This book is about a critically important topic to many professionals.

I basically like the structure of the book as outlined in the Introduction (pp. 7-8, hardcover edition). These points are not dramatically new, yet neatly outline three key precepts to embrace when stepping up to a higher position. And throughout the book are boxed lines of text that define terms or give tips in a usable sound-bite.

Still, this is where my compliments stop for this particular book. Why? Most of the writing over-simplifies the disparity between the "conventional" and the "step-up" behavior options that it introduces, as if we are either one or the other. Vague recommendations don't get fleshed out and hints that sound more like platitudes take center stage.

As a reader, I was left with the impression that these authors are seeing the real-world as a black-and-white kind of place.