Lead Book Report Assignment

Lead Book Report Assignment

Student Name

HF 231 Section A2

Professor Suzanne Bagnera

Date

Introduction

The book “You can’t lead with your feet on the desk” was written by Edwin Fuller, Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc, In Hoboken, New Jersey in the year 2011. I decided to read the book because it was a requirement in the human resources classes. The book motivates and am one the people it touched when I was reading through the book.  The author has touched his life experiences; he has used himself as the essential testimony thus the reason why most schools choose the book for their learners. The experiences touched by the text are the intimate experiences that Edwin passed through; therefore, the book can easily influence people. The information provides by the book is relevant to both the human resources and the real-life experiences that people pass through in the management sector.

Most importantly, the book gives the reader an insight into the best leadership skills. The author has discussed the best leadership styles throughout the book. Reading books is my hobby, I got it easy to read the book and understand it well as being used it. The linguistic styles used in the book are easy to understand and are appealing to the reader. The book has outsourced the human resource related to the real-life with the selection of the hospitality department. Generally, the book is the best book with the leadership styles. Lastly, the book has pointed out ways in which long-lasting relationship can be maintained in business for better performance (Fuller, 2013).

Main characters

The main character of the book is the author himself, Edwin D. Fuller. He was the president and the managing director of Marriott Lodging International. He shares his inner experiences and challenges with everyone who paid a visit to his office as an employee of Marriott International. In the firsts chapter, he begins by sharing his history from when he started his journey and how he has overcome the challenges he got on the way. He has further explained how he managed to arrive at Marriott international as an employee up to his current position as the managing director of the lodging. He also gives the reasons that brought him to the company and how he managed to pass the tests to become who he is in Marriott.

As the chapter proceeds, he explained how he succeeded with the company and how the company uplifts him through his leadership skills. He mainly focused on building relationships, trust and giving clients reasons why Marriott is the best option for them. He has promoted the company through the way he creates a connection with people through his communications skills and influential leadership skills (Fuller, 2013). He portrays good management skills and finally becomes the best employee in the company.

Other characters

Through Edwin D. Fuller we have we have managed to know other characters that he has met in the text. The main character managed to meet Marriott family, who are the owners of Marriott Lodging International. He attended Bill Marriott Jr one of the family members. Bill never forgets one day he visited the restaurant and was unsatisfied with the way he was served with lousy food and poor customer service. He continues reminding the main character of this story, and this shows how the hotel cares about the quality of service and gives the customer priority(Fuller, 2011).  Customer satisfaction is the most significant factor of consideration in the Marriott hotel. Thus, this was one of the unexpected moments.

The main character has also met Prince Charles of Wales, he is one of the best advocates or environmental sustainability, and he also advocates for youths’ rights by fighting for them in the employment section. Through his International Tourism Partnership that focusses on best lodging chains basing on their objectives, Edwin has managed to build secure networks with big companies. Through this character, he leads to create secure connections and relationship with other larger companies that give him future success.

Edwin D. Fuller has also managed to meet most of the influential leaders in the world. For instance, he meets the Netflix chief executive officer and founder Reed Hastings. Hastings motivates and influences his employees by giving them freedom, and they can choose when to work and when it is right for them to play. The power and freedom employees get at the job is what builds good relationships with the employees and the employers. He also focusses on the reason why we should respect people’s integrity. Integrity is the key element in the management section in every organization.

Gary Hirshberg, the CEO of yogurt company, is also one of the characters that the main character meets in this book. Besides being the CEO of the yogurt company, he is also an influencer that most people take as a role model. He is a leader who emphasizes being honesty and creating stable connections in business. Integrity is one of the key elements he considers. The leader finds having correct relationships rather than having bad relationships that will fade away after a short while.

The characters mentioned above play a vital role in maintaining the main character’s business connections. They are the one who motivates him and makes him progress in Marriott hotel. Meeting with these characters gives Edwin exposure and the current trends in the hospitality business. The also, give him the hope to proceed despite the challenges he passes through.

Plot

The book is a memoir genre. The setting of the book is an international setting, and the main character has traveled to many countries through his work at Marriott. The text has used short, exciting stories that focused on a period of forty years in the 20th and 21st century. What the author has given the readers stories on what happens in many overseas countries like; Tokyo, Iran, Japan, and Baghdad (Fuller, 2011). These stories give the reader an appetite to read the book; they also make the paper meet the objectives of the author to the audience.  

The anecdotes play a vital role in making the reader understand well the book and relate it to real life situations. The author has used real-life situations to make the reader know what they pass through in life for them to succeed. The audience can also gain and learn from the best and worst conditions the author faces for them to understand the real part of life. The author has used simple language to explain his experience; the style has made most readers love his works.

The primary objective of the book was to show the reader on the best strategies to use in building long-lasting and robust business networks. The book also was written to show scholars on how to learn quickly on how to recognize business gaps and implement them. The other aim is to teach the learner on the communications skills, narrowing down to the role of verbal and non-verbal communication in business. Communication can build or break good business deals. Through the text, we can learn that a good leader is he who acts as an example to others, through learning their customs and respecting their integrity with the aim of building strong business relationships (Fuller, 2013).