Book Reviews – May 2019: Learning, Leadership & Self-Awareness

May had some interesting and insightful reads. I’m pleased to say that the three non-fiction titles I finished were all great.

Let’s dive in!

Nine Lies About Work by Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall

I picked this one up because I’m a fan of Marcus Buckingham and the StrengthsFinder book and associated tool. I also picked this one up because at the beginning of May I was still mired in research into leadership so when this book showed up in an article online I nabbed it.

(I have written a post on my more emotional reaction to the book here if you want to dig into it as well.)

Buckingham and Goodall subtitle their book, “A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World” and it’s fitting. Written in a myth-busting framework, the book sets out to dispel most of the popular ideas around work but really, I see it as a book about leadership and how we think about what leadership means and how we measure it.

There are nine points as the title suggests, they range from culture to goal setting to teamwork. The research reflected in the book stems from mostly from the work that the authors have done to support their ideas.

I found a few things very interesting, first how we measure and the fact that the way most organizations measure competencies, including leadership, are deeply flawed. The fact that we believe others can perform an unbiased assessment of members of their team or of subordinates is flawed. Worse yet, how is a supervisor we never see able to assess us? And, how does one measure leadership or strategic thinking?

Most high performers are unique and it is that uniqueness that fails time and again to fit into a box with a rating of 1 through 5. Layer that with the lens the supervisor is using, a bundle of knowns and unknowns and a handful of unconscious biases… it’s a recipe for erroneous reporting, hurt feelings, and overall employee dissatisfaction.

It’s easy to related to any one of the nine myths. Is candid feedback really the best method? Can we really rate potential from one person to the next? Is work-life balance really a thing?

The one bit that will stay with me, because it speaks to something I’ve often felt about leadership, is that leaders have followers. Anyone without followers isn’t a leader no matter what role they hold: boss or CEO.

A titled leader with a revolving door, unable to hold employees for long, is a great example of failed leadership. If you can’t get someone to stick with you for more than six months or a year, whether they move onto a better job or not, isn’t a true leader.

The best leaders have followers. We want to stick with those leaders. We’ll pass up a promotion or promise of more money someplace else for those leaders. I’ve worked with those kinds of leaders and I’ve worked with some I wouldn’t even follow to a free cupcake stand; I’ll take the former over the latter every single time.

If you work with leaders, are into leadership, work for or with orgs, then this book is a great read.

Mindshift by Barbara Oakley

Oakley’s first book is a favorite of mine, it’s called A Mind for Numbers. If you are interested in learning then you’ll enjoy both books.

Her latest, Mindshift, is really about how we learn, change, and grow. It is very much filled with stories told by the individuals who showcase specific concepts in the book. I did find the stories a bit lengthy. I wanted less story and more concepts, for me the balance was a bit off. Nonetheless, each story really showed what’s possible when we figure out how to navigate personal learning styles as much as the tried and true concepts.

One especially interesting piece in the book relates to career shifting and the idea that you can change careers at any time even later in life. Because of brain plasticity we have the capacity to learn as long as we apply ourselves. More importantly, if you want to career shift later in life, you have the benefit of all of your experience to help boost your shift. As you leave one career and enter a new one, all of the experience you have provides a new and unique perspective that younger folks won’t yet have.

Other concepts include nontraditional learning methods, making lifelong learning an important part of society, and the ability to uplevel skills with MOOCs (massive open online courses).

Finally, the last two chapters deal with MOOCs and it was a little weird. A lot of time was spent talking about what makes MOOCs great and how to make a great MOOC. Given that Oakley’s MOOC is the single most popular MOOC online, I can understand wanting to share but it all seemed out of place given the rest of the book. It was interesting but not at all what I wanted to read about in a book about learning so I skimmed.

While I enjoyed Mindshift, it didn’t bring much new especially given the amount of information out there on learning strategies. If you have no background knowledge about learning strategies then much of this is interesting and helpful.

Insight by Tasha Eurich

I loved this book, although I will say that depending upon when and why you read it, it could harbor some emotional reactions.

This book is about how we see ourselves, how others see us, and how those two things play out in work and business settings primarily. However, all of it is relevant to our personal lives as well.

I got a lot out of this one, I even took the time to write down my values list on my white board and make a list of things I believe I could be better at… it’s not easy to honestly think about how others see you… it’s hard and it’s uncomfortable.

This book is definitely a “work thru” book because if you have any hopes of being more self-aware, you can’t simply skim through this one.

And… it’s not for everyone. While I found it helpful, if you aren’t ready to dig in you won’t benefit. So many folks aren’t willing to see where they could use improvement and to be clear, improvement it hard, it takes work. How others see us, especially in the work place, is important. If we aren’t willing to address shortcomings we will always find ourselves scratching our heads wondering why our co-workers react to us in specific ways.

The biggest take away for me was the fact that introspection isn’t helpful, primarily because we are doing it wrong. But worry not… Eurich provides lots of exercises, suggestions and best of all, research to support your journey.

Insight is a must read and one book I’m already re-reading in sections.

Where’s Grit???

I started Grit in May but didn’t quite finish until June so you’ll see it in the June Reviews!