Pails in Comparison

The Courage Gap: Five Steps to Braver Action

PIC No. 93: 
• Title: The Courage Gap: 5 Steps to Braver Action
• Author: Margie Warrell, PhD
• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers (Jan. 28, 2025, 168 pages)
• Management Bucket #8 of 20: The Culture Bucket



Welcome to Issue No. 93 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.

7,000 Steps @ $1.40 Per Day!

The author of The Courage Gap writes, “Facing the truth without diluting it down is your admission price to genuine freedom.” That’s good.

LOL! I was only 40 pages into this important book, and I thought: “I can think of five people already who should read this book.”

Then author Margie Warrell nailed me! “As you read this, you may be thinking, Oh boy, So-and-So needs to read this. They're totally blind to their blindness! Maybe so, but consider that maybe not everything you've been telling yourself is true either.”

(Gulp.) So…I continued to read this short and convicting book (also for what I could learn). Guarantee: if you read it—you’ll recommend it to colleagues, friends, teens, grandkids (and maybe your CEO).

Step 1: “Focus on What You Want, Not on What You Fear” is the first of five steps in this very thought-provoking journey towards courage. (Hopefully, it’s also action-provoking). Do you—or someone you’re coaching—need to close the “courage gap?” Well-researched, and often very transparent, the author notes this practical contrarian insight:

“One study asked people to walk 7,000 steps a day for six months. Some were paid $1.40 for each day they achieved the goal; others lost $1.40 each day they failed to walk. The second group hit their target 50 percent more often.” The author quotes Daniel Kahneman, “We hate to lose more than we love to win.”

Organized by five steps (no chapters), the other four steps include:
Step 2: Rescript What’s Kept You Scared or Too Safe
Step 3: Breathe in Courage
Step 4: Step into Discomfort
Step 5: Find the Treasure When You Trip

COURAGE QUIZ. Order the book and you’ll have access to these “Courage Gap” resources:
• The Courage Quiz (online assessment)
• The Courage Gap Workbook (free download)
• Videos, eNews, and the Live Brave podcast (listen here to Steps 1 and 2 from the book)

I’m thinking this book (just 126 pages, plus the foreword by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, notes, and study questions) really needs two reviews. (Stay tuned.) A few snippets:

COURAGE DEFINED: “… we've all had moments when we've silently debated whether to speak up or stay silent, whether to put ourselves ‘out there’ or toe the line. Our fear creates the gap between thought and action, between what we know is the right thing to do and what we actually do. It takes courage to close it.”

Tragic. The author weaves the story of Alex, a Navy SEAL, in and out of these five bravery steps. (Brilliant approach.) He confesses the torment of not speaking up—which resulted in the loss of a team member’s life. It takes guts to speak up. What if you don’t have the guts?

“The greatest limit to your future
is not that you do not know what you should do.
Rather, it is that you are not willing to do what you know.”

Step 1: “Focus on What You Want, Not on What You Fear”
• You’ll be shocked at the role that fear plays in your life. “The smarter we think we are, the more cunningly our fears work in the background.”
• “Fear is the most used word in the Bible racking up a whole 365 mentions.”
• “Your greatest source of stress will never come from hard work or courageous action, but from the lack of it.” Warrell lists six sources, including “From the feedback you did not give and accountability you did not manage.”

Step 2: Rescript What’s Kept You Scared or Too Safe
• “Your brain is Teflon for good and Velcro for bad.”
• “There’s an adage in therapy that what makes us hysterical is historical.”

Step 3: Breathe in Courage
• On the importance of posture (really!), Warrell quotes legendary coach John Wooden, “It’s not how tall you are, but how tall you play.”
• Who do you hang out with? “…set up ‘courage rails’ with courage crushers who tread on dreams, dwell on the potential downsides, and second guess your every move.”
• The author quotes habits guru James Clear, “You don’t rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”

Step 4: Step into Discomfort
• Read about the author’s “one-brave-minute” rule and why she wimped out in a hotel lobby, but later (after praying) took her own advice and got a response from the White House!
• “Never discount the hidden and delayed timidity tax you pay when you don’t risk stepping forward.”
• “Courage is a muscle. You have to put in the reps and ‘train the brave’ within you.”

Step 5: Find the Treasure When You Trip
You will trip. You will fail. You will make mistakes. But there's help. I love this book! Two buckets:
• Bucket 1: You will try and fail to get your desired result.
• Bucket 2: You will fail to try.
• Warrell says we must own our “flawsomeness” (not a typo, she says) and forgive ourselves about being the “rough draft of the person you’re on your way to becoming.”
• That requires grace and she quotes Philip Yancey, “Grace, like water, always flows to the lowest part.”

Did I mention there might be a second review? There’s way too much good stuff here...like the story about Dale, a member of his church’s governing board. The church was in decline, but the “strong personality” pastor could be very defensive. Dale had a courage gap. Then the author asked Dale a probing question: “What kind of steward do you want to be?” She recommends three key questions to “focus on what you want, not what you fear.”
   • What kind of person am I?
   • What kind of situation is this?
   • What would a person like me do in a situation like this?

Trust me—this is just one gem in a treasure trove of wisdom, insight (lots of humor), and potentially life-changing next steps for you and the people you care about.

PAILS IN COMPARISON: Reading this book reminded me of several other must-read books in the Culture Bucket, plus other buckets/core competencies. 

[  ] Leaders: Myth and Reality, by General Stanley McChrystal (US Army, Retired), Jeff Eggers, and Jason Mangone. (Read my review.)

[  ] Leading Me: Eight Practices for a Christian Leader's Most Important Assignment, by Steve A. Brown. (Read my review.)

[  ] The Purpose Code: How to Unlock Meaning, Maximize Happiness, and Leave a Lasting Legacy, by Jordan Grumet, MD. (Read my review.)

[  ] Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life…and Maybe the World, by Admiral William H. McRaven (U.S. Navy Retired) - (Read my review.)

[  ] Coach Wooden One-on-One: Inspiring Conversations on Purpose, Passion and the Pursuit of Success, by Coach John Wooden and Jay Carty. (Read my review.)

[  ] Good Power: Leading Positive Change in Our Lives, Work, and World, by Ginni Rometty. (Read my review.)

[  ] Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned (The 10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning Workbook), by John Pearson with Jason Pearson. (Read more.) Note: Margie Warrell’s book on courage mentions the New Zealand “Haka” ritual. Read my less-than-courageous response to that experience in front of 900 people in Auckland! LOL!
 
To order from Amazon, click on the title for The Courage Gap: 5 Steps to Braver Action, by Margie Warrell, PhD. Listen on Libro (4 hours, 35 minutes). For more reviews, visit John Pearson’s Buckets Blog and subscribe to Your Weekly Staff Meeting. 

© 2025. John Pearson Associates. All rights reserved.
Pails in Comparison is posted every once in a while. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. By subscribing to Your Weekly Staff Meeting, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Typepad.com’s privacy policy here.

The Forge Movie

PIC No. 78: 
• Title: The Forge Movie
• View the Official Trailer.
• Director: Alex Kendrick (Screenplay: Alex Kendrick & Stephen Kendrick; Produced by: Stephen Kendrick, Justin Tolley, Aaron Burns, Trey Reynolds. Released Aug. 23, 2024)
• Management Bucket #8 of 20: The Culture Bucket


The Forge Movie is also in book form. Order the book here from Amazon.

Welcome to Issue No. 78 of PAILS IN COMPARISON, the value-added sidekick of John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. This blog features my “PICs”—shorter reviews of helpful books (and a couple of movies)—with comparisons to other books in my 20 management buckets (core competencies) filing system.

GO. SEE. THIS. MOVIE.

I’m urging you, my family, my friends, neighbors—everyone I meet—to go see this movie! (You’ll thank me—just like I thanked friends who asked us to join them yesterday to see the movie on the big screen.)

SPOILER ALERT! Powerful. Funny. Tears! Hopeful. Relatable. I could go on, but here’s the blurb:

“Isaiah Wright has some growing up to do. A year out of high school with no plans for his future, Isaiah is challenged by his single mom and a successful businessman to start charting a better course for his life. Through the prayers of his mother and biblical discipleship from his new mentor, Isaiah begins to discover God’s purpose for his life is so much more than he could hope for or imagine.”

RIGHT FILM. RIGHT TIME. “Give me any two pages of the Bible,” said Cecil B. DeMille, “and I'll give you a picture.” Aristotle said, “The soul never thinks without a picture.” Why do you think the right film, at the right time, for the right reason—can be so powerful? View The Forge and you’ll agree with Aristotle.

IMPORTANT THEMES. Oh, my. Our nation (our world) needs help—and this well-done movie will give you hope. Key themes:

   • Father Figures. Watch how male role models are the key ingredient in shaping a young man's character and faith.
   • Mentoring. As one source commented, “The film emphasizes the importance of mentorship, particularly the role of men mentoring younger men. Joshua, a successful business owner, takes on the role of a mentor to Isaiah, guiding him through personal and spiritual growth.”
   • Personal Transformation. The Good News of the Gospel lights the way for Isaiah’s journey of personal transformation, where he shifts from being a directionless young man to embracing his faith and responsibilities. Powerful!
   • Forgiveness. Get ready for One Powerful Scene that you will never forget—and it will enrich your understanding of forgiveness. Oh, my.
   • Prayer. (Did I mention “prayer?”) I’m thinking that all of our “Five Steps to Do This” and “Seven Steps to Conquer That” programs—could all be discarded if pastors, church leaders, youth pastors, and caring adults (parents and grandparents) would understand the power of prayer.
   • Community. Wow! Men and young men who see this movie will yearn for a new level of authentic relationships—supported within a faith community (aka “The Forge”). Powerful!

There’s more:
   • Commitment, Discipline, Accountability, & Teamwork. You’ll see how a young man overcame a litany of personal excuses and challenges to become a man of God. And…you’ll love the fast-paced segment at the end where teamwork and leadership accomplish a gargantuan business task—against insurmountable odds. Even with the humor, it will get your adrenaline going! It’s a fantastic teamwork scene that should be replayed several times a year at your organization’s weekly staff meetings or quarterly off-site retreats. (Oh. Did I mention prayer?)

GO. SEE. THIS. MOVIE.

P.S. LOL! When a couple invited us see the movie with them, the husband was initially reluctant to go—fearing that the “sword” graphics in the promo foreshadowed violence (perhaps a faith-based Braveheart movie). Not so! You’ll love the meaning behind the commemorative sword and “The Forge."

PAILS IN COMPARISON: Viewing this movie reminded me of several other themes in the Culture Bucket, plus other buckets/core competencies.

Note: I’m not a movie critic, but during the early days of COVID, I spotlighted eight movies (including short clips) that speak to important themes, including leadership. Check them out here.
   • Harriet (2019)
   • We Have a Pope (2011)
   • The Secret of Santa Vittoria (1969)
   • Twelve O’clock High (1949)
   • In the Shadow of the Moon (2007)
   • Sesame Street: Ernie Puts Down the Duckie (2003)
   • Our Daily Bread (1934)
   • Make Your Bed (2014)

View “THE FORGE MOVIE” on the big screen this week! Click here for “The Forge” Official Movie Trailer. Exclusively in theaters beginning August 23, 2024. For more reviews, visit John Pearson’s Buckets Blog and subscribe to Your Weekly Staff Meeting.

© 2024. John Pearson Associates. All rights reserved.
Pails in Comparison is posted every once in a while. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. By subscribing to Your Weekly Staff Meeting, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Typepad.com’s privacy policy here.

Team Retreat Engagement Plan: 4 Books by Dick Daniels

PIC No. 76: 
• Title: Leadership Briefs: Shaping Organizational Culture to Stretch Leadership Capacity
• Author: Dick Daniels
• Publisher: Leadership Development Group (May 12, 2014, 246 pages)
• Management Bucket #8 of 20: The Culture Bucket



Welcome to Issue No. 76 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.

Retreat Highlights: The 4-Minute Chapter Summaries!

Picture this! About 40 leaders and managers from a well-led organization are enjoying a one-day offsite leadership enrichment retreat. As the facilitator, I’ve promised them practical content, deep engagement, hilarious video clips, and a PowerPoint (of course).

At the closing session that day, each team member shared their take-aways. But—no surprise—the highlights didn’t mention my brilliant insights or even the food. The bell-ringer was a simple four-minute presentation at the end of each hour.

The CEO had inspired nine people to read a chapter from Dick Daniels’ book, Leadership Briefs: Shaping Organizational Culture to Stretch Leadership Capacity. In just four-minute segments, the group was treated to nine stimulating chapter summaries. Examples:
   • “Here are three of my favorite quotes on culture.”
   • “Recently, I observed a team member modeling this key principle on ‘Building Leaders from the Inside-Out.’”
   • “This strategy principle, ‘When Leaders Look for the Silver Bullet’ was a wake-up call!”
   • “I have practiced this principle for many years…but the fourth point was new to me—and here’s what I plan to do in the future.”

The room was electric! The nine members took their assignments seriously—and honed their talks beautifully. Each hour ended with a four-minute gem. (The incentive: a Starbucks gift card for keeping it under four minutes!)

Following that lifelong-learning marathon, I have since leveraged the book in dozens of team-building retreats for clients. Those four-minute messages are always the highlights. I also named Leadership Briefs my 2015 “Book-of-the-Year.” (Ditto Leadership Core—my 2021 “Book-of-the-Year.”) And Hardwiring New Leadership Habits was one of my Top-10 books of 2023. Wow! Dick Daniels is a writing machine!

Gratefully, we now have a new resource in 2024 and I’m salivating to use The 365 Day Leader at my next retreat. Thank you, Dick Daniels!

PAILS IN COMPARISON: Reading this book reminded me of several other must-read books by Dick Daniels in the Culture Bucket, plus other buckets/core competencies.

[  ] The 365 Day Leader: Recalibrate Your Calling Every Day, by Dick Daniels (June 27, 2024) – (Read my review and order from Amazon.) Note: You may be able to purchase the book at a discounted price at Ingram Spark: hardcover or paperback.

[  ] Hardwiring New Leadership Habits: Does Development Develop? by Dick Daniels (Jan. 3, 2023) - (Read my review.)

[  ] Leadership Core: Character, Competence, Capacity (Leadership Multipliers), by Dick Daniels (Nov. 12, 2020) - (Read my review.)

[  ] Subscribe to Dick Daniels' newsletter, The Leadership Brief.

[  ] Follow Dick Daniels and The Leadership Development Group on LinkedIn.

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Leadership Briefs: Shaping Organizational Culture to Stretch Leadership Capacity, by Dick Daniels. For more reviews, visit John Pearson’s Buckets Blog and subscribe to Your Weekly Staff Meeting. 

© 2024. John Pearson Associates. All rights reserved.
Pails in Comparison is posted every once in a while. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. By subscribing to Your Weekly Staff Meeting, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Typepad.com’s privacy policy here.

Rome Sweet Home: Our Journey to Catholicism

PIC No. 63: 
• Title: Rome Sweet Home: Our Journey to Catholicism
• Authors: Scott and Kimberly Hahn
• Publisher: Ignatius Press (Sept. 21, 1993, 182 pages)
• Management Bucket #8 of 20: The Culture Bucket



Welcome to Issue No. 63 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.

The Columbo of Theology - “A Bumbling Biblical Detective”

BACKGROUND NOTES #1 OF 2. In my March 27, 2023, review of The Fourth Cup: Unveiling the Mystery of the Last Supper and the Cross, I wrote the following:

Scott Hahn, author of nearly 40 books, including The Fourth Cup, became a Christ-follower in high school through the ministry of YoungLife. He graduated from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and was an ordained Presbyterian pastor. Until…he wasn’t.

After a multi-year study of the Scriptures and more, this confirmed Calvinist converted to Catholicism in 1986. (View his story here.) A Catholic theologian since 1990, he teaches at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, a Catholic university in Steubenville, Ohio, and is the founder of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology.

It took his wife, the daughter of a Presbyterian pastor, four more years of discernment before she became Catholic. In 1993, Kimberly Hahn co-authored a book with her husband, Rome Sweet Home: Our Journey to Catholicism.

BACKGROUND NOTES #2 OF 2. In my June 22, 2022, review of Evangelical Exodus: Evangelical Seminarians and Their Paths to Rome, I wrote this:

In the very intriguing book, Evangelical Exodus, the author of the chapter, “Moved and Sustained by the Blessed Virgin,” quotes from Peter Kreeft’s lecture on ecumenism. Kraft says, “Baptists are learning to love Mary and pray the Rosary, and Catholics are asking, ‘Do you know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior?’”

I was raised in a Baptist church in Seattle, graduated from a Free Methodist-affiliated college (SPU), and received a master’s degree from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS), part of the Evangelical Free Church denomination. I served five years in the Midwest district office and camp of the Baptist General Conference (now called Converge). I have been a tithing member of an Evangelical Covenant Church and a non-denominational megachurch, so I thought I was somewhat ecumenical.

But I had never prayed the Rosary! Until this year! In February 2022, I was the only Protestant among 80 Catholic men at an all-day retreat—and (honest!) we prayed the Rosary together 250 times (over a four-hour teaching session)! We enjoyed three meals together and many informal conversations with my brothers in Christ. I still treasure that day and yearn for more.

ROME SWEET HOME. OK, now with that background—here is my review of Rome Sweet Home: Our Journey to Catholicism.

Just in time for Lent 2024, I read Rome Sweet Home. It looks like I’m averaging one Catholic author per year—which is pretty good for an old Baptist. What’s the deal?

My neighbor, a Lutheran who became Catholic, loaned me this book—a poignant and personal story from Scott and Kimberly Hahn. Written in 1993, much has happened since Scott Hahn (an “anti-Catholic” by his own admission) became Catholic. His wife, Kimberly, shares her story of deep reluctance, regret at her husband’s conversion, and then ultimately her joy—in also becoming Catholic four years later. Listen to their story here on the "MONKCAST CONVERSATIONS" from 2020:

View this 20-minute conversation with Kimberly and Scott Hahn. (Note: you'll find numerous online videos with Scott and/or Kimberly Hahn.)

Each chapter begins with Scott’s journey, followed by Kimberly’s commentary. (It’s the perfect storytelling approach for this husband and wife.) If you’re an evangelical Christian, you’ll recognize many familiar names and organizations:

Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, YoungLife, Screwtape Letters, Paul Little’s book, Know Why You Believe (Little was one of my seminary profs), Dr. John Gerstner, Martin Luther, Dr. Lloyd Ogilvie, Continental Singers, Dr. Francis Schaeffer, Peter Gillquist, Elmbrook Church, Dr. Jerry Kirk, Cardinal Bernardin, Pope John Paul II, and others.

(And by the way, if you're an "evangelical," you should read this WSJ article from Jan. 11, 2024, "How ‘Evangelical’ Are Iowa’s Evangelicals? The adulteration of a theological term into a secular political and demographic label.")

Scott Hahn affirms the Lord’s grace in helping “this bumbling biblical detective (the ‘Columbo of Theology’) crack the case of Catholicism—by coming home.” He adds, “In truth, the journey began as a detective story, but soon it became more like a horror story, until it finally ended up as a great romance story—when Christ unveiled his Bride, the Church. (By the way, it would help to keep these three story types in mind as you read.)”

The stories are amazing: The God-orchestrated last-minute visit by Scott with a high school friend. (Spoiler alert: eight feet of rope.) And God’s just-in-time doctor’s proximity to Kimberly, resulting in an emergency hospital visit.

Scott was consumed (consumed!) with nagging questions:
• “Why is our church so pastor-centered?”
• “Why is our worship service so sermon-centered?”
• “And why aren’t my sermons really designed to prepare God’s people to receive communion?” (The church where he pastored took communion only four times per year.)

He writes: “…I was pastoring a Presbyterian church that had split off from a splinter group (the Orthodox Presbyterian Church), which had in turn separated from another division (the Presbyterian Church of the U.S.A.), all in this century! (We didn’t call ourselves the split P’s for nothing!)”

If you’re Protestant, you must confess that you have some angst when you read that Jesus said to Peter, “…upon this rock I will build my church.” And that today there are now an estimated 47,000 denominations worldwide. (The Hahns estimated just 25,000 in 1993 when the book was published.) Read more from The Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell. How does the proliferation of denominations and “split P’s” align with Jesus’ prayer that Christ-followers would be of one mind and unified?

This book is not a dusty lecture on Catholic theology and Protestant/Catholic issues—nor are the fundamental differences treated lightly. (Other books and resources are recommended for more study.) Gratefully, the book is respectful of the A-to-Z nuances of Christian doctrine. As Scott Hahn (aka “Columbo”) pursued his detective work, both he and Kimberly were able to find humor in their journeys. On the deep divide of doctrines about Mary (the mother of Jesus), Kimberly shares this story:

“I once read about a man in Rome who was repairing the ceiling of a beautiful chapel one day when he observed an American woman enter the church and begin to pray. He thought he’d have a little fun, so he called down quietly, ‘This is Jesus.’ But the woman did not respond.

“So he called out a little louder, ‘This is Jesus.’ Still no response.

“Finally, the man called loudly, ‘This is Jesus!’

“The woman looked up and yelled, ‘Be quiet, I’m talking to your mother!’”

NEXT STEP. If you’re Protestant and you’ve never read a thoughtful book about Catholicism, you’ll appreciate Rome Sweet Home. If you’re Catholic, you’ll find much to love about this former Presbyterian pastor who is now a Professor of Biblical Theology and the New Evangelization at Franciscan University of Steubenville in Steubenville, Ohio. He yearns for even more commitment from his Catholic colleagues. (Visit the Hahn’s website here.) Note: If you’re an atheist or an agnostic, I’d suggest you read former atheist Lee Strobel’s latest book, Is God Real?

I'll sum up with this from Scott Hahn:

“What has impressed us most from our time in Steubenville is precisely the way it combines the evangelical and the Catholic. I am talking about the way in which the Catholic Faith unites what other religions tend to separate: personal piety and liturgical ritual; evangelistic outreach and social action; spiritual fervor and intellectual rigor; academic freedom and dynamic orthodoxy; enthusiastic worship and reverent contemplation; powerful preaching and sacramental devotion; Scripture and Tradition; body and soul; the individual and the corporate.”

P.S. I must add that Kimberly Hahn’s father, Dr. Jerry Kirk, and I both graduated from Queen Anne High School in Seattle. (I was a few years behind him!)

PAILS IN COMPARISON: Reading this book reminded me of several other must-read books in the Culture Bucket, plus other buckets/core competencies. 

[  ] The Fourth Cup: Unveiling the Mystery of the Last Supper and the Cross, by Scott Hahn. Listen on Libro (4 hours, 17 minutes). (Read my review.)

[  ] Evangelical Exodus: Evangelical Seminarians and Their Paths to Rome, by Douglas M. Beaumont (Editor). (Read my review.)

[  ] 30 Days Unplugged: How a Catholic Priest Turned Off His iPhone and Took a Call From God (Full Color Edition), by Father Darrin Merlino, CMF. (Read my review.) 

[  ] The Pope & The CEO: John Paul II's Leadership Lessons to a Young Swiss Guard, by Andreas Widmer. (Read my review.)

[  ] Heroic Leadership: Best Practices from a 450-Year-Old Company That Changed the World, by Chris Lowney. (Read my review.)

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Rome Sweet Home: Our Journey to Catholicism, by Scott and Kimberly Hahn. For more reviews, visit John Pearson’s Buckets Blog and subscribe to Your Weekly Staff Meeting. 

© 2024. John Pearson Associates. All rights reserved.
Pails in Comparison is posted every once in a while. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. By subscribing to Your Weekly Staff Meeting, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Typepad.com’s privacy policy here.

A Failure of Nerve in 52 Weeks: A Yearlong Leadership Planner

PIC No. 51: 
• Title: A Failure of Nerve in 52 Weeks: A Yearlong Leadership Planner
• Author: based on the book by Edwin H. Friedman
• Publisher: Morehouse Publishing (Sept. 5, 2023, 224 pages)
• Management Bucket #8 of 20: The Culture Bucket
 


Welcome to Issue No. 51 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.

Leadership Stuck in a Rut!

Since I review books, friends and colleagues often pass along book recommendations. I usually add them to my Amazon wish list. Then—after several people recommend the same book—the book moves up higher on my priority list.

Thus is the case with the classic and bestselling book by Edwin H. Friedman, A Failure of Nerve, Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix (2017 revised edition). But please note: I have NOT read this yet (but I will!).

When my friend, David Curry, mentioned this book (probably for the nth time!), I finally went online and discovered that a unique “yearlong leadership planner” was just published this month. I bought it and my plan is to read one chapter every Monday for the next 52 Mondays. I love the format for: 

A Failure of Nerve in 52 Weeks:
A Yearlong Leadership Planner
based on the bestselling book by Edwin H. Friedman

In the “How to Use This Book” introduction, the editors write, “Each week focuses on a core tenant from Edwin H. Friedman's A Failure of Nerve, Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix. Brief excerpts of his wisdom are paired with either:
   • True/False questions to test your comprehension or highlight an aspect of your leadership style
   • Scales to gauge the severity of a situation or belief
   • Word matrices to emphasize concepts and test memory
   • Reflection questions to stimulate self-analysis and promote future planning."

“True leadership doesn’t develop overnight,” so the editors have crafted this very unique 52-week journey through the writings and mind of Edwin H. Friedman (1932-1996), who was an ordained rabbi and practicing family therapist.

Check out his books and you’ll find high praise, especially for A Failure of Nerve. The Anglican Theological Review wrote, “Placed on the scales with every other book on leadership in the last ten years…it would outweigh them all.” Some snippets from the leadership planner:

WEEK 1: “Whenever a ‘family’ (or system) is driven by anxiety, what will also always be present is a failure of nerve among its leaders.”

“Leadership in America is stuck in the rut of trying harder and harder without obtaining significantly new results.”

WEEK 2: “This book will encourage leaders to focus first on their own integrity and on the nature of their own presence rather than on techniques for manipulating or motivating others. Leadership is essentially an emotional process rather than a cognitive phenomenon.”

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: “Chronic criticism is often a sign that the leader is functioning better.”

WEEK 3: On the topic of “Imaginative Gridlock,” the weekly reflection question asks, “are there areas of your life or work that never seem to improve in proportion with the effort you put into them? Choose one, then take a step back. Beyond data and logic, what underlying emotions or emotional processes are at play?”

WEEK 4 THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: “Contemporary American civilization is as misoriented about the environment of relationships as the medieval world was misoriented about the Earth and the sky.”

LOL! I did a sneak peek at Week 13 and found this: “The number of books being written today on management far exceeds the number of managers.” Yikes! Friedman warns leaders about using the “pursuit of information” as a means of “an easy escape from having to deal with society's chronic anxiety as well as with their own personal being.”

David Curry has introduced me to numerous books over the years, including the historical works of Paul Johnson. I’m grateful. Ask me in a year (after my 52 Monday morning meditations) if this book turned out to be David’s best recommendation ever. I’m leaning to “yes.”

PAILS IN COMPARISON: Reading this book reminded me of several other must-read books in the Culture Bucket, plus other buckets/core competencies. 

[  ] A Year With Peter Drucker: 52 Weeks of Coaching for Leadership Effectiveness, by Joseph A. Maciariello (Read my review.)

[  ] BONUS! Read the 52 guest blogs for “Drucker Mondays,” from 2015, including David Curry's color commentary on “Make The Important Rather Than The Urgent Your Priority In Life.”

[  ] The Top 10 Leadership Conversations in the Bible: Practical Insights From Extensive Research on Over 1,000 Biblical Leaders, by Steve Moore (Read my review.)

[  ] Devotional Classics: Selected Readings for Individuals and Groups (2005 Revised Edition) - (Read my review.)

[  ] (Note: The Original Book) A Failure of Nerve, Revised Edition: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix (2017), by Edwin H. Friedman – Order from Amazon.

To order from Amazon, click on the title for A Failure of Nerve in 52 Weeks: A Yearlong Leadership Planner (Sept. 2023), based on the book by Edwin H. Friedman. For more book reviews, visit John Pearson’s Buckets Blog and subscribe to Your Weekly Staff Meeting. 

© 2023 John Pearson Associates. All rights reserved.
Pails in Comparison is posted every once in a while. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. By subscribing to Your Weekly Staff Meeting, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Typepad.com’s privacy policy here.

Turnaround Time: Uniting an Airline and Its Employees in the Friendly Skies

PIC No. 42: 
• Title: Turnaround Time: Uniting an Airline and Its Employees in the Friendly Skies
• Authors: Oscar Munoz with Brian DeSplinter
• Publisher: Harper Business (May 2, 2023, 240 pages)
• Management Bucket #8 of 20: The Culture Bucket
 


Welcome to Issue No. 42 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.

Your First 37 Days as CEO

“Already a crisis, the incident was now spiraling out of control,” writes Oscar Munoz, who served as CEO of United Airlines from 2015 to 2020. “This is when the loneliness of the CEO becomes most acute. Even your closest colleagues are beginning to back away from you.”

Munoz—even today—regrets how he handled the PR disaster days after the April 9, 2017, incident. Smartphone videos went viral of a passenger (randomly chosen) who had refused all offers to rebook this sold-out flight. The videos (on TV and Twitter) broadcast “a violent incident showing airport law enforcement wrestling Dr. Dao out of his seat in the aisle and then dragging him off the plane, his glasses knocked from his eyes to below his nose, blood gushing from his face.”

Imagine! A few months earlier, Oscar Munoz had been named PR magazine’s “Communicator of the Year,” yet his initial response—“cold and clinical”—turned a crisis into a PR disaster, according to one news report.

That’s just one of 43 specific leadership lessons and insights I noted in this transparent, poignant, and powerful autobiography, Turnaround Time: Uniting an Airline and Its Employees in the Friendly Skies, by Oscar Munoz with Brian DeSplinter.

Really, John—43 leadership lessons? Really! Some leadership books give you 90 days to make a difference in a new position, but Oscar Munoz, United’s new CEO, received only 37 days initially. After a 5:30 a.m. five-mile run in Chicago’s River North neighborhood, he suffered a heart attack and endured a medically-induced coma at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. His wife was still at their home in Florida—and his unexplained absence from critical meetings at United that morning deeply troubled his team. Amazingly, Munoz is now a heart transplant survivor.

Michael Watkins, author of The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels, uses an acronym, “STARS,” to describes the four kinds of situations you’ll likely find when you accept a new position: Start-up, Turn-Around, Realignment, and Sustaining Success. He warns that a successful CEO of a Realignment may fail at a Turn-Around—and vice versa. When the United Airlines board asked one of their board members, Oscar Munoz, to become their CEO—his marching orders were clear: Turnaround. (Hence, his book’s title: Turnaround Time.)

Who should read this book?
• All leaders tasked with turnarounds.
• New CEOs and veteran CEOs who need a leadership refresher master class.
• Board members and senior team members.

What about those 43 leadership lessons? Honest—there are over 100 valuable lessons in this book, but I made notes on just 43. Similar to my review of Becoming Trader Joe (another fascinating CEO inside look), this book also delivers an uncanny breadth of leadership and management savvy across all 20 management buckets (core competencies). Examples:

THE MEETINGS BUCKET: Munoz instituted weekly meetings—with metrics. “I was also dismayed to learn that the most senior members of the company didn’t have a standing weekly meeting to discuss business results and metrics, progress on key strategic initiatives, and importantly, coordinate their efforts toward a common aim.”

(This reminded me of Alan Mulally’s early days at Ford. He introduced a “traffic light” system to weekly business performance reviews (BPRs) in which executives indicated progress on key initiatives with a “green, yellow, and red color-coding system.”)

THE CUSTOMER BUCKET: On his first United flight as CEO, he started a list, “The Top Ten Dumbest Things.” Talking obsessively with gate agents and flight attendants on his first 30 days of a “listening tour,” one response was a watershed moment. A teary-eyed flight attendant told him, “Oscar, I’m just tired of always having to say, ‘I’m sorry.’” (He built his motivational talks around that moment.)

THE STRATEGY BUCKET: An executive team (“E-Team”) offsite retreat hammered out competing strategy priorities (customers, operations, employees, Wall Street, etc.). Guided by a strategic advisory firm, Munoz wanted 100% buy-in from his team on where they would land.

COMMUNICATIONS: His PR firm created a 90-day plan and helped them launch “United Airtime,” a digital platform for both passengers and employees to “air” their criticisms. One stunner response: “I felt like an inconvenience, not a customer.”

CULTURE: Whew! Continental merged with United in 2010, but it took eight years to integrate the union contracts and cultures. (United folks referred to their new associates as “ex-Cons.”) Yikes!

BUDGET: In the fascinating chapter, “New Flight Plan,” Munoz delivers “a short primer on how airlines actually make money.” Using a hypothetical flight of 100 passengers, at the time it required 29 people just to pay for the gas. During the turnaround days, the margins were thin: just the 100th passenger “would represent pure profit for the airline.” (Can you explain your organization's expense side in simple terms?)

Gratefully, this autobiography skips the frequent page-filler traps of less humble CEOs. At times, the book reads like a James Bond novel. Will he survive? What happens next? Wow—why would anyone want to be an airline CEO? In between the crisis moments, Munoz artfully weaves in fascinating doses of his background and formative years, including his grandmother, Mama Josefina, who raised him in Mexico until he met his mother at age 10 in Los Angeles. Mama Josefina, his role model, then worked as a housekeeper at a Las Vegas hotel chain until she retired at age 86! She modeled for him, “To lead is to serve.”

Maybe because I’ve lived near two United Airlines hubs (Chicago and L.A.), I was a loyal fan of the friendly skies. According to my MileagePlus account, I’ve flown 730,000 miles on United. I’ve prayed for every pilot on take-offs and landings! Ironically, my wife and I were on United when we arrived back in the U.S. from a South American vacation on March 10, 2020 (thanks to frequent flier miles). The next day, March 11, 2020, WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Whew! Just made it back!

In his riveting chapter on COVID, Munoz—then just two months before his baton handoff to his successor in May 2020—shares the fascinating inside info (White House meetings and more) on those rare moments when airline CEOs (aka competitors) worked together to keep planes flying during COVID. Oh, my.

You’ll also appreciate learning what you should do when you feel “weird,” and why you should call 911 immediately. A doctor’s earlier counsel saved Oscar Munoz's life. His story (and his physical pain) reminded me of university president Mark Smith’s story, Oh God, I’m Dying!

THE BOARD BUCKET: There are ample board governance insights. Today, Munoz serves on USC's board and other boards. (His story as an unlikely USC student is inspirational. He was the first college grad in his family. His experience also informs his heart for workplace diversity.)

THE CRISIS BUCKET: With apologies to Oscar Munoz, I can’t resist mentioning another PR disaster (2009, prior to Munoz’s CEO stint) when another unfortunate customer service story went viral and became an MBA case study! “United Breaks Guitars” is described in Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s book, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World. (Read my review and view the video!) And click here for the guitar player’s commentary on the 2017 incident.

YIKES! Think your job is challenging? Try navigating the daily perils of an airline CEO’s role: unions, weather delays, and more. And on any given day, the possibility of emails from more than 90,000 employees! Oh…and a YouTube video that goes viral and now has more than 22 million views. Did I mention, “Yikes?”

PAILS IN COMPARISON: Reading this book reminded me of several other must-read books in the Culture Bucket and the Crisis Bucket, plus other buckets/core competencies. If you love CEO autobiographies, you'll appreciate these niche books:

[  ] Becoming Trader Joe: How I Did Business My Way and Still Beat the Big Guys, by Joe Coulombe with Patty Civalleri. (Read my review.)
[  ] Made From Scratch: The Legendary Success Story of Texas Roadhouse, by Kent Taylor. (Read my review.)
[  ] Oh God, I’m Dying! How God Redeems Pain for Our Good and for His Glory, by Terry Powell and Mark Smith. (Read my review.)

BONUS! Here are three more leadership/management books, also with Chicago connections. (United's offices are in Chicago, the city where I endured 21 winters!)

[  ] The Cubs Way: The Zen of Building the Best Team in Baseball and Breaking the Curse, by Tom Verducci (Read my review.)
[  ] Culture Is the Way: How Leaders at Every Level Build an Organization for Speed, Impact, and Excellence, by Matt Mayberry. (Read my review.)
[  ] A Game Maker's Life: A Hall of Fame Game Inventor and Executive Tells the Inside Story of the Toy Industry, by Jeffrey Breslow with Cynthia Beebe. (Read my review.)

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Turnaround Time: Uniting an Airline and Its Employees in the Friendly Skies, by Oscar Munoz with Brian DeSplinter. Listen on Libro (9 hours, 7 minutes). And thanks to the publisher for sending me a review copy. For more book reviews, visit John Pearson’s Buckets Blog and subscribe to Your Weekly Staff Meeting. 

© 2023 John Pearson Associates. All rights reserved.
Pails in Comparison is posted every once in a while. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. By subscribing to Your Weekly Staff Meeting, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Typepad.com’s privacy policy here.

The Empathy Advantage: Leading the Empowered Workforce

PIC No. 38: 
• Title: The Empathy Advantage: Leading the Empowered Workforce
• Authors: Heather E. McGowan and Chris Shipley
• Publisher: Wiley (March 8, 2023, 240 pages)
• Management Bucket #8 of 20: The Culture Bucket
 


Welcome to Issue No. 38 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.

“You only need to empathize with the people you want to keep.”

The authors of The Empathy Advantage share a memorable story told by a university psychology prof and author:

“I once asked a dentist friend of mine how important flossing really is. ‘Not that important,’ he replied. ‘You only need to floss the teeth you want to keep.’

“Leaders often ask me how important empathy really is during the Great Resignation.

“‘Not that important,’ I’m going to start telling them, ‘You only need to empathize with the people you want to keep.’”

LOL! There is so much to appreciate about this new book, The Empathy Advantage: Leading the Empowered Workforce, by Heather E. McGowan and Chris Shipley. Looking at “trend lines that are shaping the complexion of the global workforce,” the authors write, “…let’s be perfectly clear: as business leaders wrestle with ‘return to office’ policies, where work happens is not their biggest problem. Even if every worker went back to the office, they would still be burned out and disengaged. The pandemic merely brought burnout and high rates of mental distress to light.”

What I appreciate about this book:
• The emphasis, of course, on why empathy matters. We can all do this better by reading, listening, caring, and—sometimes—trusting in the help of a gifted coach.
• The very detailed table of contents (five pages!). I check-marked 23 must-read topics, such as “The Rise of Bleisure” and “Creating the Conditions to Learn at Scale.”
• The tempting notes at the end of every chapter (not hidden in the back of the book—why don’t all authors do this?). You’ll find numerous discoveries (HBR articles and more) among the 200+ notes and weblinks.
• A wide array of fascinating stats, charts, graphics, and one-page articles—generously populated throughout the book. Nicely done!

I especially appreciated these insights:
• “Figure 1.1 – Managing the Multigenerational Workforce.” Boomers (born 1946-1964) value “status and achievement.” Gen Z team members want to “improve the world.”
• “Hire for culture, train for specific skills.”
• Reflecting on Tom Brady’s performance (diet, discipline, and more)—clearly a star employee, the authors ask, “…what if businesses, generally, began treating their employees with the care and concern that performance athletes receive?”

And I need to think about these ideas:
• Fire the job description! “…it’s time to end the practice of hiring people to fill jobs and begin the discipline of creating roles around outstanding people.”
• Leave meetings behind. The authors quote Allan Chochinov’s idea to cut down on meetings and, instead, call them “reviews”—not “meetings.” They add, “Imagine that rather than scheduling meetings, you hold a ‘briefing’ to start a project or a ‘review’ to assess the progress of a project.” Interesting!
• The 5 R’s. “The Great Reset” (“Figure 9.1 – The Cumulative Shifts Between Individuals and Organizations”) is worth studying. It’s the summary title for five R’s: “The Great Resignation, The Great Retirement, the Great Reshuffle, The Great Refusal, and The Great Relocation.”
• “The Gratitude Lunch” event (just two pages), I’m guessing, will be replicated in dozens—if not hundreds—of companies and organizations across the globe.

To be clear—I appreciated this book. Someone on your team should read and report on the big ideas in this book at your next staff meeting (I mean…at your next staff briefing!). However, just over the last 10 days, I read numerous articles in The Wall Street Journal that reminded me, once again, of Peter Drucker’s wisdom, “What everyone knows is usually wrong.” (Read my review of The Practical Drucker.)

The authors are pretty sure that the workplace is dramatically changing after COVID. Is it? Many business gurus and CEOs aren’t so sure.

Is there a documented connection between empathy and diversity? I’d say—not so fast. The jury is still out in my humble opinion—as are the predictions of many opinion pieces and thoughtful letters to the editor. I did appreciate Sally Helgesen's insights on diversity in her recent book, Rising Together: How We Can Bridge Divides and Create a More Inclusive Workplace.

One more. Can we still discuss gender and so-called “equity” issues? There’s still a wide diversity of views. It’s not settled like many “experts” believe.

I think what we need today is more conversation, more dialogue, and wider reading and thoughtful listening. That’s why I’m recommending you read this book—even if you might disagree with some of the authors’ conclusions.

And…I hope I will continue to have the spirit and heart of a friend of mine who would often say when his wife pushed back on something: “I could be wrong. I’ve been wrong before. Do you want to talk about it?”

Note: This book is very, very comprehensive and in your first read of The Empathy Advantage—if you’re at the front end of your career in HR or management—you may be tempted to say, “Way too much stuff.” If so, make this a team project and delegate your reading. Start small and plan to leverage the helpful sections over many quarters. You won't plumb the depths in a week or a month.

PAILS IN COMPARISON: Reading this book reminded me of several other must-read books in the Culture Bucket, plus other buckets/core competencies. 

[  ] The Burnout Challenge: Managing People’s Relationships with Their Jobs, by Christina Maslach and Michael P. Leiter. (Read my review.)

[ ] Blind Spot: The Global Rise of Unhappiness and How Leaders Missed It, by Jon Clifton. (Read my review.)

[ ] Future Normal: How We Will Live, Work and Thrive in the Next Decade, by Rohit Bhargava and Henry Coutinho-Mason. (Read my review.)

[ ] Connection Culture: The Competitive Advantage of Shared Identity, Empathy, and Understanding at Work, by Michael Lee Stallard, Jason Pankau, and Katharine P. Stallard. (Read my review.)

[ ] A New Way to Think: Your Guide to Superior Management Effectiveness, by Roger L. Martin. (Read my review.) 

To order from Amazon, click on the title for The Empathy Advantage: Leading the Empowered Workforce, by Heather E. McGowan and Chris Shipley. Listen on Libro (pre-order for May 9, 2023 availability).  And thanks to the publisher for sending me a review copy. For more book reviews, visit John Pearson’s Buckets Blog and subscribe to Your Weekly Staff Meeting. 

© 2023 John Pearson Associates. All rights reserved.
Pails in Comparison is posted every once in a while. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. By subscribing to Your Weekly Staff Meeting, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Typepad.com’s privacy policy here.

Culture Is the Way: How Leaders at Every Level Build an Organization for Speed, Impact, and Excellence

PIC No. 31: 
• Title: Culture Is the Way: How Leaders at Every Level Build an Organization for Speed, Impact, and Excellence 
• Author: Matt Mayberry
• Publisher: Wiley (Feb. 1, 2023, 272 pages)
• Management Bucket #8 of 20: The Culture Bucket



Welcome to Issue No. 31 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.

What to Do When the CEO Isn’t in the Room

Speaking of football…

OK, I confess. I’m still a Chicago Bears football fan. During my 21 winters in the Chicago area, the best year was 1986 when the Bears defeated the New England Patriots by the score of 46–10 in Super Bowl XX.

So when author Matt Mayberry noted that he was a linebacker for the Chicago Bears in 2010—count me in! I had to read his helpful book, Culture Is the Way: How Leaders at Every Level Build an Organization for Speed, Impact, and Excellence. I do love books on culture!

If you’ve been around the block a few years, you’ll groan and grimace at the memory of those perky (and pesky) consultants who arrive with handouts, PowerPoints, and big smiles. The goal: review and update (if you have them) your mission, vision, values, and BHAGs. (Spare me!)

Warning! Mayberry has been in your boardrooms and in your hallways—and on your Zoom calls. He recalls one meeting with 20 leaders and—big surprise—“everyone had their own definition of what the culture was.”

“As the leaders shared their suggestions with me, I took notes and wrote down everything they said. After about ten minutes, I asked, ‘Do you realize what just happened? Even though all of you shared what you thought made this organization special and the culture here, I have 35 different things written down on this piece of paper.’”

YES: 35 IDEAS ON CULTURE! If you’re laughing about that organization, are you gutsy enough to bombard your team members with a POP QUIZ? “In one sentence, describe the culture of our company/organization/church.” (Get ready for the wide-ranging responses—from the ho hum to the absurdly theoretical.)

Need help? Culture Is the Way delivers the who, what, where, why, and how. Mayberry’s book is amazingly comprehensive, but not pedantic. It’s readable—with dozens of in-the-trenches examples, thoughtful quotations, plus roadblocks and playbooks.

The author quotes Frei and Morriss: “Culture tells us what to do when the CEO isn’t in the room, which is of course most of the time.”

And this from Hall of Famer Bill Walsh, head coach of the San Francisco 49ers (1979-1988), who led his team to three Super Bowl wins:

“The culture precedes positive results. It doesn’t get tacked on as an afterthought on your way to the victory stand. Champions behave like champions before they’re champions. They have a winning standard of performance before they are winners.”

I’ve always appreciated Patrick Lencioni’s insight in The Advantage. Lencioni says that “bad meetings are the birthplace of unhealthy organizations and good meetings are the origin of cohesion, clarity and communication.” He adds, “If someone were to offer me one single piece of evidence to evaluate the health of an organization, I would not ask to see its financial statements, review its product line, or even talk to its employees or customers: I would want to observe the leadership team during a meeting.”

Likewise, Mayberry defines culture eloquently (read the book!) and warns that you “either have a culture by default or a culture by design.” What do you have? His list of nine things that culture is NOT, include:
   • “Culture is not the flexibility to work three days per week.”
   • “Culture is not reciting the company’s mission statement at team meetings.”
   • “Culture is not supposed to make everyone happy.”

He lists five key elements of a positive culture, including the imperative of “clear expectations.” He cites research showing that “only 41% of employees agree that their job descriptions accurately reflect the daily work they perform.” (Spoiler alert: talent is a big deal.)

What’s the big deal about creating a flourishing culture? In his conversations with senior leaders, “The common thread is that almost every leader voiced remorse for putting culture on the backburner for something they thought was more essential.”

Must-read sections:
   • The Shiny Object Syndrome (including new HR tracking systems and offsite leadership retreats!)
   • The Five Roadblocks to Cultural Excellence (including lukewarm leadership buy-in and “all slogans and no action”)
   • Should you deputize a “Chief Culture Officer?”
   • Why Tom Peters recently said, “The hard skills are the soft skills. The soft skills are the hard skills. The time has come.”
   • Why you need a “Cultural Purpose Statement” (and…oops…what he did in a meeting with 60 senior leaders when no hand was raised in response to his culture question. Yikes!) See his list of 10 questions on creating the statement.

“Employees Outsmart Surveillance!” Still not convinced that companies have a culture crisis? Read this Jan. 11, 2023, article in The Wall Street Journal: “Mouse Jigglers, Fake PowerPoints: Workers Foil Bosses’ Surveillance Attempts. Companies that track employees’ productivity run up against their inventive workarounds.” Yikes!

HELPFUL! Some books inspire, but leave out the critical steps. Mayberry inspires and delivers insights and implementation plans, plus helpful profiles on legendary football coaches and leadership gurus. He also warns about “Six Helpful Pain Points.” Must-read: #2, “Misrepresentation of old mindsets and behaviors.”

His four action steps in the “Culture Implementation Playbooks” (yes…even football and baseball teams have detailed playbooks—with culture guidelines) are detailed, but not overwhelming. Read why Mayberry strongly recommends you create and affirm a one-page “Behavioral Manifesto.”

AGREE/DISAGREE? I enjoyed an interesting text conversation with a good friend—a zealot for strong team cultures—and he told me he pushes back on Richard Branson’s belief (noted in the book) that “Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.” (Agree or Disagree?)

Mayberry pushes back on the statement often attributed to Peter Drucker, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Read his concern that this oft-quoted one-liner might unnecessarily denigrate strategy. (I love contrarian push-backs, even if it’s to question the father of modern management!)

I’ll close with Mayberry’s salute to Simon Sinek in Start with Why: “There are two ways to influence human behavior. You can manipulate it, or you can inspire it.”

Culture Is the Way will inspire you to inspire your team. Mayberry also quotes Peter Drucker’s good friend, Frances Hesselbein, the former CEO of the Girl Scouts, who died Dec. 10, 2022, at age 107 (not a typo). “Culture changes when the organization is transformed; the culture reflects the realities of people working together every day.”

PAILS IN COMPARISON: Reading this book reminded me of several other must-read books in the Culture Bucket, plus other buckets/core competencies. 

[ ]  The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business, by Patrick Lencioni (read my review)

[ ] In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies, by Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman, Jr. (read my review)

[ ] The Softer Side of Leadership: Essential Soft Skills That Transform Leaders and the People They Lead, Eugene B. Habecker (read my review)

[ ] Road to Flourishing: Eight Keys to Boost Employee Engagement and Well-Being, by Al Lopus with Cory Hartman (read my review)

[ ] The Cubs Way: The Zen of Building the Best Team in Baseball and Breaking the Curse, by Tom Verducci (read my review)

[ ] Talent: The Market Cap Multiplier, by Ram Charan and Anish Batlaw (read my review)

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Culture Is the Way: How Leaders at Every Level Build an Organization for Speed, Impact, and Excellence, by Matt Mayberry. Listen on Libro (available Feb. 28, 2023). For more book reviews, visit John Pearson’s Buckets Blog and subscribe to Your Weekly Staff Meeting. And thanks to the publisher for sending me a review copy.

© 2023 John Pearson Associates. All rights reserved.
Pails in Comparison is posted every once in a while. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. By subscribing to Your Weekly Staff Meeting, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Typepad.com’s privacy policy here.

When Women Lead

PIC No. 23: 
• Title: When Women Lead: What They Achieve, Why They Succeed, and How We Can Learn from Them
• Author: Julia Boorstin
• Publisher: Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster (Oct. 11, 2022, 432 pages)
• Management Bucket #8 of 20: The Culture Bucket



Welcome to Issue No. 23 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.

There's No Single Best Way to Lead

Julia Boorstin says "We should throw all our preconceived notions about leadership out the window. There's no single best way to lead, and the stereotypical characteristics we've historically celebrated in leadership—being authoritative, fearless, and confident—are not necessarily what works—especially in uncertain times like these."

Oh, my! Read the 20-page introduction—and you’re hooked. Whether you’re female or male, you’ll immediately engage with Julia Boorstin’s crisp analysis of today’s workplace. (It’s not pretty, but there’s hope.) Leveraging her ample street cred as a business reporter (CNBC’s Senior Media & Tech correspondent, Fortune, and more), Boorstin’s book is serious and meaty.

When Women Lead: What They Achieve, Why They Succeed, and How We Can Learn from Them doesn’t hold back:
• Boorstin appreciates the way “female leaders have been able to turn genuine grievance into entrepreneurial grit.”
• Rent the Runway (#5 on the CNBC’s Disruptor 50 list in 2019) is led by founder and CEO Jennifer Hyman, yet “female founders consistently draw less than 3 percent of all venture capital dollars.” Boorstin adds, “The condescension and gender bias she’d faced from venture capital investors had made her persistent and creative and taught her to do more with less.”
• On the lack of female representation in leadership across business: “women comprised 8.8% of CEOs of the Fortune 500 as of May 2022, and represented just 24 percent of all roles in the C-suite, companies’ most senior group of managers, as of 2021.”

Blending bad news with a futuristic confidence, the author’s tone is what you would expect from an insightful reporter. She focuses on women in the startup world and how women increasingly are addressing barriers for their companies “that could have a massive effect on the world.” (It’s not always about the money.)

I appreciated this: “But I didn’t want this book to be a polemic against inequitable systems. Instead, I wanted to understand how some women had been able to become exceptions. I wanted to know how they had done it—and what we can all learn from them.”

Boorstin details the range of qualities in women that might surprise you. She writes, “I’ve found that women’s strengths have often been overlooked or simply not associated with great leadership.” And this: “They have a tendency to be more considerate of data in their risk assessment.” Empathy and vulnerability are also key and “a willingness to ignore expectations and to do things their own way.”

The author’s research (no surprise) is stunning. “As I made my way through dozens of academic studies, I found myself stuck on a particular pile of reports that detailed all the different ways women in business were judged more harshly.” Her conclusions and aha moments are memorable, including the PR executive who hassled her after interviewing Ann Sarnoff, CEO of WarnerMedia Studios and Networks Group.

The PR flack’s feedback: “I thought you were kind of mean in that interview with Ann…I mean, your tone just felt really harsh.” (Her response and his reaction—must-read!)

The author interviewed 120 women for this book—and the insights are fascinating. Women can learn a lot from other women. Men can learn a lot from women. Peter Drucker (see his five questions) would be blessed to learn that the CEO of Beautycounter went on a listening tour “talking to more than a thousand of her consultants and customers.” (One thousand!) During COVID, the company grew from 50,000 to 65,000 consultants!

After reading the meaty introduction, I skipped to Chapter 8, “Defying CEO Archetypes,” and couldn’t stop reading. It includes a fabulous account of a nine-year-old immigrant from Columbia who excelled at math, but not English. Yet…we can learn from her story:
• How she leveraged her shyness (she’s an introvert) to be a competent communicator.
• How she approached problems. “There’s fifty reasons why it’s a dumb idea, and you just battle them one at a time.”
• What finally convinced her to accept a CEO role—and her contrarian approach to sharing intellectual property. Stunning!

Boorstin’s commentary on five “Learning Lessons” in the Epilogue are must-read. And you’ll find more than 50 pages of notes in the back—pointing you to fascinating research such as this Harvard Business Review article, “Research: Women Score Higher Than Men in Most Leadership Skills.” Yet…as the author follows Gwyneth Paltrow’s journey to CEO of Goop, Boorstin shares this vulnerable response from Paltrow after a “condescending head pat” from a world-famous, successful entrepreneur.

Paltrow: “The girl in me was like, ‘Yay! I’m being validated!’” She added, “And the woman in me, or the burgeoning CEO, she was like, ‘This is incredibly disrespectful. This is a really patronizing comment.’”

Deep research. Deep insights. Rich vocabulary. And don’t skip the social media response to David Bowie’s persona versus Gwyneth Paltrow’s leadership style. (Hint: not fair!)

Six months from now, I may need to write a second review to go deeper on this important book.

PAILS IN COMPARISON: Reading this book reminded me of several other must-read books in the Culture Bucket, plus other buckets/core competencies. 

[ ] One Bold Move a Day: Meaningful Actions Women Can Take to Fulfill Their Leadership and Career Potential, by Shanna A. Hocking (Read my review.)

[ ] Begin Boldly: How Women Can Reimagine Risk, Embrace Uncertainty & Launch a Brilliant Career, by Christie Hunter Arscott (Read my review.)

[ ] Jump: Dare to Do What Scares You in Business and Life, by Kim Perell (Read my review.)

To order from Amazon, click on the title for When Women Lead: What They Achieve, Why They Succeed, and How We Can Learn from Them, by Julia Boorstin. Listen on Libro.fm (12 hours, 46 minutes). For more book reviews, visit John Pearson’s Buckets Blog and subscribe to Your Weekly Staff Meeting. (And thanks to Fortier PR and the publisher for sending me a review copy.)

© 2022 John Pearson Associates. All rights reserved.
Pails in Comparison is posted every once in a while. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. By subscribing to Your Weekly Staff Meeting, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Typepad.com’s privacy policy here.

God Loves Your Work

PIC No. 12: 
• Title: God Loves Your Work: Discover Why He Sends You to Do What You Do
• Author: Larry Peabody
• Publisher: Wipf & Stock (March 18, 2022, 194 pages)
• Management Bucket #8 of 20: The Culture Bucket



 Welcome to Issue No. 12 of PAILS IN COMPARISON, the value-added sidekick of John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. This blog features my “PICs”—short reviews of helpful books—with comparisons to other books in my 20 management buckets (core competencies) filing system.

Pastoral Malpractice Confession

ATTN: PASTORS! Turn to page 103 and read Pastor Tom Nelson’s confession. He shares this transparent testimony in a video: “About ten years into my ministry, I stood before my congregation and confessed to them . . . I’d come to the conviction that as a pastor I needed to confess my pastoral malpractice . . . For the first ten years of my ministry . . . I had failed to help people connect Sunday to Monday . . . I had failed in my pastoral vocation to equip people for all of life.”

That’s the shocker in the important new book, God Loves Your Work, by Larry Peabody. In his early twenties, the author noted “the occupational pecking order” in many churches. (Example: On Mother’s Day, his church honored the mothers of missionaries and pastors. But other faithful mothers of teachers, plumbers, architects, and truck drivers—no recognition or orchids for them!)

Peabody is on a mission to “close the divide” between the church’s “two-tiered thinking” about the absurd unbiblical belief that the Christian’s life is lived in two arenas: sacred and secular (his short history of how this happened is insightful). Bad theology teaches: Sunday is sacred; Monday is secular.

The author serves as the adjunct theology-of-work professor for Bakke Graduate University. Over the last eight years, he has conducted his online course for graduate students from Vietnam, Singapore, Guatemala, Brazil, Canada, Jamaica, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, the U.S. and other nations. Wow.

Peabody quotes Pastor Nelson further: “…I had spent the majority of my time equipping my congregation for what they were called to do in the minority of their lives. This majority-minority disparity is rampant across the pulpits of America. It is fundamental that we need to address this Sunday-to-Monday gap.”

ATTN: CHRIST FOLLOWERS! Read this book and you’ll fortify your workplace calling. Study this book with family and friends. Using memorable stories, case studies, and a fresh consideration of the theological/biblical context for why your Monday-to-Friday work matters to God, Peabody’s enthusiasm for this movement is contagious. (Example: Chapter 11, “Embodying Truth” gives a three-point outline for “Embody.”
   • Empathize
   • Emplace
   • Empower.
(That’ll preach—even on Monday!)

If your view of work aligns with Johnny Paycheck’s rant, “Take This Job and Shove It,” I urge you to read this book. The bibliography, as you’d expect from a prof (who also served in government, churches, and the marketplace) is spectacular. Ditto the quotes from notable thinkers:
   • Martin Luther: “The Christian shoemaker does his Christian duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but my making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship.”
   • Tim Keller on the responsibility of a Christian pilot: “Land the plane.” Why? “So it can take off again.”
   • Eugene Peterson: “I’m prepared to contend that the primary location for spiritual formation is the workplace.”

Imagine! What if the next generation of Christ followers entered the workplace with an authentic theological/biblical understanding of why “God Loves Your Work!”

PAILS IN COMPARISON: Reading this book reminded me of several other must-read books in the Culture Bucket (and other buckets/core competencies):

• Monday Morning Atheist: Why We Switch God Off At Work And How You Fix It, by Doug Spada and Dave Scott (read my review)
• God in the Marketplace: 45 Questions Fortune 500 Executives Ask About Faith, Life, and Business, by Henry Blackaby and Richard Blackaby (order from Amazon)
• Balancing Life's Demands: A New Perspective on Priorities, by J. Grant Howard (read my review) 

To order from Amazon, click on the title for God Loves Your Work: Discover Why He Sends You to Do What You Do, by Larry Peabody. For more book reviews, visit John Pearson’s Buckets Blog and subscribe to Your Weekly Staff Meeting. (And thanks to the publisher for sending me a review copy.)

© 2022 John Pearson Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.
Pails in Comparison is posted every once in a while. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. By subscribing to Your Weekly Staff Meeting, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Typepad.com’s privacy policy here.