Leading: Learning from Life and My Years at Manchester United

It is a modern trend to learn leadership skills on universities around the world. Lecturers try to convey messages about how to lead a group, team, or company, despite the fact that more often than not, they are confined behind desks at faculty rooms.This is a leadership book like no other, since it is written by a 'lecturer' never bounded by desks. Sir Alex Ferguson (SAF) is one of the world's most decorated football managers, and his retirement in 2013 ended an illustrious career of trophy-laden journey. Afterwards, he took lecturing duties at Harvard Business School, of which this book, "Leading", is based upon.It is fair to say, therefore, that this is a textbook of leadership. It is a textbook not filled by technical jargons or whatever. Instead, this is SAF telling you almost first hand on important leadership skills, particularly those that he found most pivotal. He divided those skills into tiny, bite-sized parts that are consumable in minutes. Not with theories, instead, he told us readers how he developed those skills while working mainly for Manchester United (1986-2013).It is almost in essence a complement to his two autobiographies, "Managing My Life" and "My Autobiography". However, this book looks even more like a set of life lessons compared to his two autobiographies. The way he organized the book actually makes it easy to read, and makes you also desire to read more—I finish the entire book in less than 10 hours, because I cannot put it down.It has a lot of great insights from the boss himself. Do not be surprised that you may find some stories have been told before in either of his past autobiographies. Nonetheless, this remains a very captivating reading, and for the purpose of Leadership 101, "Leading" has a lot to offer, straight from "the" boss himself.

Sir Alex Ferguson managed a great football club as Manchester United, but it was he who made this team that great. The first thing that made him so successful was that he followed an advice that he should have been on the sidelines watching and supervising. In this way he was able to see the big picture. He was well aware that the system in a football club is not so complicated as in a high-tech company. Despite his spectacular accomplishments, he's too humble to say that he could be more successful.I find it funny that he thought swapping shirts were extravagance and told the players that they needed to pay from their pockets for the shirts they would swap. I think this character trait comes from his Scottish genes.This is not just a football book, but also a resource we can draw lessons about our own lives at the same time. The only thing I criticize in the book is the strained effort of the author to draw analogy between the principles and thoughts of Sir Alex and the successful firms in the Silicon Valley.

I thoroughly enjoyed Leading. It is an extension IMHO of a Harvard Business Review article that ran a few years ago.Easy read, great stories. Recommended for all, not just for Man U fans (I am not one!!!).My 5 Stars is based purely on my enjoyment of the book. It was a fun, easy read with great stories of great teams and players from the past and the journeys of some of the new stars. The stories were interesting and compelling and that is what sold me on the book.As far as being revolutionary in new leadership trends, not so much. His leadership style is simple, straightforward and has been addressed in many other texts and magazines.If you are looking to read about football and players and journeys - buy it. If you are looking for a book on leadership, I would search elsewhere. Something old - Maxwell. Something new - Start with Why or Turn the Ship Around.

This books dives well into Ferguson's practices, both sucesses & failures and paints a picture on how to be a leader in the pitch, off the pitch & in your personal life away from football/soccer. I use this as a knowledge for I desire to build an excellent club/academy for my country. This book will allow you to glean from the eyes of one of if not THE greatest managers of all time in the sport

I enjoy this book tremendously. Not just because I'm a soccer junky but because it goes beyond success on the football pitch and addresses what it takes to be a good leader in any industry. This book is great for the soccer mad fan that wants some inside access to the dynasty of Manchester United. It's also fantastic for the person that wants to get more out of themselves and their life. I loved the football but my favorite chapter may be the epilogue comparing Sir Alex and European football to the cut throat world of high tech Silicon Valley. Enjoy!

Like some other reviews noted, the title could be a bit misleading if you picked this book up just for the Leadership advice part of it. It seemed to me (and I think the co-author Sir Michael Moritz mentioned it in the Epilogue) that the book was a result of multiple conversations about interesting questions around leadership that he had for Sir Alex.I have not read other books about Sir Alex and I can see some overlap with the content in this book since there are a lot of personal experiences from his time at Manchester United.I was hesitant to read the epilogue but I am glad I did read (most of) it. The author compares and contrasts Manchester United and Six Alex to some of the Silicon valley tech giants and their founders.And I was hoping (but not expecting) to learn about Sir Alex as a person rather than just as a management guru and the book did that.

Reading this book is like sitting by a fireplace with a pint of ale, hearing Sir Alex Ferguson talking you about leadership.Lots of nuggets of wisdom from a hard worker who always put the maximum attention to details.What emerges is the utmost respect for his colleagues, rival teams. Good read not only for soccer/football fans, but for whoever is interested in leadership and self improvement.