Get the Cookie, Paco!: Valuable Lessons in Leadership from My Dogs

To date, most of the discourse revolving around leadership has either been too superficial to be useful or far too academic and dry to appeal—and make sense to—the general public. Bringing the most important findings from leadership studies and presenting their key lessons and concepts in an approachable and enjoyable format, Andrew Krüger’s debut changes that paradigm forever. While it can be characterized as fifty-one practical ways you can increase your leadership ability at home or in the office, Krüger’s book is much more than that. Using the behavior of his two dogs to make sophisticated concepts more readily understood and memorable, he displays a multitude of cogent points such as leaders must act without knowing all the information, leaders are aware of their strengths and limitations and use them effectively and efficiently, as well as lessons including personal resilience, emotional intelligence, and fear-based leading versus love-based leading. The concepts are broken down into five key categories to further delineate and underscore the importance of the overall framework of a leader: working on yourself, working with others, reading others, leading others, and the bigger picture. Combined, the information presented paints a clear and vibrant picture of how to change your life—and style of leadership—for the better. By taking the success of the business parable format of Johnson in Who Moved My Cheese and combining it with logical and endearing observations of our canine friends in such books as Marley & Me and The Other End of the Leash, Krüger creates an enjoyable, playful, and casual approach to self-improvement in all facets of your life. The perfect read traveling companion, Get the Cookie, Paco!: Valuable Lessons in Leadership from My Dogs will change the way you run your business—and the business of your life. From the author: "The concept of leadership is one that has been gaining popularity in recent years. In business school it was a required course, even though many of my hardened classmates felt it was too ‘soft’ to be of any use. I disagreed then, and I still do. In my ensuing years as a consultant I witnessed how the human element of business continues to wreak havoc for owners and employees alike. There is a pervasive assumption that if you have the technical answer to a problem it should be solved. As long as you know what should be done, then people should fall in line. How wrong this is. It completely ignores the human element, the fact that emotions rule decision- making. This is true both in and out of the office. Many people are kept back from their potential, and from inspiring others, because they haven’t been taught—or simply don’t consider—what it is to be a leader and how to become one. They don’t know how to effectively implement change through motivating others. As one client told me “The problem with business is that you have to deal with people.” And that’s messy. It struck me that most people couldn’t imagine themselves as leaders. The role to them is mysterious and opaque, a peak in the distance with no path up. It’s viewed as an all-or-nothing condition. The common misconception is that there are leaders, and there are followers, but nothing in between. I disagree. The more I work with the concept of leadership the more I realize that it’s like climbing a mountain: there are easy ways up and difficult ones. Some people are in better shape than others. Guidance, either in the form of a map, GPS, or skilled guide, always helps. Most importantly, not everyone is going to reach the summit but with a little effort they can climb a bit higher and enjoy the view."