Running head: BOOK REVIEW OF THE FRANK PACETTAS BOOK DONT FIRE THEM, FIRE THEM UP Book Review of the Frank Pacettas book Dont Fire Them, Fire Them Up August 13, 2008 Book Review of the Frank Pacettas book Dont Fire Them, Fire Them Up Frank Pacettas book is obviously one of the most exciting books about leadership. This is a real-world story enabling the readers to gain a victory in a competitive business environment, as it equips the business with the knowledge how to motivate their employees in the most positive way ever possible. The book Dont Fire Them, Fire Them Up presents a unique demonstration of leadership principles that can be used in both a military and a non-military environment. Frank Pacetta teaches how to nurture the employees, and how to make them understand that the employer values their accomplishments. While reading the book, the reader gains the understanding of the basic principles how to treat employees so to give them skills and the responsibility to become a winner. By his own example, as a man who managed to enhance performance turnarounds of Xerox’s Cleveland and Columbos sales staffs drastically, Frank Pacetta unveils the same skills and methods he used in his own business performance to build a winning business team. According to Frank Pacetta, the most important things for any employer is to develop trust and create loyalty to the organization, to generate enthusiasm and excitement, to establish feedback and accountability, to rebuild and restructure the organization and them to lead and energize it, putting it on top and keeping it there year after year (Frank Pacetta will help your organization . .
., 2008).
The most important about Dont Fire Them, Fire Them Up is that it is centered upon proven and practical tips of management and leadership, ranging from communication to the fundamentals of motivation and the art of selling successfully. The leadership principles seem to be very simple, as they are all about understanding what are the differences between management and leadership, the importance of setting attainable goals, the importance of correct communicating higher performance goals to the team, the skills to get salespeople out of the office making them work and bring results, and to enhance productivity and performance in the organization, to mention a few (Pacetta, 1994).
Although the book is rich in examples based on real-world and imaginary situations from the salesmens activity, the book is obviously applicable in both military and non-military situations. The main idea is that leadership strategy is the cornerstone of everything, as the knowledge and skills can be tailored to almost any need. The principles of management and leadership exhibited by Mr.
Pacetta are somewhat different from the traditional ones, as they seem to completely change the work environment the person lives and works in, into the culture of winning. Although the process is quite difficult, the author makes this process of transformation into successful leader going smooth. Unlike the work environments based on the principles of fear and punishment, Frank Pacetta is more focused on the idea to reward the achievers, and to create the work environment that lead with praise and rewards instead of punishment and fears. The main idea is to make people feel responsible for their actions, and, if so, the employees will undertake all their efforts to prove they are reliable and responsible ones. Instead of more traditional and authoritative approach, Frank Pacetta prefers relying on teamwork and suggests providing the incentives for the team to succeed, instead of providing the incentives to the individual. The author of the book obviously considers that such a technique will allow people feeling their importance for the organization they work in, and, by being the part of the team, to create something really unique and valuable. In addition to these seemingly simple truths, the author suggests not to be afraid of setting the bar high.
This principle both simple and powerful, as if applied appropriately, it allows to make organization successful. Instead of firing employees and setting a tone in the business organization, the author of the book considers that the best ever way out is to elevate the bar to achieve and in this case those, who do not want to work hard and to be a part of the team will leave the company on their own. Obviously, this is the most important principle that managed to make a revolution in peoples minds. Moreover, the hard work of the employees was, according to Frank Pacetta, in itself self-correcting to the business company. The author of the book Dont Fire Them, Fire Them Up introduces the virtue of leadership and suggests the managers to become an example. The major idea is not only to demand the leadership and willingness to work from the companys employees but to work hard and to be a real leader, to deliver all those virtues by the manager himself.
The consistency of this behavior is also very important to the process of effective team building. In addition, the ability of the leader to manage setbacks and failures is also very important. By his own example, the author of the book teaches to never give up and to use all chances to win. This amazing ability to work hard to turn the failures into successes is also a crucial aspect of Frank Pacettas principles of leadership. Finally, the art of team building, introduced by the author teaches the readers the easy but at the same time complicated art of becoming successful and to making successful other individuals in the organization through successful teamwork. Although the book is more focused on sales, it will be very helpful for any profession, and will be applicable in both military and non-military situations, as it teaches that it is an individual who is the cause of success. References Frank Pacetta will help your organization .
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Retrieved August 13, 2008, from Frank Pacetta’s Website: http://www.frankpacetta.com Pacetta, F. (1994).
Don’t Fire Them Fire Them Up. Simon & Schuster Audio..