One of the hot management books of 2002, now reissued in a revised version (US may be original edition), it's described on the front as the One Minute Manager for a new generation. In one sense this is quite the wrong picture, as this is much less a practical tools and techniques book and much more a personal development odyssey - but the comparison lies in the way The Naked Leader consists of a set of short essays on different themes.

The reader is guided through the essays on one of a number of tracks dealing with topics like 'leadership of self', 'leadership of teams' and so on. It's a bit like working your way through one of those 'interactive' adventure books - at the end of each section you jump to somewhere else in the book - you'll either love the structure or be deeply infuriated by it.

Behind Taylor's book is the fundamental assumption that you can achieve whatever your heart is totally set on. He admits that he comes across people who come forward with dreams that are impossible (for example a granny who wants to play football for England) but claims that in most such cases it's not really the central burning desire of the individual. Having seen Pop Idol on TV, though, it's hard to believe there aren't plenty of people who desperately want to achieve something theoretically practical, but will never ever do it. Don't let's end on such a downbeat note, though. There are plenty of home truths that are largely ignored in business contained in Naked Leader's easily consumed pages - so give it a try.