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The author of How We Lead Matters, Marilyn Carlson Nelson, just retired from the job of CEO at Carlson. You may know the company under its brands, including Radisson, Country Inns and Suites, Regent, Carlson Wagonlit Travel and TGI Fridays.

Carlson is one of the largest privately held firms in the world. The company employs more than 200,000 people in more than 150 countries. Last year's revenue was $40 billion. The company was founded by Marilyn's father, Curt Carlson, during the depression.

Right about now you may be thinking that this is a typical "rich kid takes over daddy's business" story. You might suspect that Marilyn is a bit of an empty suit.

You'd be wrong on both counts. And if you know a little bit about Marilyn Nelson and her story, you can make a wise decision about whether to buy this book.

The subtitle of the book is, "Reflections on a Life of Leadership." That's exactly what it is. It's not a treatise on leadership. It's not a chronicle of successes. If that's what you're looking for, this is not the book for you.

It's also not a book that you read from front to back and are done with. Instead, it's a collection of the very personal reflections of a very successful leader with a fascinating story.

Marilyn wanted to work her way up in her father's company. She really did. But, alas, she wasn't the son he had always dreamed would succeed him.

Curt Carlson embodied what a lot of people think is good and bad about "old school management." He valued conservative management and conservation of assets. He also thought that a woman's place was not in the executive suite, especially if she had children. Even if the woman was his daughter.

He actually fired Marilyn. Here's how she told the story in an interview with Chief Executive Magazine. It happened when she went to his office to tell him about a promotion her boss in the company wanted to give her. She expected excitement, maybe even praise.

"Instead, he said, 'Go home. Your husband's a surgeon. You can't both have 24-hour-a-day jobs.' And I said, 'Well, I have lots of energy. I can manage this.' I had three children at the time. And he said, 'Well, not here,' and fired me. I cried all the way down the back stairs."

She could have taken his advice. She didn't. Instead she started working on community projects. She helped bring the Super Bowl to Minneapolis. She was the first woman to run the United Way. She served on several corporate boards. Some people wanted her to run for Governor.

That seems to have gotten her father's attention. But she was never really sure he would ask her to return to the company until he announced her appointment as CEO. She's been a very effective one.

Revenue has doubled. And the company has changed. Today, forty percent of Carlson executives are women.

When you read Marilyn Nelson's reflections on leadership in this book, you'll get a sense of who this remarkable leader is. She is a product of all the threads that make up her life.

She learned from her father. She's a conservative manager. She understands results.

She also chose to do some things differently than Curt Carlson. They both value the conservation of assets, but Marilyn has extended that to human assets.

And she has learned from her unique, bottom-up, career path. One of the best things you can learn from managing organizations that depend on volunteers is how to lead when you don't have monetary incentives and you can't compel performance.

How We Lead Matters: Reflections on a life of leadership is a wonderful book to dip into for a bit of wisdom or a whiff of inspiration. It's a book you should read if you want to learn lots of little leadership lessons from a truly extraordinary leader.

Wally's Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training. Click here to check it out.