Cigars, Whiskey and Winning: Leadership Lessons from General Ulysses S. Grant - Hardcover

Kaltman, Al

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 073520022X ISBN 13: 9780735200227

Publisher: Prentice Hall, 1998

Synopsis

Offers a biography, history and practical leadership wisdom drawn from the wartime experiences of the man who won the US Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant. The book examines why Grant won, and how he worked with the men around him.

About this title

From the Author

Author's Comments
Cigars, Whiskey and Winning is a different kind of management book. There are no chapters on communication, discipline, empowerment, etc., no lists of management dictums, no acronyms and no jargon. The lessons are short (about a page) and easy reading. I followed Grant’s footsteps from boyhood through the end of the Civil War, and for each incident in his life I developed a practical modern management lesson. Cigars, Whiskey and Winning is also a Civil War source book. We see the war unfold through Grant’s eyes, and we learn the lessons in the sequence that he learned them.

While the lessons are serious stuff, many of them are based on humorous incidents, which keeps the book bright and lively. The first lesson, Bureaucrats Do The Dumbest Things, tells the story of how young Hiram Ulysses Grant arrives at West Point and discovers that he has been registered under the wrong name. The army bureaucrats don’t care what he, his parents, family or friends think his name is, the official government form has his name as Ulysses S. Grant and only if he changes his name to that will he be able to attend.

What makes Grant so fascinating is that he is the embodiment of the American dream. When the Civil War starts, he has known failure and poverty and is living in obscurity. If all he had done was to come out from behind the counter in his father’s leather goods store to lead the Union armies to victory, that would be a great story. But he did more than that, he set a standard for integrity, personal honesty and ethical conduct that deserve to be studied.

Leadership is achieving extraordinary results with ordinary people. I hope that this book helps leaders at all levels to do just that.

About the Author

Al Kaltman has more than thirty years of practical management experience, gained after earning his Ph.D. in political science from George Washington University. He has managed systems departments for two major U.S. companies and one state government, been a group vice president of GEICO Corporation and president and CEO of two companies. He is currently a senior executive vice president of MBNA. Kaltman and his wife of 35 years live in Vienna, VA.

Edition details

• Publisher: Prentice Hall
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 073520022X
• ISBN 13: 9780735200227
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256