Halfway to a Goal
Book Tracking 10
Taking Point
By Brent Gleeson
There’s something satisfying about reaching the halfway point of a goal you set for yourself. I’ll admit I’ve been bad about writing up reports and posting them the last few weeks. You’ll notice though that I through together a few quick reports and observations of books I finished and posted them this weekend. Well, I finished yet another book just last night.
This book was referenced in one of the other books I just read, Embracing the Suck. Brent Gleeson actually wrote Taking Point first. Since I enjoyed Embracing the Suck I figured why not read his first book.
Taking Point is all about helping leaders in companies/organizations lead their employees through change. Gleeson lays out 10 principles that he learned in his time with the Navy Seals and through his own business ventures and guides leaders on some best practices and suggestions on how to navigate change.
A couple things stand out to me. The first is the title of the book. Taking Point, which basically means “Lead!” So this book is focused on people who want to lead. This is reinforced throughout the book as Brent references how leaders are not managers. Leaders have to have a vision but more importantly communicate that vision.
The biggest theme throughout the book that I came away with was communication is key. After that is discipline and then resilience. All of these fall into my own theories of leadership which makes me think I’m on the right path. Granted this is an over simplification, but I do think that clear communication is struggling to surface in today’s environment. I myself struggle communicating clearly with my team members and especially those I’m close with. So this reminds me of an area I need to improve upon. Additionally, I can always become more disciplined and through discipline I can continue to learn resilience. In short, improvise, adapt, overcome… Damn, guess dad’s been right my whole life.