Book Club

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BOOK CLUB

WHICH BOOKS SHOULD BE KEEPING LEADERS AND MANAGERS AWAKE AT NIGHT? EDGE REVIEWS SOME OF THE MOST INTRIGUING TITLES AROUND

Nine Lies About Work

Authors Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall Price £22 Harvard Business Review Press

Accepted wisdom is not all it seems to be

The authors of this book challenge nine widely held beliefs about work. To do this, they draw on their long experience and extensive research in trying to understand the link between people, performance and organisations.

The nine beliefs are as follows: people care which company they work for; the best plan wins; the best companies cascade goals; the best people are well-rounded; people need feedback; people can reliably rate other people; people have potential; worklife balance matters the most; and leadership is a thing. The authors use real-world examples and research to deconstruct these beliefs and demonstrate how they are not universal truths. There is a different way for leaders and organisations to think and behave.

The book is well written, with each chapter examining a different ‘lie’. It challenges our accepted wisdom and offers an alternative view of how people perform within organisations. The examples used to illustrate the discussion are interesting, relevant and engaging.

On considering the alternatives to the nine ‘lies’, the reader is left with a distinct feeling of “That makes perfect sense.” So, the big question is, why are leaders and organisations not doing these things already?

On closer consideration, I believe many of them are – perhaps not as comprehensively or uniformly as the book advocates, but nonetheless the alternative approach is out there. For many readers, this book will probably not lead to a spectacular ‘Road to Damascus’ conversion to a new approach in leadership, organisational structure and process. Yet it does challenge our thinking, as well as our understanding, and provides a different perspective on notions that we sometimes take for granted.

I will not reveal the nine truths that the authors conclude with. To find these out, I’m afraid you will have to read the book yourself. The book aims to challenge our conceptions and practices: we accept that many of the ‘lies’ we are told seem to work, but when they are considered from another perspective, then perhaps they don’t. Reviewer Dr David Caddick is a module leader on the Strategic Leadership Masters programme at the University of the Highlands and Islands

How To

Communicate More Effectively

Author Dr Kate Beaven-Marks Price £27.99 CreateSpace

Understand how to use the marvellous tool of language

This book took me longer to review than any other because, having read the first chapter, I felt compelled to

The Influence Book

Author Nicole Soames Price £9.99 LID Publishing

Ask clever questions and listen with empathy

Following in the footsteps of the legendary Dale Carnegie is always going to be a challenge. His authoritative – if slightly anachronistic – tome, How to Win Friends and Influence People, is rightly one of the bestselling

Edge is looking for readers to review leadership and management titles for Book Club. If you are interested, email sally.percy@lidbusinessmedia.com

do the activities for my own development. The SLOT analysis was harder than expected. What are my strengths, limitations, opportunities and talents? As I read the book, I went back to this exercise because the reading helped me to identify my limitations and talents, and gave me something to work with.

The structure and delivery of the content was well thought out, with the author ‘practising what she preaches’. She gently introduces the content with appropriate quotes before taking you with her in straightforward language, illustrative examples and engaging stories. To get the best from the book, I would recommend taking some time to reflect when she suggests that you do, not just because that is the only way to really gain value from the exercises, but also because there is so much information that you can become overwhelmed.

business books of all time. Nevertheless, Nicole Soames does a good job of putting across her own tools and techniques for influencing others in The Influence Book.

In her compact volume, she explains what influencing is, the role of emotional intelligence, and what practical steps the reader can take to become a strong influencer. She also emphasises the need for would-be influencers to develop social skills, self-awareness and self-control.

Soames explores different communication styles and why understanding the communication styles of other people is key to being about to influence them. She also highlights how asking ‘clever questions’ allows someone to demonstrate that they are genuinely interested in the agenda of the person that they are talking to. Furthermore, she lists a number of ‘rookie mistakes’ on the question front, such as making vague enquiries (“How’s business?”) and high-level demands (“What are your top priorities?”). Even worse is asking no questions at all.

I have used content from the book in my work coaching managers and I have also recommended it to students as a book to buy to develop their skills and knowledge. The section on body language is more comprehensive than anything I have seen (unless I wanted to buy a book on body language).

I believe anyone could find something in this book that would interest them if they are curious about communication. Reviewer Penny Whitelock FinstLM is director of Crystal Clear Business Solutions

The Influence Book contains a lot of useful information on how to get on with other people. Does it beat Carnegie? Not quite, but the author herself probably never intended it to. She is simply sharing her own advice on influencing – in her own way – and very accessible it is, too. Reviewer Sally Percy is editor of ‘Edge’

Conscious

Authors Bob Rosen and Emma-Kate Swann Price £19.99 Wiley

Go deep and think big

This book is a fourstage plan for becoming more ‘conscious’ in our understanding and our behaviour.

The first stage is to ‘Go deep’. Discover your inner self and uncover your blind spots. The second part is to ‘Think big’ into a world of possibilities. This includes learning to see both sides of an argument, practising being both an observer and participant, leveraging your network and activating a growth mindset. The third stage is to ‘Get real’. Become clear about the aspects of yourself that will slow you down or speed you up. Increase your productivity. And finally, ‘Step up to your highest potential’.

But while the book provides a long list of action points, it goes into very little depth about what being ‘conscious’ actually means, or how to achieve it. If you don’t already know what your higher purpose is, you won’t uncover it by reading this book. If you don’t already know how to ‘identify potential biases’, this book will not explain how. Reviewer Finn Jackson is a strategist, coach, consultant and author

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Speak Up

Authors Megan Reitz and John Higgins Price £14.99 FT Publishing

Trust underpins both speaking and listening

I was attracted to this book because I thought it would help me to address my own personal fears and anxieties about speaking up in both personal and professional life. The book addressed these points early on and, for me, got straight to the crux of the issue with this observation: changing habits is often tough, and if you do not have a compelling case, it is likely you will take the path of least resistance and stay with what you know.

I see three tensions in the book. The first relates to where the focus lies – personal or profes

TRUST IS AT THE HEART OF SPEAKING AND LISTENING

Leading and Managing Change in the Age of Disruption and Artificial Intelligence

Author Mathew Donald Price £65 Emerald Publishing

Explore the forces of disruption and the rise of AI

sional life. Largely, I think it has a business focus. Secondly, who the book is, and should be, aimed at. A lot of the business cases and content put forward are aimed at business leaders, who need to listen more and speak up less. There are lots of important points here for this target, but for my own particular need, and based on the book’s title of Speak Up, I couldn’t help but feel a little cheated. Should the book’s title be Speak Up or Listen Up? Or should there be two different books, aimed at different audiences?

The final tension relates to whether changing habits is intellectual or emotional. The book addresses more of the intellectual argument, but doesn’t fully address the emotional aspects, which seem so vital to the change required.

The book is structured around a useful and relevant TRUTH framework: Trust, Risks, Understand, Titles and How. This leads to the key takeaway from the book for me: trust is at the heart of speaking and listening, and there is a need to focus on trusting both your own and others’ opinions. Reviewer Dr Jonathan Smith is passionate about helping people and organisations to realise their full potential

Disruption and artificial intelligence are two topics increasingly talked about today, not just in the business world but also in the media. This book taps into those topics, looking at the causes of disruption and what artificial intelligence (AI) is. A wide range of disruptive factors are covered, from geopolitics and cryptocurrencies to climate change and technological change. The implications of artificial intelligence are also considered, including the impact of robots.

What you will notice about this book is that the author is an academic. As a result, the narrative reads very much like a university textbook. A lot of ground is covered, with references to lots of other reference material. At times there are just too many references and it spoils the flow, because it doesn’t allow the author’s view to come through strongly.

The case studies in the book are for the reader to go away and look into, rather than presenting the author’s perspective and highlighting key learnings to the reader. Instead of providing practical expertise and guidance, the book focuses more on concepts and not the insights into what they will mean for businesses in the future.

This book is sure to be one of many that will explore the impact of disruption and AI on business. For a primer on these topics, it will prove to be a useful and informative resource. Reviewer David Price MInstLM is a manager and author of several books on entrepreneurship, leadership and management. Follow him on Twitter @DavidLeoPrice

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Over the past eight years at Malaika 0OH]LILULÄ[LKMYVTX\HSP[`LK\JH[PVU HUKP[OHZ[V[HSS`JOHUNLKT`SPML Louise Mujinga, Malaika Student