Leadership Agility: Five Levels of Mastery for Anticipating and Initiating Change by Bill Joiner and Stephen Josephs strikes an interesting balance between being a summary of research, a resource for coaches and trainers, and a source of learning for students of leadership and personal development. Through combining hard research with experiential learning and relevant experiences, it fulfills these roles handily.

The book itself is broken into three parts:

1. What Is Leadership Agility? - A brief overview of what LA is and examples in several forms illustrating it in (near-) real world environments.
2. Five Levels of Leadership Agility – More detail, really the meat of the book, going into great detail about each level of agility and what it means, and examples illustrating this using real world examples.
3. Becoming a More Agile Leader – Guidelines for taking the details learned in part two and integrating them into your day to day life.

Throughout these pieces, we’re treated to a very complete view of what LA is at various levels of Agility and detail, and they’re well tied together through the use of real examples (or nearly so).

One thing the authors did very well was break the book and its topic material into understandable divisions. Other than the five levels of agility examined within the book, there are also the four areas of the leadership compass (Context-Setting Agility, Stakeholder Agility, Creative Agility, and Self-Leadership Agility) , each consisting of two sub-types of leadership agility, and the three arenas in which leadership agility can come into play (pivotal conversations, team leadership, and organizational leadership).

As mentioned above, the authors also take the time to use real world examples, modified to protect anonymity, to more clearly illustrate the concepts behind this theory and how they look in real life. In my opinion, this is one of the key strengths of the book. Many business books come up with great, new-fangled ways of doing things or looking at a concept, but fail to show how it works in a real, everyday situation. This could be as a result of a lack of examples at all, or disingenuous examples that don’t have a real world “feel” to them. The examples in Leadership Agility allow you to see not only each stage in action, but put a personal face on why someone would move from one level to the next, and what that would look like. Even more important, these examples are all different. It’s not a situation where we see the same type of person always making the move to Catalyst, or staying at Expert or whatnot. Given that one of the key tenets of Leadership Agility is that it is a key background competency and can be applicable to anyone and everyone, this variety is a special strength that allows for greater illustration of this fact.

I did very much enjoy getting into the detail provided in Part Two. It was interesting to read through the greater levels of detail at each level and in each arena, and to gain more understanding of not only where I was acting, but also more background to where colleagues where acting from as well. Plus, I tend to subscribe to the theory that recognizing a behaviour in someone else is also a way of recognizing it in yourself. It’s sometimes difficult to gain that distance to objectively evaluate oneself, especially while still developing the higher levels of agility, but in seeing it in action in a third party, personal behaviours will resonate at a different level.

Likewise, it was interesting in seeing where my motivations were currently falling, and where they might be leading. I expected a much larger distance between the upper levels of agility and my own current state and even my goals. I was surprised at how organic the next steps seemed to be, and while they were a little beyond my current scope, they didn’t feel as ephemeral as I’d thought they would.

So, the good, in quick form, is that this is a well developed and supported theory/framework that can be applied in a wide variety of situations, as is clearly evidenced by the significant number of real-world examples from a multitude of industries, environments, levels and personal backgrounds. The authors do a great job describing what they’re thinking, and really make sure that it seems applicable to more than just the usual target of many business personal development books, which frequently seems to be creative individual contributors with a high degree of control over their personal schedules and a noticeable lack of regular interruption.

But what about the bad?

Well, there’s not a whole lot, at least in my reading. The biggest problem I have with this book is the relative shortness of Part Three. Parts One and Two cover 40 and 150 pages respectively in showing us more about what Leadership Agility is, but we only have another 34 pages helping us in the process of moving from one level to another.

Now, I have the benefit of taking part in a structured program helping me evaluate where I currently stand and grow into the level I aspire to reach, but not every reader will have that. If I were writing a follow up to this book, that would be what I’d focus on. I know that everyone’s development and reasons for developing will be different, but with so many great examples throughout Parts One and Two, in my opinion, it would have been great to see some more of these in Part Three.

Regardless, I’d recommend this book to just about anyone interested in personal development. Whether you’re looking for greater understanding in your personal or professional life, or to develop to a higher level or further explore your current level of agility, there is a lot of useful content in Leadership Agility to help you meet your goals.

If you’re looking for more information, you can also check out the authors’ website.

1. Say yes to everything

If you’ve found that you just have too much time to do what you’d like, you obviously aren’t doing enough.  So next time someone asks you if you want to do something, say yes.  Don’t even wait to find out what it is.  Take out the trash? Sure.  Draft that memo for a friend in another department? Why not? Agree to make a presentation on a topic you have no familiarity with to a group of senior executives who can make or break your career when it has no direct correlation to what you do, and do that tomorrow?  Sounds like fun!

2. Treat yourself like crap

If you find that you’re calm and collected all the time, try changing a few variables. Cut out a few hours of sleep every night, or try a week long re-tox (mmm . . . nothing but chicken wings, fries, beer and cotton candy).  Soon enough you’ll find yourself dragging all day long, and half the fun is just trying to think a coherent thought!

3. React

Planning is for suckas.  We’re supposed to live in the moment right?  So throw that planner out the window, and let the problems come to you.  Heck, this also helps out with #4

4. Do the loudest thing first

Okay, so things aren’t (necessarily) loud, but you know where I’m going.  If you’ve got two people standing in front of you asking for help, help he (or she) who asks (demands) loudest.  What, you don’t have enough people beating down your door?  A few days of using step 3 and that shouldn’t be a problem any more.

5. Procrastinate

Still not enough challenge?  Then just delay.  Maybe scan through a few websites, or clean that junk drawer that needs cleaning.  If things are still running too smoothly, then there must be more you could do.  Find something that seems like it isn’t that important, and get that done.  After all, isn’t that the sign of success, being able to get even the small things done?

6. Multitask

Anyone can do one thing at a time, right?  So throw caution to the wind and try to do it all at once.  Edit that corporate newsletter while watching the Daily Show, composing Shakespearean sonnets, solving trigonometric equations and twittering about it all.  If you can’t be doing at least five or six things at once, then make sure you repeat steps 3 and 5.

7. Beige is your friend

Things too vibrant, alive and thought provoking?  A little beige will solve that for you.  Long the favored choice of government institutions and faceless megacorporations, surrounding yourself in a nice, bland beige, will give you yet one more thing to add to your multitasking agenda, overcoming soulcrushing boredom!  Doesn’t that sounds like great idea?

A glimpse at part of Best Buy’s ROWE in a non-ROWE environment?

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/the-freedom-to-travel-anywhere-anytime-without-getting-fired.html

And a few tips to help yourself avoid burnout (also from Lifehack, now that I see it.  Didn’t notice that in my feed reader.)

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/how-to-keep-burnout-at-bay.html

Have links you’d like to share?  Drop me a message at adam@liveworkbalance.com

Well, if you take a look around, you may see a few changes.  A different look, some new features, and a new feed address.  As I wasn’t able to sort everything out with Feedburner/Google, I’ve repatriated my feed, so if you’ve been following LiveWorkBalance in your RSS Reader, be sure to update your subscriptions to the new feed either by clicking above, or by changing the address to http://www.liveworkbalance.com/feed/.  I’m still working out how to get the email subscriptions  back up and running, so if anyone has any suggestions on that front, please pass them along!

As I said, I’m also taking the opportunity to make a few changes around here, so if there’s anything you’d like to see, whether it’s in the site itself or something you’d like me to cover, please feel free to let me know.

Over the next week or so, things will continue to be in a bit of flux, but new content is ready to go and will be coming shortly.  In the meantime, be sure to check out my most recent post, Balance Roadblock: Productivity.

Thanks, and I look forward to seeing everyone again!

Adam

I’m looking into what’s happening, and while dealing with Google’s seemingly non-existant Group based support for Feedburner hasn’t yet been fruitful, I’ll be sure to keep everyone up to date with either news of a fix, or what needs to change.

Stay tuned.

Adam

Update: I’ve received a response from the support team, so they’re now looking into it.  Seems that they do monitor the groups, but it would be nice to have an email or contact form to fill out as well.  More to come. (2009.03.04)

“What?!” you ask.  ”Isn’t productivity a key component of balance?  Haven’t you even said that yourself?  You even have a whole category related to it!”

Well, the short answer is yes, it is, but that’s not the productivity I’m talking about.

“Now there’s more than one kind of productivity?” you say, with an exasperated sigh.  ”These dang bloggers can never seem to make up their mind.”

Just hear me out, and you’ll see where I’m going.

Monday, February 16, 2009 was Ontario’s second annual “Family Day”.  This was a new statutory holiday put into place in late 2007, to give a break to working Ontarians* in the mid-winter period where no break really exists between New Year’s Day and Easter.

Sounds like a great idea, no?  Find a point where there’s a two and a half to three and a half month span with no long weekends and emotions are already down (see SAD), and give people a break.

But lo and behold, we were then greeted by articles covering the costs of such a break in lost productivity.

Now, regardless of whether or not you agree with the numbers being thrown about ($2 billion in Ontario alone), I really have to wonder if the costs are substantial at all.

My big problem comes with the underlying assumption in the calculation of “productivity”.  As in so many things, a key factor of this productivity is time.  When valuing output, wouldn’t we want to actually focus on, well, the output?

I’d like to see someone actually run a different study.  Take a look at the economy and see if there’s really a negative productivity hit, or if the benefits of having a happy, rested workforce who’s actually had time to spend with their families can either negate the lost time, or even overcome it.

If anyone has seen a study actually quantifying the effects of long weekends on actual worker productivity, not the nebulous number often cited as above, please let me know.  I know for me, having an additional day off actually allows me to come to work well rested and get more done when I’m here, and I have a hard time believing that a loss of approximately 0.4% of one’s work year can really affect my total output at the end of the year.

So until they can find a better way to actually measure work, the path to balance is facing another roadblock.  Is it a showstopper?  No.  However, the basic public opinions around balance affect how hard or easy it will be to make this transition, and while people still see one day away from work as lost money for the overall economy, well, it’s not making it any easier.

Image by: Mikey G Ottawa - Licensed under Creative Commons

As you may know, I live in Ottawa.  As you may or may not know, however, we’re currently over 40 days into a transit strike, leaving a city of about one million people with nary a bus in sight.

Now, regardless of my personal attitudes towards this strike, there are real and tangible impacts on every Ottawan.  Whether you took transit in the past or drove, whether you’re a salaried executive or part-time hourly employee, a student or a retiree, young, old or anything in between, the lack of transit service has impacted everyone.

When the strike first hit, universities and colleges were starting exams and students were spending two to three hours trying to get there. The quick twenty to thirty minute trip into work has turned into hour and a half battles against other exhausted commuters.  Even with carpooling, opening extra lanes, and allowing more flexible hours at workplaces throughout the city, traffic is a nightmare for everyone.

The challenge is that traffic doesn’t just impact the time you spend at work, but all your other time as well.  Time previously spent doing your errands or things around the house, is now spent in the car.

So when one of the key parts of your day is changed on you and tilted against balance, what can you do to try to keep some time for yourself?

Food

We all need it, and it’s nice when it can be healthy too.  But when you’re rushing between work and everything else, and getting there takes three times as long, well, you don’t always feel like cooking when you get home.

How can you get around this?

• Cook extra so you can have leftovers - if you double a recipe and eat it for two days, you’ve just cut the amount of time you spend cooking in half. (Well, almost, there’s a little more prep work)

• Invest in a slow cooker with a programmable timer - I’ve got one, and walking in the door from a long, frustrating commute, to a wonderful-smelling, tasty dinner ready and waiting for me is definitely a good thing.
• Combine the two - and make big slow-cooker meals with leftovers and get the best of both worlds.

Chores

Getting things done around the house can be a challenge.  If you’re suddenly spending an extra 10-15 hours a week commuting, finding time for laundry, cleaning and home maintenance can be even harder.

How do we get around that?  I’ve written about two ways to get housework done in the past, and they still both apply, if in different ways.  With additional time being spent out of the house, we can still batch process our work, or do it incrementally, but we’re going to need to find alternate times to do it.  Weekends will be the ideal times for anything batchable, and maybe you find five to ten minutes each morning to pay a bill or two.  Or maybe try a blend, gather all your laundry, but focus on one load a day.  Is it the most efficient?  No, but it is better than trying to cut into your already vital sleep to fold that last load of shirts.

The commute

During a bus strike, the most direct effect is obviously the commute.  There’s no buses, so whether your a transit user or not, your travel to work will be affected, whether that’s in time of day, duration, mode of transport or who you’re going with.

If you’re already trying to use your commute to help your balance, what are you supposed to do?  Obviously, if you’re now driving instead of taking the bus, you probably won’t be able to catch up on your sleep.  However, if you’re carpooling and the people you’re with don’t mind, why not?

Likewise, many similar things can happen.  Maybe you use your commute for reading or listening to music.  If you’re now sharing your commute with others, perhaps you can be listening to the same music or audiobooks and making it a group event.  In car audiobook club anyone?

If you’re someone who uses their commute for downtime or alone time, then even if you’re now sharing rides, maybe you talk to your co-commuters and see if they’d mind if you continued to do the same.  If they do, then like the things above, you either make the choice to sacrifice that or if that’s not an option, you find another ride.

Conclusions?

When your ability to get around the city or town you live in, a key facet of your day-to-day life, is drastically affected, maintaining the balance you’ve worked so hard to achieve can be even more challenging.  Through making a few changes, some large, some small, you can find ways to help make this a little easier.

If you’ve got other tips to help people through situations like this, I’d love to hear them!  Please drop them in the comments below.

Thursday Bram shares a great overview of the importance of finding a balance between working hard for success and enjoying the fruits of that success.

After all, if you can’t take some time to enjoy what you’ve been working for, what’s the point?  Do you want to be the person who works tons of extra hours and earns a whole bunch of bonuses only to have it sit, untouched, until you are too burnt out to use it?  Do you want to hit the point where you feel you can step back, only to find out that your environment has changed to make that an impossibility?

Thursday’s posted a great high level summary of a few things to consider on this topic, definitely worth a read!

Cheers,

Adam

The blog celebrated its 1st birthday and its 100th post, and I joined the Brazen Careerist network of bloggers. That, combined with making some great connections throughout the community made 2008 a success in my books.

Now, being the end of the year, it’s a great time to look forward to next year. But whether you’re making resolutions or not, I’m also a firm believer in needing to know where you’ve been before figuring out where you’re going.

With that in mind, let’s take a quick look back at 2008 at LiveWorkBalance. These posts might have been popular, or just something I enjoyed. Either way, take a look, and hopefully you’ll enjoy them as much as I have!

5 ways batch processing can help you at home

This post was actually the most read post on LWB this year, and it, along with its follow up, “Incrementally: the new and improved way to do housework” were both a lot of fun to write.  I think they’re just as much fun to read, but I might be a little biased.

High school physics = ways to increase your work output

Call me crazy, but I love being able to apply things I learned in high school (and was fairly sure I’d never need again) in new and exciting ways. Okay, perhaps exciting isn’t the best word, but you get the point.

Blackberry Time = Overtime?

I’m a BlackBerry user, I’ll admit it. I feel that I have a pretty good handle on my usage, at least most of the time. Regardless of how we individually use them, it’s always interesting to see how they’re changing the overall landscape of our workplaces.

Views on Balance

Every now and then something comes across that helps me clarify my own views on balance, and I always enjoy sharing those. I’ve said before, balance is a very personal thing, and is different for everyone. If I can do my part in helping people discover what it is for them, then all the better. For a few of these pieces, check out “The importance of being balanced” and “Bend, not break: flexibility and work-life balance“.

Book reviews

One thing I’ve been making more of an effort to do this year is get back into reading about topics that interest me in the balance and personal/professional development arenas. Continuing with the spirit of sharing, I’ve started periodically posting book reviews of what I’ve been reading. If you’re looking for that next book to read, especially at this time of year, check out these reviews for a few pointers.

So it’s been a big year in 2008, and these are only a few of the 50 posts that have come out this year.  I’ve got a few ideas of what’s coming down the pipe in 2009, but if you’ve got anything specific you’d like to see, be sure to let me know.

Happy new year everyone, and here’s to a happy, successful, and balanced 2009!

Adam

Before I give away that answer, let’s take a look at what the book is actually about, and you can perhaps make a call on that yourself.

“Why Work Sucks…” chronicles the story of Best Buy’s transition of their head office from a traditional work environment into a Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE).  What is a ROWE, you ask?  Simply put, it’s a work environment where employees are judged not on the amount of time they put in at the office, but by the work they’re producing.

It sounds simple, logical, and ideal for many, but it can still be a bit challenging to wrap one’s head around, as it is a fundamentally different way of working.

There is no such thing as coming in late or leaving early.  You work where and when is best for you.

There is no such thing as a mandatory meeting.  If it makes sense (to you) for you to be at a meeting, you go.  If you don’t think it does, then you don’t.

If you get your work done, you succeed.  If you don’t deliver, you’re out.

Is this flex-time/telecommuting/insert work program here?  No, it’s not.  According to Ressler and Thompson, these things are “a joke.”

So is this the answer to those of us seeking balance?  To quote from the book, “The solution is not work-life balance.  Under the current system, balance is impossible.”

What, is everything I’ve been writing about useless?

After reading through the book, I’d have to definitely say no.  In fact, this is the end state of balance.  Your time is yours to control; you work where, how and when you want, and that’s that.

Now, not everyone is an easy convert to the ROWE idea.  People might look at this and rather than seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, they think it’s unworkable and would never work in an actual workplace.

This is actually the other main strength of the book.  “Why Work Sucks” doesn’t just present a new and interesting theory on how we can work; it shows how it is ALREADY IN EFFECT at the Best Buy Corporate Headquarters.  That’s not a small organization nor an unsuccessful one.  But through skillful and frequent use of employee anecdotes, and a healthy dose of a few key statistics to wrap things up, Ressler and Thompson present the idea in action and living up to their hype.

So should you be reading this book? 

Yes.

One of the reasons for the success of ROWE at Best Buy was the premise that this kind of adaptive change needs to come from all levels of an organization.  You don’t need to be a C-Level or an HR Manager to read this book, it’s something that can show value to everyone.  From the principles on Sludge (worth reading on their own) to the ability to describe ROWE in a clear, concise and inspirational manner, this book contains more information than its 200 pages imply.

If you’ve skipped the meat of the review and are just looking for an answer to the question of whether Ressler and Thompson deliver on their claims, I’d have to say that yes, they do.  Grab a copy at your local library, bookstore, or Amazon, and enjoy.  While your company may be years away from a ROWE, the best way to get there is to take the first step.  I know I’m already thinking of how I can start my own organization on the path.