Changing on the Job: Developing Leaders for a Complex World by Jennifer Garvey Berger (Stanford University Press, 2012)

What are the big take-aways?

Berger argues persuasively – and with practical examples for implementing her philosophy – that organizations are more effective when they take an adult development perspective toward cultivating leadership.  Using Robert Kegan’s “forms of mind” theory of adult development, Berger discusses the benefits to organizations of intentionally operationalizing an understanding of how adults learn and grow.  At the end of Changing on the Job, she concludes (p. 174):

Creating contexts and spaces for people to reach their full potential may sound like specialized work for those of us who happened to be born with an orientation in this direction.  Really it’s the work we’re all called to…Supporting someone to be at their biggest – whether as a leader, as a coach, as a teacher, or as a colleague – brings us into the space where we are at our biggest, too.  Our people and our planet require that bigness right now; it is no longer an option for us to be small.

Why did I like it?

As a leader and a coach with an adult education background, myself, I have a bias for developmental perspectives like Berger’s.  I believe that, to be an agile and effective leader, one must be both a curious learner and also committed to supporting the growth of others.  I agree with Berger that the most positive and sustainable way to deal with the complexities of our global community’s social, economic and political challenges is to expand our own abilities to manage complexity.  I liked this resource because Berger offers an accessible adult development framework, with clear action steps, which leaders and organizations can use to accomplish this kind of growth.

In what situations would this be useful?

If you are a leader who is highly motivated to understand your own growth process, and/or to coach others by understanding theirs, reading Changing on the Job is likely to satisfy and inspire you.  It is dense reading but worth it, helped by the author’s sense of humor and use of down-to-earth examples.

Berger first walks the reader through Kegan’s stages of adult development or “forms of mind” (i.e. self-sovereign, socialized, self-authored, and self-transforming), and how to recognize them.  She then offers strategies for identifying growth edges and coaching to them, and for designing transformative professional development and learning opportunities.  Berger wraps up with pragmatic discussions of the implications of transformation on leadership, and on the individual pursuit of wisdom and fulfillment.

What other resources might “pair” well with it?

Because Berger studied with Robert Kegan, Immunity to Change: How to Overcome it and Unlock the Potential in You and Your Organization by Kegan and Lahey (reviewed earlier in the Leadership Library) is a natural choice.  For another cut at the adult developmental perspective on leadership, in similar terms but with a different framework, I recommend Leadership Aglity: Five Levels of Mastery for Anticipating and Initiating Change by Joiner and Josephs (also previously reviewed in the Leadership Library).

Is This Seat Taken? by Kristin S. Kaufman (Brown Books Publishing Group, 2011)

What are the big take-aways?

Kristin Kaufman (who – I must disclose from the outset – is a friend and classmate of mine from our participation together in the Georgetown Leadership Coaching Program) is extraordinarily sensitive to the lived experience of others.  In Is This Seat Taken? she describes her journey of self-discovery as a former jet-setting high-powered corporate executive who has nonetheless always taken the time to learn everything she can from her chance encounters with other human beings.

Kristin’s simple yet profound message is that “Ideally our individual lives become perfectly integrated between what we love to do, what we are good at doing, and what gives us our greatest fulfillment” (p. xi).  A few years ago Kristin decided to “jump off the hamster wheel” of corporate life in order to explore how to live in greater alignment with her purpose as an organizational coach and consultant.  This lovely book – a tribute to her learning about alignment from other people – is one of the by-products of that positive, life-affirming choice.

Why did I like it?

Kristin is a gifted story-teller, and this book is a series of twenty-five stories describing “random encounters that change your life,” as the subtitle says.  Is This Seat Taken? is full of rich examples of the effect it can have on our self-awareness, our presence, and the evolution of our own “inner voice” when we take the time to listen deeply to the voices of others – especially people whose lives are very different from ours.  Kristin demonstrates that there are important lessons to be learned in even the most unexpected interactions.  Despite an incredibly busy work and travel schedule as a successful corporate executive (Hewlett-Packard, Vignette Corporation, United Health Group), Kristin developed greater self-awareness by practicing the essential leadership skill of being present in the moment.

In what situations would this be useful?

I would recommend this inspiring book to any busy corporate executive who is sensing that something is “off” in her work life, or if she is asking herself questions like, “Is this all there is for me?” or “What’s missing?”  One of the strategies I recommend to my own leadership coaching clients for sorting through the answers to such questions is to slow down and attend more mindfully to life as it unfolds.  Recognizing that not everyone knows how to live in the present, Kristin has penned a series of short narratives which give the reader a clear, extended example of what it looks like and feels like to reside in the moment.  Each story concludes with “questions to consider” that ask the reader to reflect on similar experiences and apply Kristin’s lessons about alignment to his or her own chance encounters.

What other resources might “pair” well with it?

Kevin Cashman’s workbook, Leadership from the Inside Out: Becoming a Leader for Life (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2008), places a lot of emphasis on the concept of mastery in several personal and professional areas that promote the state-of-being that Kristin refers to as “alignment,” such as authenticity, awareness, and purpose.  Leadership from the Inside Out would be a good choice for a corporate executive wishing to take Kristin’s advice to the next level.  Other workbooks that would be similarly useful include Bill George et al.’s Finding Your True North (previously reviewed in the Leadership Library) and Becoming a Resonant Leader by Boyatzis, McKee and Johnston (Harvard Business Press, 2008).

Bossypants by Tina Fey (Little, Brown and Company, 2011)

What are the big take-aways?

Tina Fey, who got her start in comedy as a member of The Second City improv troupe out of Chicago, was a key writer at “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) for many years before producing and starring in her own NBC sitcom, “30 Rock.”  Bossypants, a very funny autobiography, is about how the different elements of Fey’s upbringing, teen years, theater training, and writing experience all eventually led to her becoming a television executive.  It is a self-effacing feminist’s memoir; the book is peppered with wry examples of how Fey suspects she is treated differently than high-powered male executives.  She explains on page 5:

…people have asked me, “Is it hard for you, being the boss?” and “Is it uncomfortable for you to be the person in charge?”  You know, in the same way they say, “Gosh, Mr. Trump, is it awkward for you to be the boss of all these people?”  I can’t answer for Mr. Trump, but in my case it is not.  I’ve learned a lot over the past ten years about what it means to be the boss of people.  In most cases being a good boss means hiring talented people and then getting out of their way…Contrary to what I believed as a little girl, being the boss almost never involves marching around, waving your arms, and chanting, “I am the boss! I am the boss!”

Why did I like it?

Fey tells the story of her childhood, “coming-of-age,” career and family life with a lot of silly humor – which I admire, because good comic timing in writing requires immense talent – and it also offers serious nuggets of genuine insight into our culture’s perceptions of working mothers.  Whether those perceptions are positive or negative, Fey’s experience of them seems amplified both by her high-powered job and by her celebrity.  In Bossypants, Fey paints a portrait of a leader whose status as a mother affects how people treat her, react to her professional choices, and respond publicly to her work.

I also liked it because three shaded grey boxes in the book provide a bit of authentic leadership wisdom:

• “The Rules of Improvisation that Will Change Your Life and Reduce Belly Fat” (p. 84-85)
• “My Bossypants Managerial Techniques” (p. 175)
• “My Mouth Goes Into Politics.  The Rest of Me is Forced to Follow.” (p. 205-06)

The philosophy espoused in the shaded boxes is underscored by a pithy subchapter entitled “Things I Learned from Lorne Michaels,” whom Fey describes as having “a managerial style that was the opposite of Bossypants” (p. 121).

I would note that Fey’s humor is graphic, edgy and – shall we say “uninhibited” – about men’s and women’s bodily functions; while I personally happen to appreciate comedians who can make fun of such things in an intelligent way, I realize that many people don’t.  What is interesting, though, is that one of the revelations Fey had about why SNL’s sketch comedy was so male-oriented when she first started there was that it was the by-product of what she describes as a kind of innocence.  When a fake commercial for a nostalgic “Kotex Classic” product that Fey persisted in pitching kept getting rejected by her male producers for vague reasons, she finally had a pivotal conversation with them about the concept.  “They didn’t know what a maxi pad belt was.  It was the moment I realized that there was no ‘institutionalized sexism’ at that place.  Sometimes they just literally didn’t know what we were talking about” (p. 141).

In what situations would this be useful?

While I am not a parent (by choice), and have not experienced the weird range of societal responses to being a mother-who-is-a-professional that Fey describes, I would recommend the final forty pages of the book to any executive who is a mother of young children.  The last several chapters, starting with “There’s a Drunk Midget in My House,” are a series of smart ruminations that ends with a fairly poignant essay in which Fey grapples with the question of whether or not to have a second child.  (If this piece sounds familiar, you may have read it already in The New Yorker magazine.)

What other resources might “pair” well with it?

What comes to mind for me as I think about this “pairing” question is Resonant Leadership: Renewing Yourself and Connecting with Others through Mindfulness, Hope and Compassion by Boyatzis and McKee (previously reviewed in the Leadership Library).  Having the capacity to lead an integrated life as an executive and parent – among many other simultaneous roles – requires the skills of mindfulness and resiliency, which Fey appears to demonstrate in her autobiography.  In their book, Boyatzis and McKee argue persuasively for how these skills make for more effective leaders over the long haul, and provide tips for cultivating them.

“Positive Psychology: Harnessing the power of happiness, mindfulness, and personal strength,” A Harvard Medical School Special Health Report by Harvard Health Publications (Harvard University, 2011).

What are the big take-aways?

This easy-to-read but very comprehensive 37-page report explains the developing science of “positive psychology” and describes the latest research on the state of “happiness.” The bulk of the report focuses on seven strategies for attaining and maximizing positive emotional states: identifying your strengths and virtues; gratitude; savoring pleasure; flow (becoming more engaged in flow-state activities); mindfulness; self-compassion; and finding meaning in life through connecting and contributing to the lives of others.

Why did I like it?

“Positive Psychology: Harnessing the power of happiness, mindfulness, and personal strength” is a superb introduction to the history, philosophical underpinnings and latest findings of positive psychology. The chapters on strategies for developing mindfulness and positive emotional states are cogent summaries with manageable nuggets of information. Each chapter also offers a few practice suggestions for readers who wish to deepen their inquiry by trying a few techniques.

Leadership coaching assumes a strengths-based stance – in both philosophy and practice – toward individual growth, and so does the study of positive psychology. Instead of studying the causes of various dysfunctions and how to fix them (as the traditional science of psychology has done since its inception), positive psychology instead studies the causes of positive emotional states and how to maximize them.

Too often, leaders (and entire organizations) pay more attention than necessary to what’s not working than what is working. In my opinion, while it’s absolutely critical to be able to identify needs, challenges and gaps, it’s equally important – if not more so – to know what your strengths and talents are in order to capitalize on them in the process of meeting those challenges and filling those gaps. In my experience, the most effective leaders are those who exhibit presence, resilience and optimism (all of which are benefits from practicing positive psychology techniques) – and who find significant meaning in their work. These traits are inspiring and motivating to followers, and create productive work environments.

In what situations would this be useful?

This report would be extremely useful to any curious leader who isn’t already familiar with positive psychology and wants a quick briefing on what it is and how it works.

What other resources might “pair” well with it?

If this report inspires you, check out the website of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Its Director, Martin Seligman, is the originator of the “authentic happiness” theory that serves, in many ways, as the cornerstone of positive psychology studies. At this website, you can take several free surveys and assessments to help you measure your various positive-psychology strengths (the one I find myself recommending frequently to leaders is the “Values in Action Survey of Character Strengths”).

For a compelling argument for using the tenets and skills of positive psychology in the leadership context, I recommend Resonant Leadership: Renewing Yourself and Connecting with Others through Mindfulness, Hope, and Compassion by Boyatzis and McKee (previously reviewed in the Leadership Library).

If further development of mindfulness and other forms of meditation interests you, then I also recommend Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love & Wisdom by Rick Hanson (also previously reviewed in the Leadership Library).

I provide leadership development services that will help you leverage a change situation into a new opportunity. Through leadership coaching, group training or organizational consulting, enhance your capacity to:

• be creative and see new possibilities;

• manage time proactively for increased efficiency;

• make more powerful, authentic decisions;

• take swifter and more decisive action;

• diversify your communication and conflict management skills;

• embrace change and use it to competitive advantage.

For more information, check out my website at www.susanpalmerconsulting.com and my Linked In page at www.linkedin.com/in/smpalmer.  Also, I invite you to subscribe to this blog so that you can get my monthly Leadership Library reviews delivered directly to your e-mail inbox!  Just click on the “Follow” button above and to the right.