Unlocking Leadership – A Review of Counter Mentor Leadership by Kelly & Robby Riggs – Practical, Actionable & Entertaining
Counter Mentor Leadership by Kelly & Robby Riggs
I read close to a hundred books a year and many of those are management and leadership books. So it was with some anticipation that I read Kelly & Robby Riggs’ new book Counter Mentor Leadership. Let me cut to the chase and tell you that this book is phenomenal and entertaining. I did not see this one coming. It is a truly unique management and leadership book. I’ve not read anything else like it. The book delivers insight that is new and addresses leadership in a way and level that hasn’t been done before. Because virtually every leader is now interacting with boomers, gen-xers and millennials, this book should be required reading.
Leadership is Challenging
Leadership is challenging. Getting things done through other is can be demanding on the best of days. I can tell you from personal experience and the foibles my fellow managers and I have encountered that this book is badly needed in the world management. As a Gen-Xer with one foot firmly planted in the boomer world (my wife is a boomer) and the other in the millennial world, I found the challenges in Counter Mentor Leadership all too familiar. What’s better is that I found not just new insight into how to understand those relationships, but I also discovered a dynamic and practical approach leaders can use to succeed in our 4-generation workplace.
The World of Leadership
The book is divided into four sections:
- Today’s Workplace
- Leadership is Freaking Hard
- The COUNTER Mentor Leadership Model
- The Counter Mentor Leadership Solution
Counter Mentor Leadership is not a dissertation about some new management theory. It’s not hypothetical. And it’s not academic. It is born from the school of hard knocks by practitioners that are daily in the trenches actually facing the challenges. Over and over I found myself saying, “Oh man, that has happened to me so many times…”
Practical & Actionable
Kelly & Robby Riggs show that by doing a better job of understanding each other we find better common ground that leads us to success. They do an outstanding job of explaining the WHY of the approach as well as the HOW. I think that makes this book uniquely practical. Different generations work differently. You can’t change that. But you CAN change how you interact with them. CML provides tools for being a better communicator and leader. Tools to eliminate the “us” vs. “them” mentality that persists in many organizations.
Tools Inside
The tools in CML are practical and easy to implement. I found them both high-impact and straight-forward. The chiefest of these is the C-O-U-N-T-E-R Mentor Leadership Model. COUNTER is an acronym that allows one to easily implement the tools given in real time. If every manager followed this one tool the world of leadership would change for the better forever.
Education as Entertainment
Kelly & Robby Riggs
A huge differentiator for this book is it’s entertainment value. To be candid most management books are just flat-out boring. Counter Mentor Leadership, on the other hand, is hilarious! The book is loaded with great humor all the way through. This makes the book fast-paced and fun to read. So, it not just practical it’s entertaining. How many management books can say that?
Worth Every Minute
Counter Mentor Leadership hits my sweet spot. It delivers unexpected value that is both fast-paced and practical. It addresses critical topics for today’s leaders and is a invaluable resource for anyone who world with people – regardless of generation. It is a fantastic investment and I highly recommend it for all leaders.
You can find Counter Mentor Leadership on Amazon HERE.
Until next time!
James
