Review: Leadership Lessons from the Cherokee Nation: Learn from All I Observe

Leadership Lessons from the Cherokee Nation: Learn from All I Observe by Chad Smith
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Given the title, I expected stories about leadership that could be replicated in my own business. That title, though, is misleading. Instead of repeatable lessons, this is more a history of the author's time as a leader of the Cherokee Nation. Much of the book consists of magazine or newspaper articles penned by the author, mostly about nation politics or stories about interesting nation members. To me, they read like Paul Harvey stories, homespun by design. The author's leadership stories revolve around his attempt at rebuilding Cherokee character by eliminating an entitlement mentality and dealing with politics, which he does with these stories. The final section was a series of annual "state of the nation" speeches given by the author. I found very little of this book useful for leadership in my life, but I could see some might find this useful.

I was also disappointed that many of the stories are repeated. The author used magazine articles written over more than a decade for much of this book, and many articles repeated stories about people the author met, his parents, and his history. You read about a Cherokee high school student that died of cancer four times, give or take, throughout the book. While repeating basic stories might be the way to get elected or to sway beliefs, it doesn't make for compelling reading.

As a leadership book, I found this underwhelming. But this works as a history of the Cherokee Nation under Chad Smith, albeit with the repetition issues I described above. Smith covers the range of happenings in the nation, from the petty battles of tribal politics to the reflection on lost heros to the impact of the nation running businesses.

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