Customer Reviews

Recruiting Propoganda
This book is great Coast Guard Academy recruiting propoganda, nothing more. Not real accurate. If you seek an accurate view of Coast Guard leadership effectiveness, start by asking the people who actually make the agency run - it's Active Duty Enlisted forces. (Concur with "Ethically Challenged Management") To find out about how effective a service's leadership is, start at the deck plates. I found the innacuracies of this book extremely annoying. "Be, Know, Do," or The Army Leadership Field Manual would better serve your money & time.

Right book at the right time
I was provided a copy of the book when I became a contractor for the USCG. Having a military background already, I was interested in the military history of the USCG. This book has provided me with a glimpse into the mission of the USCG and its leadership style. There are many heart-warming stories of real life heroes that inspire one to the esprit-de-corp that the military resonates.

If your looking for a turnkey book on leadership this is not it, but if you are looking for ways to inspire people, and to refine your own personal style than this book is definitely what you are looking for. It is food for thought.

Hope you have found this review helpful.

Tom

Worth reading and a couple bucks
I thought that this book was definitely worth reading. It was a very easy read, and offered some useful insight. It did a great job characterizing the organizational culture of the USCG.

After reading some of the other reviews, I feel it is necessary to say that this book was written by an person who oversaw an organization on a macro level. It is a book about executive level leadership, not functional level leadership.

In total, it consisted of nothing more than a typical book about leadership - touchy feely advice...shoulds and should nots...yada yada yada. There were some unique ideas presented in this book compared to other leadership books. Again, it was a really easy read...definitely worth a couple bucks and the few hours it takes to read it.

Well-oiled machine, but what about conflict management?
As I read through this book, I did not encounter any case studies of conflict management between U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) personnal that required resolution, though there were the occasional references to "Coasties" who felt that they were really doing unimportant jobs (like looking after a power generator) - until a more senior man comes in and convinces them otherwise.

The USCG prides itself in recruiting talent who can do more than one job and can take command in field situations on their own initiative without waiting for orders from on-high; basically, it has an "act-first-tell-me-later" approach, which appears to have served this two-centuries-old organisation well, including during the terrible events of 9/11.

Yet, though Phillips and Loy, the co-authors, give the impression that the USCG runs like a well-oiled machine, they appear to have avoided any discussion of when it does not. Conflict resolution is part of any big organisation, yet no information appears in this book about it. Since the Coast Guard is a culturally homogeneous entity, there is nothing about any clashes of mentality or management styles or thinking.

Like the other four main branches of the U.S. armed forces, the USCG is a full-time organisation, and all five do have their Reserve units manned by part-timers who have civilian jobs. It is common practice for selected military personnel to be sent on exchanges, not just within their own country, but also to other countries. U.S. Coast Guardsmen must surely be sent on exchanges, too, yet Phillips and Loy mention nothing about this.

I would have liked to have read something about the experience of U.S. Coast Guardsmen temporarily serving in the coast guard of a foreign power, because it could say something useful about the differences in mentalities and in approaches to similar situations, and about any resolutions to disagreements or conflicts. Would the visiting USCG personnel have ideas and suggestions listened to and discussed and implemented - or would they simply be ignored?

Armed forces are not the same as civilian corporations, of course, since they are concerned with national defense and power projection rather than profit-making, yet interaction between, say, western and non-western organisations sometimes results in clashes, and I think it would have served the book better, seeing that Phillips has written books on management, had there been examples of conflict and resolution.

Ethically Challenged Management
The Coast Guard has studied and attempted to teach leadership since the inception of the Revenue Cutter Service in 1790. What is missing in this treatise is the view from those being led. At the deck plate, this theory and feel-good tome does not resonate. Those working in Coast Guard blue respond to leaders of good moral character, who lead and care, and who show fairness and compassion. The past relationship between the Coast Guard and Admiral Loy's progeny lends serious questions about morality and nepotism. That the Admiral's progeny continues to receive preferential employment now from the TSA, leads any thinking person to question the credibility of the author. The Admiral's words ring hollow. Should we "judge one by his actions, not his words" or should we, "do as I say, not as I do?"

Save your time, there is not much here.