The Seven Games of Leadership: Navigating the Inner Journey of Leaders

In this perplexing misfire, executive coach Gallo (The Compass and the Radar) offers business leaders vague “guidelines for personal and professional development.” His seven-step program involves getting in touch with and improving oneself, “helping and supporting” employees, and reinventing one’s career. The hazy guidance is more spiritual than professional; phase six, for instance, urges the reader to “grow as an individual rather than advance your career” and promises to replace “the ego” with “the holiest part of yourself: your soul.” The bits of actual career advice are fairly humdrum—try to see the big picture, challenge outdated assumptions, don’t get derailed by unforeseen challenges—and they’re hard to find amid a bewildering maze of tangents, as when Gallo spends several paragraphs describing the plot of the film Amadeus to make the obvious point that collaboration is often preferable to competition. Throughout, impractical fluff (“We need to... connect and collaborate with people, and co-create a legacy more significant than ourselves. It is a true Revolution: I am because we are”) shows up alongside dubious, unsupported assertions, as when Gallo suggests, without evidence, that the “Great Resignation” was driven by workers’ search for meaning, rather than money. This one’s a dud. (Dec.)