Issue No. 590 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting launches 2024 with a contrarian book on leadership. Warning! Hide this book! And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for almost 600 book reviews, and click here for My Top-10 book picks from 2023 and my Book-of-the-Year pick for 2023. Plus, click here for the updated lists of books reviewed since 2006.
Sure…many “leaders” (especially the charismatic types) are proficient at cajoling staff members to jump through the hoops. But…that ain’t leadership!
Warning #1. Read this book. Definitely. But don’t leave it where other staff members will see it. Just the book’s title will mess with your preconceived notions of leadership:
How the Toughest Challenges Get Seen and Solved
by Ed O’Malley and Julia Fabris McBride
Warning #2. The authors, both affiliated with the Kansas Leadership Center, make this outrageous claim: “You don’t need a title to start leading.” (Those giant eight words fill the first page of the book!) It gets worse. In their 10-point manifesto, “Redefining Leadership,” Ed O’Malley and Julia Fabris McBride add, “Most think leadership is a position. (It’s not.)”
Warning #3. If you can imagine, these crazy authors also believe that…
“Leadership is not:
• Authority.
• Being the boss.
• Vision.
• Charisma.
• A servant’s heart.
• An inspirational speech.”
Warning #4 deserves a “Yikes!” The authors write, “The world is full of bad and mediocre bosses, coaches, presidents, and CEOs.” (Did I mention? Don’t leave this book laying around the office.) They add, “Plenty of people in leadership positions never exercise leadership.”
O’Malley and McBride fill-in-the-blanks with this: “Imagine if people thought about practicing leadership or exercising leadership, rather than ‘being a leader.’” And get this: “We don’t like the word leader. We know people use it all the time, but it doesn’t seem helpful. A lot of times, so called leaders don’t lead.”
There’s more. The traditional “leadership as authority” model, argue the authors, “let’s the rest of us off the hook. We tell ourselves that since we aren’t in charge, we aren’t responsible for what’s wrong. We say it’s the CEO’s fault or the governor's fault or the pastor’s fault. We leave the creativity, risk, and responsibility for change to someone else, someone higher on the org chart.”
Warning #5. This book is contrarian X 100! Oh, my. I confess that, at first, I resisted their contrarian premise, until the authors sucked me in. By the last page, I wondered (still wondering) if this could be my 2024 book-of-the-year? Try these zingers on for size:
• “Leadership is an activity, not a position or authority.”
• “Followership keeps other people happy and you out of trouble.”
• “If anyone can lead, then everyone can lead.”
• “When everyone leads, it’s not up to the boss to ask all the right questions.”
• “Our toughest challenges involve loss.” And this: “People in authority are not trained to help others navigate loss.”
“When authorities—the folks with the top jobs—empower others to lead, their own jobs get easier. When everyone else—the folks not in authority—start leading, their work becomes more rewarding. Organizations, companies, and communities are more successful when everyone leads.”
Warning #6. If you’ve been “leading” your team, your church, your company, or your nonprofit organization without addressing YOUR BIGGEST CHALLENGES, you’re missing the boat. “Leadership is mobilizing people to make progress on the most important challenges. And it’s rare.”
Warning #7. If you’re living in “The Echo Chamber of the Like-Minded,” don’t skip the wisdom in the chapter, “Start Engaging Others.” The authors warn, “One of two things tends to happen when we begin work on an adaptive challenge: We either attempt to go it alone (the hero coming to save the day) or we bring in like-minded colleagues (who bring the same limited perspective on the problem and possible solutions as we do).
• "The first approach prioritizes our ego,
• the second our comfort.
• Neither works.”
There are dozens of more “warnings” I could add here, but when you read the book with your team (if you’re brave enough), the warnings will literarily jump off the page. Examples:
[ ] Q&A. Every chapter ends with a “Dear Ed and Julia” question and answer (a brilliant way to drive home each chapter’s big idea.) The questions come from a wide variety of people with memorable nicknames: CEOs, business partners (“Exhausted Evelynn”), a food pantry volunteer, a foundation exec, a city manager, a small business owner that can’t keep staff, a frustrated doctor at a teaching hospital, and other real-life examples—such as the desperate letter from “Halle Is Helpless and Verging on Despair” or the request for more ideas on the concept of experimenting from “Lettie the Leadership Junky.”
[ ] WHEW! The content and examples are relevant to churches, nonprofits, and for-profits. When arguing that “leadership and authority are not the same thing,” the authors win you over with this: “We are not saying get rid of all the presidents, pastors, board chairs, and CEOs.” (Whew!)
[ ] SEQUENCING. Chapter 20, “Everyone Can Ask Powerful Questions,” is worth the price of the book. Have you ever read anything on the effective sequencing of powerful questions? (Me neither!) The authors deliver six questions for the beginning of a conversation or project, six questions for the middle, and eight questions for the end of a conversation or project. (And especially for politicians, read the half-page on why they must resist “gotcha” questions!)
The authors quotes Albert Einstein, “If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on it, I would use the first 55 minutes determining the proper questions to ask.”
[ ] HEAT! The section on “Use the Heat” (when the heat is too low or too high) will give you two memorable metaphors for quickly diagnosing the environment and culture in your organization—and how to address it to get to the “productive zone.”
is directly related to your team’s ability
to make the unspoken spoken.”
[ ] AVOID SUQUESTIONS. This book is practical—and backs up its contrarian thesis with workable solutions. (Actually, it’s extremely practical.) Example: avoid “suquestions.” The authors define it: “That’s when your question is really a suggestion. If you have a suggestion, make it. But don’t pretend it’s a question. ‘Have you ever thought about…?’”
[ ] GUT CHECK. And if you’ve never asked yourself this next question, you must read this book. Gut check:
“Get Everyone Asking, ‘What’s My Part of This Mess?’ One person can see a problem, get more curious about it, and use their influence to make things better. But real change begins when lots of people get curious about what’s really going on with a problem or challenge.
“Every time someone authentically asks themselves ‘What’s my part of the mess?’—and pauses long enough to hear the answer—they generate the possibility of their own leadership, marshaling the one variable they can control. Progress is usually just around the corner.”
[ ] NO PROGRESS? The book ends with what I’d label “13 Contrarian Ideas,” in Chapter 24, “When Everyone Leads: A Call to Action.” The authors punctuate their preaching with this: “The ideas in this book run counter to norms about leadership…and ultimately, it’s about progress. No progress? Then you aren’t exercising leadership.”
To order from Amazon, click on the title for When Everyone Leads: How the Toughest Challenges Get Seen and Solved, by Ed O’Malley and Julia Fabris McBride. And thanks to the publisher for sending me a review copy.
YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) What “leadership” books will you and your team members read in 2024? I mentioned When Everyone Leads back in July 2023—along with five other books. (Read my mini-reviews here.) Staff Meeting Question: What fits our style here? Should we all read the same book, or each of us read and report on different books?
2) Do you ever notice—when reading a book—that real-life examples jump out at you from everywhere? Just this past week, I noticed these “When Everyone Leads” examples:
• I just saw the Boys in the Boat movie. It’s filled with poignant moments and note—the head coach is NOT in the boat, or anywhere close to the action! “When everyone leads.” (Read my book review.)
• In the WSJ on Jan. 4, 2024, Peggy Noonan writes about the consensual culture of the Japanese that facilitated the safe evacuation of 367 passengers and 12 crew from Japan Airlines Flight 516 last week. “When everyone leads.” (Read “What America Can Learn From the Tokyo Crash.”)
• Also in a WSJ business section article (Jan. 6, 2024), a profile of Jim Harbaugh, head football coach of the University of Michigan Wolverines, noted that the team went 6-0 this past season without Harbaugh, “who served two suspensions for alleged recruiting violations and corporate espionage.” Those allegations aside, note that the team won six games WITHOUT their “leader” on the field. “When everyone leads.” (Read “Is This Football Coach the Best Turnaround CEO in America?”)
Mastering 100 Must-Read Books - Part 10: White House/Fight House
Book #60 of 100: Eisenhower 1956
For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by spotlighting Book #60 in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books.
Eisenhower 1956:
The President’s Year of Crisis—Suez and the Brink of War
by David A. Nichols
Books #56 through #60 spotlight five books on U.S. presidents in the section, “White House/Fight House.” Timely? Susan Eisenhower, Timely? Eisenhower 1956 is unlike any book I’ve read. It covers mostly one year, 1956, with the greatest focus on Ike’s most demanding three weeks of his presidency. (I study leaders. Ike was a leader, not just a general.)
• Read my review.
• Order from Amazon: Eisenhower 1956
• Download the 100 Must-Read Books list (from John and Jason Pearson).
The President had a heart attack on a trip in the fall of 1955, requiring seven weeks off in Denver, and then more surgery later in 1956 for a cancerous tumor the doctors and staff had kept from him.
Doctors told him to take it easy—and in that we get a humorous picture of Ike. He wrote a friend that he had been ordered “to avoid all situations that tend to bring about such reactions as irritation, frustration, anxiety, fear and, above all anger.” So he had snapped at the doctors, “Just what do you think the presidency is?”
366 Punchlines!
This 366 LOL-cartoon-a-day calendar from The New Yorker has a prominent place on my desk every year and every day. The daily chuckle is often hilarious and I'll often share the cartoon with my grandkids. They also laugh (sometimes!). It's the bargain of the year (based on the price divided by 366 days)...and no calories! I cheated and skipped ahead to April 3 to find my favorite cartoon so far. For the punchline, read my review of Cartoons from The New Yorker 2024 Day-to-Day Calendar. And for more book reviews, visit the Pails in Comparison Blog.
New Blog!
Johnny Be Good
Really! We launched a new blog in 2024 and we're recruiting 44 guest bloggers to write about the "45 Iconic Hits That Changed Rock, R&B and Pop," from the book by Marc Myers, The Anatomy of a Song. Read Blog #1 of 45, "Lawdy Miss Clawdy."
Reminder: guest bloggers wanted!
Volunteer here.
PEARPOD | TELLING YOUR STORY. Going nuts? Need therapy? President Eisenhower wrote that “October 20, 1956, was the start of the most crowded and demanding three weeks of my entire presidency.” And according to author David Nichols, “During this period, Eisenhower embodied the wisdom of his preachment that ‘plans are worthless but planning is everything,’ enabling him to ‘do the normal thing when everyone else is going nuts.’” Need clarity? Contact Jason Pearson at Pearpod (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).
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