I read this not long after it was published. I was a relatively new manager (29 years old and 2 years into my first, and very challenging management position). I was the second female manager in a large industrial company in Australia - a pretty macho culture. This book reassured me that the heart of leadership is really caring about your people - caring enough to treat them as individuals - even if you seem "soft". It was just what I needed to hear, and I've carried the messages of this book with me ever since (especially the one about "everyone's not equal around here").