspiring, and most of all successful. Leaders have a tremendous amount to learn from Patton, but this book does not do those lessons justice.
• 
  David

  There is probably not a more concise or clearly written compilation on practical leadership than what Patton wrote. Alan Axelrod does a great job of organizing and giving contemporary context to most of what Patton has written himself on leadership. Regarding Patton's relatively few laconic lines of text on the topic, this work is worth bookshelves compared to the volumes others have written.
• 
  Marsha Thompson

  Work - Team Book
  This book was pretty good. I like the emphasis on support of the team members. Some of it was very easy to relate to the working world but some of it was a stretch. One thing for certain it was a easy read and becuase of that I would recommend it to others.
• 
  Terrie

  Having to miss two of the discussions on this book, I didn't finish.
• 
  Patrick Trent

  Great leadership/organizational principles book. I have now read to twice. Very short chapters for when you have just a minute to read. The ideas are both inspirational and insightful.
• 
  James

  Short business audio book but did not learn too much other than Patton smacked some guy with a glove, later had to apologize only to find out that the smack was the most remembered thing.