BOOK REVIEW by Bill Foster A BIAS FOR ACTION How Effective Managers Harness heir Willpower, Achieve Results, and Stop Wasting Time By Heike Bruch and Sumantra Ghoshal, published by Harvard Business School Press $29.95 ISBN: 1-59139-408-2

This book gives a seemingly simplistic answer to the question, what makes real leaders truly effective? Their answer, and about which this book is based is deceptively simple: willpower. The product of a ten year study of managerial behavior in industries from banking to software to air lines to consulting, the authors found that only ten percent of managers work purposefully to get the important parts of their jobs done.

The product of a ten year study of managerial behavior in industries from banking to software to air lines to consulting, the authors found that only ten percent of managers work purposefully to get the important parts of their jobs done. The remaining 90 percent squander their potential by procrastinating, or by spinning their wheels doing a lot of “active inaction.” The most effective managers succeed because they use their personal willpower through a combination of energy and focus; not because they some unique characteristics of excel a motivating others.

A Bias For Action, is written more like a manual than a run of the mill expository textbook, and this is what makes it unique and, and in the opinion of this writer, makes the book of considerable value to any manager who really wants to succeed.

The authors have identi?ed three types of managers who make up the 90 percent who are unable to accomplish important tasks and goals. Forty percent are categorized as the Frenzied. These are described as being highly energetic, yet unfocused and appear to others, including their subordinates as being frenzied, desperate and hasty. They are easily distracted by the myriad of tasks they juggle each day.