I just finished Taking People With you: The Only Way to Make Big Things Happen by David Novak.  David Novak is the chairman and CEO of YOU! Brands, Inc., The company's three restaurant chains, KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell operate in 117 countries and employees 1.4 million people.

Taking People With You is written in a personable and easy to read style with a lot of insert comments from leaders in the subject area being discussed.  Additionally, Novak has included with each chapter a wide variety of exercises and questions to make practical application of the principles he presents easy for individual or groups to assimilate.

The book is 222 pages long with three parts:

• Part One:  Get Your Mind-set Right
• Be Your Best Self:  Be Yourself, Know Yourself, Grow Yourself
• Be an Avid Learner:  Seek and Buiild Know-how
• Unleash the Power of People
• You Have to Believe It Can be Done
• Part Two:  Have a Plan: Strategy, Structure, Culture
• Strategy:  Tell It Like It Is . . . and How It Could Be
• Strategy:  Create a Vision and Personalize It
• Strategy:  Gain Alignment Every Step of the Way at Every Level
• Structure:  Resources, Organization, and Process Enable Execution
• Culture:  Make "Winning Together" a Big Idea
• Part Three:  Follow Through to Get Results
• Market the Change:  Be a Bold Ad for Your Big Goal
• Understand and Overcome the Barriers to Success
• Use Recognition to Drive Performance
• The Change is Never Over.

Novak's premise is stated in the first line of the introduction is:  "We all need people to help us along the way.  You can only go so far by going it alone. . . . You'll never accomplish anything big if you try to do it alone." p. 1  I thought this book would actually be about that, i.e. how to effectively work with people to mutually succeed.  Instead I found this to be a somewhat disjointed book on leadership principles with a heavy emphasis on marketing.  That's not to say that the principles aren't true and that the material isn't of value - it is, it just wasn't what I was expecting.  I can easily see where the design and presentation of this material would be better suited for some people but I found it to be somewhat disorganized and I constantly labored with the disconnect from the title to what I perceived in the content.  

Here are some of the quotes which I found particularly interesting, although I don't agree with all of them:

• "Remember that it's easier to make powerful ideas practical than it is to make pedestrian ideas powerful." p17
•  "Setting the right goal is the key to achieving success, and leaders often fall short in this area by not aiming high enough." p. 15
• "The bottom line is this:  If you can accurately identify the people you need to make something happen and then get inside their heads, then you will have the best chance of convincing them to help you accomplish big things." p. 22
•  "Leaders need to model the kind of good values they want their organization to live by, including the idea that each and every person in the company matters." p. 76
• "People don't really change until there is enough pain to force them to change, but you better believe that if they're standing on a platform that's on fire, they will be seriously motivated to jump." p. 99
• "You should present evidence that the strides you've made are working, and keep doing this as you make more along the way."p. 105
• "People don't want to go to work to just do their job.  They are most motivated when they know that what they're doing counts and they are helping the team drive toward a powerful vision of the future." p. 114
• "You have to make sure people understand three things:
• What do you want them to do
• What's in it for them
• Are you going to do it too." p. 133
• "Your ability as a leader to attract, develop, and retain people is fundamental to your success." p. 138
• "Sometimes the worst thing you can do as a leader is try to solve all the problems yourself." p. 170
• "You need to market your goal or your initiative in the same dynamic way you would a new product.  You need to keep that goal front and center in the minds of your target audience.  That means you need to get their attention, convince them of its importance, and keep convincing them."  p. 172
• "People are motivated by what is truly measured.  What you choose to measure is a signal to your people as to what you care about and what they need to do to get ahead in your organization." p. 195
• "As the leader, its up to you to determine what success looks like, and you have to make sure you've got the bar in the right place." p. 198
• "Who you choose to recognize has a real effect; it differentiates people, motivates them, and shows those who don't get recognized what it takes to get ahead." p. 201
• "The three best ways to keep the focus are through persistence, constant communication, and by playing like you're behind, even when you're not." p 207
• "You should be going to work every day believing that you'll succeed, but playing as though you're behind in the score.  That's the attitude that will give you the best chance at success."  p. 209

Overall I found a lot to commend in this book for those have the responsibility, and challenge, to lead people and would recommend it especially as a book to use in a group study with teams.