PIC No. 85:
• Title: Be The Unicorn Workbook: 12 Data-Driven Habits that Separate the Best Leaders From the Rest
• Author: William Vanderbloemen
• Publisher: Fedd Books (Oct. 29, 2024, 120 pages)
• Management Bucket #7 of 20: The People Bucket
Welcome to Issue No. 85 of PAILS IN COMPARISON, the value-added sidekick of John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. This blog features my “PICs”—shorter reviews of helpful books—with comparisons to other books in my 20 management buckets (core competencies) filing system.
12 Data-Driven Leadership Habits Workbook
Wow! There are workbooks (blah, blah, blah…) and then there is this hot-off-the-press Be the Unicorn Workbook. It’s fantastic!
As I paged through this beautifully designed follow-up to the Be the Unicorn book (Nov. 14, 2023), I had this overpowering urge to organize a discussion group! It would be a kick to dig deeper with this workbook and a few friends. (Call me!) The format, the value-added resources, the quotations, and the questions—superb. Honest.
In reviewing William Vanderbloemen’s book last year, I asked: “What traits and teachable habits are common to very successful people—the unique team members that will grow your organization? I’ll give you six—but you’ll need to read or listen to the book for the other six.”
OK—here’s the big reveal. To entice you to read both the book and leverage this practical workbook—here are the “12 Data-Driven Habits that Separate the Best Leaders from the Rest.” Each chapter—each habit—is meaty:
1. The Fast 7. The Self-Aware
2. The Authentic 8. The Curious
3. The Agile 9. The Connected
4. The Solver 10. The Likable
5. The Anticipator 11. The Productive
6. The Prepared 12. The Purpose-Driven
Unicorns? In the foreword to the book, leadership guru John C. Maxwell writes, “…this isn’t just a book of case studies. You’re holding a manual for becoming unusually successful—as unusual as a mythical unicorn.” (You can read the foreword and the first chapter here.)
Maxwell continues, “…becoming a Unicorn isn’t a destination, it’s a journey.” He adds, “…every day we’re either preparing or repairing. I encourage you to focus on what you can do each day to develop these twelve traits as you prepare to become a Unicorn.”
Vanderbloemen’s list of 12 are based on his “data-driven” conclusions. At Vanderbloemen Search Group, the executive search firm focused on “values and faith-based organizations,” the team has conducted more than 30,000 long-format interviews. So their data goes deep. Fascinating!
Each workbook chapter guides leaders through the essence of one critical leadership habit. I love the format with these five components in each chapter:
• Prep work
• Introduction
• Challenges
• Put it in practice
• Dig deeper
I counted almost 40 eye-catching quotable quotes across the pages, including these favorites:
• THE AGILE: “We don’t need science to tell us what we see happening in real time: the older we get, the harder it is to play ninety minutes of soccer or remember why you walked into the kitchen.”
• THE SOLVER: “My core belief is that if you’re complaining about something for more than three minutes, two minutes ago you should have done something about it.” (Caitlin Moran)
• THE PREPARED: “Only someone who is well prepared has the opportunity to improvise.” (Ingmar Bergman)
The quotes are so memorable—I can’t stop! (And by the way, for once—here’s a workbook that allocates plenty of white space for answering the questions and adding your own reflections. Thank you!)
• THE SELF-AWARE: “You have to make mistakes to find out who you aren’t. You take the action, and the insight follows: You don’t think your way into becoming yourself.” (Anne Lamott)
• THE PRODUCTIVE: “You know how Henry David Thoreau was able to be so productive and write Walden? He didn’t have Wi-Fi. Or laundry.”
The “Prep Work” for each chapter includes readings in the book, plus value-added blogs, online articles, podcasts, and more. The chapter on “The Curious” (there’s that curiosity theme again), points us to “The Art of Asking the Right Questions,” by Kevin Dickinson.
Use the “Dig Deeper” section to create the list of books you'd like to receive for Christmas. Text your "hint list" to colleagues and family members asap! Possibilities:
• THE PRODUCTIVE: Eat That Frog! 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time, by Brian Tracy (read my review); and Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, by David Allen (read my review)
• THE SOLVER: The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership, by Steven Sample (read my review)
• THE SELF-AWARE: Emotional Intelligence, by Daniel Goleman. Also, read my review of Emotional Intelligence 2.0 (The World’s Most Popular Emotional Intelligence Test), by Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves.
I’ve saved the best for last—to reward leaders and readers who read my entire book reviews. The workbook gives you access to a free assessment, the “Vander Index.” I completed the online exercise—and then asked my wife, Joanne, to interpret the results for me. She's an Analytical (see the four social styles) with the spiritual gift of discernment. (If you join my discussion group, I’ll share her thoughts.)
The results gave me my scores for all 12 habits and highlighted my "Top 3 Traits" and my "Bottom 3 Traits" (yikes, but I can't disagree). The Vander Index results compared my scores with their research-based "Top Performer Scores" and slotted each score in one of four segments: Emergent, Competent, Proficient, and Expert. If you love assessments, you will appreciate this one.
By the way, I chuckled at a recent cartoon from The Wall Street Journal. A co-worker is pointing at some documents and remarks, "Legal says we have to change 'core competencies' to 'core stuff we do.'"
We should all be grateful to William Vanderbloemen for going the extra mile (Pop Quiz: Which habit is that?)…and delivering this extremely helpful workbook. Bonus! Listen to the AI-generated podcast of my review of Vanderbloemen’s 2023 book (14 minutes, 6 seconds).
PAILS IN COMPARISON: Reading this book reminded me of several other must-read books in the People Bucket and the Team Bucket, plus other buckets/core competencies (I mean, "core stuff we do"):
[ ] Interviewology: The New Science of Interviewing – Are you a Charmer, Challenger, Examiner, or Harmonizer? by Anna Papalia (read my review)
[ ] Leadership and Self-Deception, Fourth Edition: The Secret to Transforming Relationships and Unleashing Results, by The Arbinger Institute (read my review)
[ ] The 365 Day Leader: Recalibrate Your Calling Every Day, by Dick Daniels (read my review)
[ ] The Transformational Leader: How the World's Best Leaders Build Teams, Inspire Action, and Achieve Lasting Success, by Matt Mayberry (read my review)
[ ] Uptime: A Practical Guide to Personal Productivity and Wellbeing, by Laura Mae Martin (read my review)
[ ] Next: Pastoral Succession That Works, by William Vanderbloemen and Warren Bird (order from Amazon)
OK. I confess. After reading Be the Unicorn Workbook, my own workbook is ready for a re-write. But if you can’t wait, order the 2nd edition here: Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook: Management Tools, Templates and Tips from John Pearson, with commentary by Jason Pearson (2nd Edition, 2018) - (Order from Amazon)
To order from Amazon, click on the title Be The Unicorn Workbook: 12 Data-Driven Habits that Separate the Best Leaders From the Rest, by William Vanderbloemen. For more reviews, visit John Pearson’s Buckets Blog and subscribe to Your Weekly Staff Meeting. And thanks to the author for sending me a review copy.
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