Take Command: Lessons in Leadership: How to Be a First Responder in Business

At age 30, former Marine sniper Wood has become the cofounder and CEO of Team Rubicon, a disaster relief organization that now has 20,000 volunteers, both veterans and first responders, backed by two dozen staff members. By the end of 2013, they’d conducted more than 50 missions, both at home and abroad, responding to hurricanes, tornadoes, and refugee crises, among other situations. Wood found that the lessons of his deployments, and those learned from his team, are highly applicable to business. His road map is simple: prepare, analyze, decide, and act. The breakdown of each step is fully fleshed-out. Wood provides lessons in preparing the body, mind, and soul; establishing transparency; finding and prioritizing targets; making wise decisions; and taking action. All lessons are illustrated with high-testosterone stories from the front lines of war and disaster zones, and each chapter ends with top-level advice (“mission briefs”). User-friendly and energetic, this is a new twist on accepted leadership wisdom. Agent: Sydelle Kramer, Susan Rabiner Literary Agency. (Oct.)