Gracious & Ruthless – Susan Sokol Blosser

Gracious & Ruthless: Surprising Strategies for Business Success by Susan Sokol Blosser

After passing leadership of Sokol Blosser Winery to the next generation, our founder, Susan Sokol Blosser, looked back on decades of running the business and found something surprising. The key to the winery’s survival and success had been combining two seemingly opposite ways of leading: being gracious and being ruthless.

In Gracious & Ruthless, Susan explains how the two work together. Being ruthless means facing tough decisions head-on and moving the business forward. Being gracious means carrying out those decisions with care and respect for others. The book is told through twelve short essays drawn from her experience as a woman leading in a traditionally male industry, and it’s full of practical, hard-earned advice. Editorial cartoonist Jack Ohman’s illustrations of Susan at work add plenty of charm.

This small book with big ideas is a great gift for entrepreneurs, small business owners, and anyone who wants to lead with both heart and backbone.