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Leadership is Language: The Hidden Power of What You Say – and What You Don't by L. David Marquet
ababoglo's review against another edition
3.0
This book is a follow-up of sorts to [b:Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders|16158601|Turn the Ship Around! A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders|L. David Marquet|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1363560329l/16158601._SY75_.jpg|21999017]. I personally found 'Turn the Ship Around!" more engaging and impressive, if you haven't read it - start there instead.
Leadership is Language offers a very practical, pragmatic 'playbook' of how to lead teams in the current day and age. It also asserts that the language we use is the soul of what 'leading' is.
Take-Aways:
- The Industrial Age “playbook” that divides workforces is obsolete.
- Balance thinking and doing. Thinking increases variability, while taking action reduces it.
- Don’t obey the clock. Instead of yielding to time pressure, take pauses to reflect, ask if you’re doing things correctly and make adjustments.
- Collaboration breaks down barriers and allows for dissent.
- Instead of demanding compliance, ask for commitment.
- Never-ending processes make people complacent and disengaged. Instead, set goals within the process so you can identify and acknowledge achievement.
- Someone with an “improve” mind-set needs self-determination to stay motivated.
- When people feel connected, they will take more risks, knowing they are in an atmosphere of trust.
- Combining strict goals with steep hierarchies shuts down dissent and opens the risk of unethical behavior.
Leadership is Language offers a very practical, pragmatic 'playbook' of how to lead teams in the current day and age. It also asserts that the language we use is the soul of what 'leading' is.
Take-Aways:
- The Industrial Age “playbook” that divides workforces is obsolete.
- Balance thinking and doing. Thinking increases variability, while taking action reduces it.
- Don’t obey the clock. Instead of yielding to time pressure, take pauses to reflect, ask if you’re doing things correctly and make adjustments.
- Collaboration breaks down barriers and allows for dissent.
- Instead of demanding compliance, ask for commitment.
- Never-ending processes make people complacent and disengaged. Instead, set goals within the process so you can identify and acknowledge achievement.
- Someone with an “improve” mind-set needs self-determination to stay motivated.
- When people feel connected, they will take more risks, knowing they are in an atmosphere of trust.
- Combining strict goals with steep hierarchies shuts down dissent and opens the risk of unethical behavior.
howardgo's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
4.25
I read Leadership Is Language by L. David Marquet after reading Turn the Ship Around! by the same author. This book is an elaboration of the method he shares in that previous book.
In this newest book, he shows the need for combining both focused work and strategic planning across organizations. In our industrial past, these tasks were separated by role. Blue collar workers got the work done that the white collar workers planned. In our information age world this no longer makes sense.
The author calls focused work redwork and planning work bluework. Then he advocates a cycle of bluework-redwork-bluework where everyone on the team engages in both kinds of work. This matches well how agile software development works, so it really resonated with me.
Throughout the book he gives both good and bad examples of putting this into practice. In addition, it lays out a framework for moving from the old language of the industrial age to this method that works better in a world where we all need to be involved with both planning and executing. I look forward to using this process to help my team both plan and work better.
pratik1092's review against another edition
4.0
Great book with some interesting ideas on how leadership practices for the digital age can be improved. A lot of our hierarchical divisions of work come from the industrial revolution, where the focus was on maximizing productivity, and work was secluded to doing one job at a time to reduce the amount of variability for production. It was also a time where people who made decisions had clearly different roles from the people who did the work (famously espoused by Frederick Taylor). Times have changed and people in today's world are expected to do the work along with taking time to think and evaluate it and this is often done now by people that are in management along with their direct reports. Some parts of the book do repeat themselves and the "playbook" terminology used by the author is a tad contrived but the message of the book is certainly worth listening to.
seullywillikers's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
I thought it was interesting. I initially thought it would be similar to "Leading with Gratitude" and it is in a way, but I think the 'playbook' and division of work into red- and blue-work is interesting and helpful. I appreciated the several unique cases he presents throughout, as well as always linking back to one specific incident, the sinking of the El Faro. I like that he discounts Taylorism, but points taken off for disliking Taylorism for the wrong reasons (Taylorism is out-dated in today's modern workplace, which is true--but Taylorism is also inhumane and doesn't account for the well-being of the lower-class laborer's at all, and is ethically and morally repugnant.)
thesundaywriter's review against another edition
4.0
This book is good for those who would like the EQ to guide teams in a way that brings both sides to a mutual responsibility and understanding in order to get things done and move forward without compromising on the position of leader.
thesgtrekkiereads's review against another edition
4.0
Review will be out in Today's Manager Issue 3 2019
carina_silfverduk's review against another edition
5.0
Hands down my favorite book by Marquet. Loved Turn the Ship Around - and this one felt more immediately applicable. Language shapes how people show up at work.