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Joel DiGirolamo has over 30 years of staff and management experience in Fortune 500 companies. He has a BSEE, MBA, and an MS Psychology degree and is the author of the book Leading Team Alpha and the award-winning book Yoga in No Time at All. The combination of his diverse work experience and education enable him to relate to individuals at all levels and positions of any organization in any region of the world. His broad experience has allowed him to successfully lead and participate on teams of individuals with unique backgrounds and various motivations. Joel has been a keynote speaker at several international conferences, is a member of the American Psychological Association (APA), the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP), and Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).
Reviewed by Tina A. for Readers' Favorite
Dean, the main character in Leading Team Alpha, finds himself dealing with some tough business decisions and decides to reach out to a former professor for leadership advice. Unlike other business books, this is a fictional novel but is filled with leadership principles. DiGirolamo takes the reader through Dean's decision making, his relationship with his team, and dealing with difficult workers. The key concepts covered in the book include selecting team members, motivating them, ensuring their work aligns with the organization, remaining goal focused, and job satisfaction.
When I started this book, I was drawn into it immediately because of the easy-to-read novel format. I could relate to Dean and some of the challenges he came across. Readers can easily identify with this main character and recognize very quickly who the difficult characters will be in the story. DiGirolamo has good descriptive dialogue so readers can quickly pick up on the communication techniques used and apply them in their own business settings.
I had some trouble buying into a story toward the end of the novel because it was a complicated situation that was resolved relatively quickly. I also felt a section about a work trip did get a bit off-track. There were so many dynamics happening just within the office that DiGirolamo could have kept the story there. One thing that may have helped readers grasp the core principles a bit better would be to have a 'takeaways' section at the end of each chapter. Overall though, I thought it was a good book about leadership and a light read for a business book.
