Entreleadership

By: Dave Ramsey

I’ve made no effort in hiding the fact that I’m a fan of Dave Ramsey.  His book “Total Money Makeover” made a huge difference in the way that I handle my personal finances.  So, when I heard that he was coming out with a book on leadership, I added it to my wish list.  I’ve finally gotten far enough along in my reading to have made it through the book and was really impressed.

Dave has been running his company for something slightly longer than 20 years.  In Entreleadership, he give us the rundown on how he runs the company. It’s far from your typical book on leadership in that he isn’t talking about theory, but actual practice.  He covers pretty much everything about running a company, and not just one that is a multi-million dollar company like his, but has several bits that look at the topic from a start-up perspective too.

As is typical with Dave’s writing, it’s easy to read, and easy to understand.  I’m sure he’s got plenty of editors to keep the typos and grammatical errors to a minimum, so that’s not really a problem either.

One of the things that bothers me about books like this one is that many of the practices are a hard sell for companies.  Too few companies buy into the culture movement and are only in it for the profits.  I hope that many leaders start seeing that light though.  Dave’s book should go a long way towards that.

I’ve seldom read a book that covers such a broad spectrum of the business leadership world.  Even when I do find one that encompasses as much, it’s pretty rare to find one that gives examples and lays out a strategy for employing the practices in your own company.  Dave does both in Entreleadership.  I found chapters on time management, hiring, firing, asset management, expanding, salary, and overall compensation.

If you’re a leader of your company or aspire to be, I think Entreleadership is a must read.  It’s one that will be staying in my library for quite some time and is pretty likely to get a re-read or two.