Toy Box Leadership: Leadership Lessons from the Toys You Loved as a Child

Reach back into your childhood and recapture the leadership principles you learned from your favorite toys. 

Authors Ron Hunter and Michael E. Waddell take a nostalgic look back into their childhood toy boxes to revisit the valuable leadership and life lessons we all unintentionally learned during playtime. While these lessons started in fun, as adults, we’ve complicated the principles of leadership - cluttering them with popular trends and theories.

Toy Box Leadership clears away the clutter and takes listeners back to the simple and essential roots of the most effective and unchanging leadership best practices. In this book, you will learn:

• what Lego bricks can teach you about building your business through connection;
• how Slinky Dog demonstrates the value of patience when you're growing your organization;
• what every kid learned from the Little Green Army Men that can be used in business strategy;
• and many more playful and insightful lessons.

Whether you still feel young at heart or your childhood seems to be a distant memory, Toy Box Leadership will bring you back to the place where all important life lessons began to reinvigorate your ability to influence and lead others in the playground of life.

A Rare Find: Flows like fiction but details essential principles of good leadership

As a writer, I detest boring books almost as much as books that make me want to sue the authors for breech of promise when they don't deliver the goods, which is why I say that Toy Box Leadership does not disappoint me in either category. First of all, there is nothing boring about it. The illustrations are interesting, those involving the authors' real-life experiences, as well as quotations and examples from people who have excelled as leaders. They show that they've been there in the toy box. Secondly, the illustrations and succinct advice really do support points for developing or honing leadership skills. Including interesting stories without the skills would ruin such a book. Take Play-Doh, for example. Who would ever have believed that Play-Doh could teach one about his or her 'unlimited potential to be shaped' - so Hunter and Waddell also prove that they are putting into practice leadership principles they have learned from experts. The researched material that backs up the need for wisely using leadership techniques appeals to me greatly, both the simple and the profound. I enjoy knowing that it was Mrs. Slinky, not her husband, who thought of the Slinky-Dog! This is a subtle, though probably not intended, hint that great leaders have great mentors behind them. But I also wonder that the writers can so interestingly juxtapose two unrelated ideas to make their points, i.e., the Weeble Wobble and Nelson Mandela's spirit of never staying down when knocked down. It is interesting that such a book that teaches, without preaching, the necessity for cultivating great, workable leadership skills (or get out of business), should be released within days of Mandela's 90th birthday. The book does, in reality, relate to real life!!! I highly recommend Toy Box Leadership to those who love good reading that also challenges them, as promised, to go out, learn more, do something, with this knowledge, be better leaders, continue to upgrade their professional techniques, and to practice the soul of this book. The book is not, as one might wonder from glancing at its cover and name, a 'lightweight,' but a book you will want to read, display on your shelves, give to others, or read aloud to a companion. I can't imagine any teacher who would not benefit from its material, or anyone who calls himself or herself a leader. It's a coffee table must and could be skimmed while waiting to see a doctor.Personally, this is the book I will give for all future graduation presents. -- Max Rand, July 18, 2008

Toy Box Leadership is a refreshing new look at the basics of effective leadership. It is a "must read" for anyone serving in a leadership position. I wouldn't be surprised if Toy Box Leadership becomes a classic!

On a side note, I have had the privilege of hearing both authors speak. They are two of the best speakers I have ever heard and I recommend them for your next business or non-profit event. -- Addam Clagg, July 10, 2008

We live in a changing world; thankfully there are unchanging principles that help steady us through it all. Leadership adapts and leadership is proactive, but
true leadership is based on unchanging principles. Ron Hunter and Mike Waddell give us a fresh look at these timeless principles in their book Toy Box
Leadership. Ron and Mike use the toys we all grew up with to share simple yet profound principles of what solid leadership really is. In a day when we are
surrounded by an unending list of books presenting the latest leadership trends, it is refreshing to get back to the simple, basic lessons we can learn from
childhood and the toys we all loved. I recommend Toy Box Leadership for anyone who has an interest in sharpening and streamlining their leadership
abilities. -- David Womack, July 22, 2008