Entertainment, Books - Air Force Times

Book review: Lessons from a leader who’s been there

You might not be able to predict a hero, but you can determine what makes a leader.

That’s if the leader demonstrates the attributes recommended by Joseph J. Grano, a Green Beret captain who later earned and learned his way to the top of UBS PaineWebber and helped produce a Broadway musical when he got there.

What show? “Jersey Boys,” the 2006 Tony Award winner that is still playing.

But his new book, “You Can’t Predict a Hero,” is not autobiography. Nor does Grano try for academic stature. “Hero” is self-help for the aspiring leader and for the leader who wants to stay on top.

“By reviewing my own experiences and extrapolating from them a number of best practices,” he writes, “I can provide the knowledge needed to turn a good manager into a good leader.”

Grano’s record speaks for itself. And so does Grano: “I learned from any early age that others looked to me as a leader,” he says in the second paragraph of the first chapter.

Each chapter starts with a pat on the back — sources as varied as 1970 performance evaluations by his Army commanders to a testimonial by Frankie Valli of the Four Seasons.

Grano is aware the book puts him in the spotlight. “I ask your indulgence for any stories that appear self-aggrandizing.”

Indulge him.

Why? Because Grano and co-writer Mark Levine offer a frank (if not detailed) view of the CEO’s office, where Grano’s door is always open.

And because Grano, who left the Army and Vietnam with 57 fewer pounds and a 60 percent permanent disability, says “war gave me the priceless gift of perspective.

“I’ve been able to remain sober and dispassionate in the face of the most trying, traumatic and potentially disastrous personal and business situations because I can honestly say, ‘It’s not Vietnam,’ and mean it.”

Grano lays out six principles of leadership that form the outline of his book, and he offers many other observations, including:

• “Crisis really does equal opportunity.”

• “Never do anything for a commission,” one boss taught him. “If you do the right thing for your clients, commissions take care of themselves.”

• One of the prices of success is that “you’ll need to sacrifice on the amount of time you spend with your loved ones. Compensate by not sacrificing on the quality of that time.”

• “Human life is always greater than the dollar value of money.

“I was never concerned with spending a million dollars of artillery or air support if it would save one life.”

• “Be totally intolerant for any remaining pockets of bigotry left in your organization. There is no room in a vibrant society for such nonsense and insensitivity.”

• “Others” include the competition. “Victory should come as a result of our own merits and hard work, not another’s tragedy.”

• “Treating others with respect is more than a management technique. It is an extension of your persona.”

• “When the lobby guard occasionally poked his head into my office at PaineWebber, I knew I was still the same person I was before becoming a CEO.”

Like the song says, walk like a man. A man (or woman) you can look up to.

“You Can’t Predict a Hero, From War to Wall Street, Leading in Times of Crisis,” by Joseph J. Grano with Mark Levine. Jossey-Bass, $27.95, 208 pages