Lost and Found: The Story of How One Man Discovered the Secrets of Leadership . . .Where He Wasn't Even Looking

by Lyle Sussman, Samuel D. Deep, Alex Stiber

Larry has worked his way up to his first big assignment as a manager. But now the work is piling up on his desk. His people can’t seem to make decisions—certainly not the right ones. His mentor has been fired. Worst of all, his boss sends him out for leadership training. Larry never thought he needed all that “people skills” stuff to perform, and spouting buzzwords doesn’t seem to work for him, anyway. I’m doing my job, Larry thinks. What does this company want from me? He truly feels lost.

After alienating his staff even more and incurring costly time delays, Larry is sent on a forced vacation, which begins with a comic but poignant fishing trip misadventure. Finally, miles from home and work, Larry opens his mind to new ways of thinking about leadership. He learns important leadership lessons in his daily planning a family trip, watching his son play ball, fishing with his daughter. He realizes that everyone needs to KNOW, GROW, and OWN, and that being a leader means helping and enabling people to fulfill those needs.

At last Larry has a credo that he can believe in, three powerful principles that all managers can use to get the best from themselves and the people around them.

Praised by executives and business experts, Lost & Found reveals the core of leadership through the power of an engaging and wonderfully told story. Managers will recognize parts of themselves and people they know in Larry Parks, a smart worker temporarily stymied by a new type of challenge. At the end of the book the authors provide tips for putting the KNOW-GROW-OWN credo to work in different types of jobs and in different kinds of companies and organizations. Combining inspiration and practical advice, Lost & Found will help talented workers transform themselves into great leaders.

160 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The novel approach has been used by a number of authors for books in this genre, some to better effect than others. This one is easy to read, with a few focused messages, although the "plot twists" are a bit forced in order to link everything together.

[Peggy · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book. I started this book with the idea that it would be preachy but it is not and it has some wonderful and useful information about leadership. I learned that a good manager needs to have a clear view of the future and makes sure that his team shares it. He needs to know that his team memebers are more valuable to the project than they were a year ago. A good manager encourages his team to be partners in the project and not just workers on the project at hand. A good manager needs to encourage each employee to do their best and to help the employee to succeed in doing so.

This is a short book, but filled with all kinds of gems. Would recommend it to anyone working with a group on any project with a deadline.

[pri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good parable for finding your way in leadership. The start was uncomfortably close to home and gave me a lot to think about. That said, it suffered from the 'instafix!' some of these books have. While I do think the principles can help, I don't think that they would be as immediately embraced and applied. One thing that I've found most difficult is bringing these ideas into practice. And most books skim over that part... as this one did. Though the end did provide suggestions for other ways of practicing the goals.

[Helmut Granda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book, beginning was excellent but ending needed to be more generic IMO.