Pails in Comparison

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.

The New Extraordinary Leader: Turning Good Managers into Great Leaders

PIC No. 8: 
• Title: The New Extraordinary Leader: Turning Good Managers into Great Leaders (3rd Edition)
• Authors: John Zenger and Joseph Folkman
• Publisher: McGraw Hill (352 pages, Nov. 15, 2019)
• Management Bucket #8 of 20: The Culture Bucket
 


Welcome to Issue No. 8 of PAILS IN COMPARISON, the “little brother” 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.

“10 Fatal Flaws That Consistently Lead to Failure in Leadership”

The authors of The New Extraordinary Leader: Turning Good Managers into Great Leaders (3rd Edition) note: “The great benefit of periodic physical exams is that they discover a condition we didn’t know about. Caught early, these problems can often easily be corrected.”

Then they add, “We think every leader should have a periodic checkup on their leadership health. Everyone benefits. Roughly a third will be surprised to learn that some behavior is holding them back. Only by discovering what it is can they fix it. The rest will get a few tips to make them even better.”

Whew! Just when you think you’re conversant with the leadership literature—another book appears and you’re back in class for Leadership 101. But…that’s OK.

ASSIGNMENT: Make a list of the “10 Fatal Flaws That Consistently Lead to Failure in Leadership.” Actually, you don’t have to make a list. Authors John Zenger and Joseph Folkman have already done your homework:

#1. Not Inspiring Due to a Lack of Energy and Enthusiasm
#2. Accepting Mediocre Performance in Place of Excellent Results
#3. Lack of Clear Vision and Direction
#4. Loss of Trust Stemming from Perceived Bad Judgment and Poor Decisions
#5. Not Collaborative or a Team Player
#6. Not a Good Role Model (Failure to Walk the Talk)
#7. No Self-Development and Learning From Mistakes
#8. Lacking Interpersonal Skills [Note: There are “Sins of Commission” and “Sins of Omission.”]
#9. Resistant to New Ideas, Thus Did Not Lead Change or Innovate
#10. Focus Is on Self, Not the Development of Others

Here’s the good news: Fatal flaws be fixed, say the authors. Every chapter is must-read, but I’d suggest that Chapter 7, “Fatal Flaws Must Be Fixed,” is a must-must-read chapter. See the five critical steps for fixing fatal flaws, including “Seek the Help and Involvement of Others.”

Generously endorsed by Marshall Goldsmith (his book, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, was my 2013 book-of-the-year) and James M. Kouzes and others, this third edition is packed with extraordinary content and practical next steps.

PAILS IN COMPARISON: Reading this book reminded me of several other must-read books in the Culture Bucket:

• What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: Discover the 20 Workplace Habits You Need to Break, by Marshall Goldsmith with Mark Reiter (read my review). Listen on Libro.fm (9 hours, 38 minutes).

• The Student Leadership Challenge: Five Practices for Becoming an Exemplary Leader, by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner (read my review). Note: The book purchase includes one user’s access to the Student LPI. Listen on Libro.fm (4 hours, 19 minutes).

• Leadership Briefs: Shaping Organizational Culture to Stretch Leadership Capacity, by Dick Daniels (read my review) 

TO ORDER FROM AMAZON, click on the title for The New Extraordinary Leader: Turning Good Managers into Great Leaders (3rd Edition), by John Zenger and Joseph Folkman. Listen on Libro.fm (10 hours, 11 minutes). For more book reviews, visit John Pearson’s Buckets Blog and subscribe to Your Weekly Staff Meeting. (Note: As an Amazon Vine reviewer, I received this book in exchange for an unbiased review.)

© 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.

Connectable: How Leaders Can Move Teams From Isolated to All In

PIC No. 3: PAILS IN COMPARISON
• Title: Connectable: How Leaders Can Move Teams From Isolated to All In
• Authors: Ryan Jenkins and Steven Van Cohen
• Publisher: McGraw Hill (336 pages, March 2, 2022)
• Management Bucket #8 of 20: The Culture Bucket

Welcome to Issue No. 3 of PAILS IN COMPARISON, the “little brother” 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.

ARE YOU INTERRUPTIBLE?

What’s not to like about two co-authors who each spotlight their favorite chapter? (Can you even do that? Isn’t that like picking your favorite child?)

Chapter 11, “Be Interruptible” is Ryan Jenkins’ favorite chapter in their helpful book, Connectable: How Leaders Can Move Teams From Isolated to All In. They note:

“Leaders are the least interruptible workers, and yet they are the ones who need to be interrupted most. The more important and serious you consider yourself, the less open you are to detours and interruptions.” And get this!
   • “Three in four employees see effective communication as the number one leadership attribute.
   • “Yet, less than one in three employees feel like their leaders communicate effectively.”

Are you interruptible? “During a conversation, not maintaining eye contact, not listening (or only thinking about what you’re going to say next), not making the conversation about the other person, or consistently using phrases like ‘I’m too busy’ are all telltale and easily recognized signs of not being interruptible.”

Am I growing more or less irritable? “A more important and much more difficult question that leaders must ask themselves to uncover their interruptibility is: Am I growing more or less irritable? How irritable are you when you are interrupted?"

They add, “Your reaction the moment you feel your attention being drawn away from the task at hand is revealing. What you feel in that split second is your gateway into understanding your interruptibility.” Yikes! (If you’re gutsy enough to read this chapter—it is very, very convicting!)

Chapter 11 begins with the viral video of Professor Robert Kelly (during a 2017 BBC interview via Skype) who was interrupted by his two young children. View it here. As of 2017, the video had 86 million views! Hilarious! Interruptible? Absolutely!!



It’s obvious that COVID did not help the isolation epidemic. This practical book (see Part 3: “How to Lessen Loneliness and Boost Belonging at Work”) is the perfect prescription.

Patrick Lencioni, who wrote the book I named my 2012 book-of-the-year, The Advantage (read my review), says “Every leader and manager needs to read this.”

Shark Tank guru Daymond John labels Connectable “a must-read.” I agree. And by the way, co-author Steven Van Cohen’s favorite chapter? Chapter 4: “The Science of Belonging.” Must-read! Did you know that your brain on pain and your brain on loneliness “register in the same area of the brain?”

PAILS IN COMPARISON: I’d compare this book favorably to other must-read books in The Culture Bucket, including:

   • The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business, by Patrick Lencioni (2012 book-of-the-year: read my review) – Listen on Libro.fm (5 hours, 25 minutes)
• 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). Note: the Second Edition includes insights on COVID. (Order from Amazon here.)

TO ORDER FROM AMAZON, click on the title for Connectable: How Leaders Can Move Teams From Isolated to All In, by Ryan Jenkins and Steven Van Cohen – Listen on Libro.fm (7 hours, 37 minutes). For more book reviews, visit John Pearson’s Buckets Blog and subscribe to Your Weekly Staff Meeting. (And thanks to Fortier PR and McGraw Hill 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.