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Tipping Sacred Cows: Kick the Bad Work Habits that Masquerade as Virtues
Strategies for overcoming the "sacred cows" that hold people back at work
You should try your best, work well with others, and produce excellent work. Right? But these cherished nuggets of advice, in practice, have a dark side that can lead to career-limiting unintended consequences. And they're not alone.
Based on Jake Breeden's experience coaching thousands of leaders in 27 countries, and new research in economics, neuroscience, and psychology, Tipping Sacred Cows reveals how to overcome the dangerous behaviors that masquerade as virtues at work, and how to lead with fewer self-imposed limitations and greater results. It's a guide for curious, courageous people at work. The book:
Tipping Sacred Cows shines a light on the hidden traps that lie between good intentions and great results, clearing a path so leaders can finally realize their full potential at work.
You should try your best, work well with others, and produce excellent work. Right? But these cherished nuggets of advice, in practice, have a dark side that can lead to career-limiting unintended consequences. And they're not alone.
Based on Jake Breeden's experience coaching thousands of leaders in 27 countries, and new research in economics, neuroscience, and psychology, Tipping Sacred Cows reveals how to overcome the dangerous behaviors that masquerade as virtues at work, and how to lead with fewer self-imposed limitations and greater results. It's a guide for curious, courageous people at work. The book:
Tipping Sacred Cows shines a light on the hidden traps that lie between good intentions and great results, clearing a path so leaders can finally realize their full potential at work.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published January 16, 2013
14 people are currently reading
115 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
July 24, 2013
Jake Breeden argues that 7 work values/habits - balalnce, collaboration, creativitiy, excellence, fairness, passion, and preparation - can actually be detrimental to work performance unless applied appropriately. He then offers 7 suggestions for appropriately applying each one. The "7" thing is a little much, but the book itself does a good job of identifying how each value/habit can be overdone and suggesting corrections. Breeden makes excellent use of both academic research and anecdotes to illustrate his points. THe writing is clear and straightforward, and the advice is useful.
November 3, 2014
This is a must read for leaders. It firm reminder in story and data that to much of a good thing can go very wrong. How to watch for those things and grow. I really liked that talk about obsessive passion over healthy passion and Bold Balance in business means making hard decisions in a timely manner.
June 16, 2013
I don't normally read business books, but there was a lot to learn here for academia and academic administration. Helpful in thinking about how to lead research terms, advise students, and fulfill service commitments.
July 21, 2020
Spot on, time to move beyond the buzz words and follow your passion based mumbo jumbo. Pragmatic and refreshing perspective to self help, happy to have stumbled across this chance discovery.
March 26, 2016
Thriving in the corporate world requires the ability to recognise when your greatest assets turn into career-limiting liabilities. Beware unexamined virtues turning into unexpected vices.
Business virtues help most when used on purpose, not out of habit. With mindfulness and self-awareness, leaders can filter through advice and conventional wisdom to act purposefully.
How you construct meaning is the single most important act of leadership that you can make. No other choice affects so much. Every thought, belief and action you make is affected by the way you perceive the world. So thoughtfully decide which glasses you are going to wear for each situation.
The Bad:
Excellence is the drug of choice for the ambitious perfectionist, and it can lead to exhaustion and ruin, especially when demanded of trivial things. It is intellectually lazy to work hard at everything.
Preparation can backfire when it causes you to fall in love with your own work and defend it when you should change. And sometimes preparation is an excuse not to take action.
The dark side of collaboration is an absence of clarity and accountability.
Meetings are ritualised collaboration, with more talking about the work than doing the work.
Collaboration has a cost (communicating, keeping people on the same page), a 'premium' which has to be exceeded by the payoff from collaborating.
Furthermore teams that get along don't necessarily get better results. Plus they might stick together long after their tasks have been completed.
People over-value diversity, choosing varied options rather than more of their favourites, to the detriment of their welfare/utility.
If you need to feel smart you won't think of dumb questions, if you need to look smart you won't ASK dumb questions. Both these needs can get in the way of doing something smart.
The Good:
Bold balance is not compartmentalisation. It involves separate focus on one area at a time, and each area is connected to a larger purpose.
"Hold strong opinions, weakly." - Act decisively, but remain open to new data, and the possibility of change. Stake out sharp, clear arguments, but learn to recognise when the argument's been disproved.
In the face of imperfect information, have the guts to make an educated guess and do a sensitivity analysis and move on.
There will at times be a clash between the urge to develop people and the desire to produce an excellent result. Let your people feel the powerful motivational force that you trust them to be OK in the moments of truth and they'll worry about excellence as much as you.
If you're deeply competitive focus on beating the hell out of your competitors. Leave your friends alone.
Making all of life preparation renders every moment an opportunity to learn and grow. Real time is the only time. This moment, right now, is the only one that exists for sure. Live in it more fully, more openly, and more bravely, and you'll never stop growing.
The contrast:
If you build a rough prototype, people will see potential. If you build a polished prototype, people will see flaws. - Baba Shiv, Stanford Professor
People with harmonious passion engage in an activity because they want to. People with obsessive passion engage in it because they feel they must.
Bad practice ingrains bad habits. Perfect practice makes perfect.
Business virtues help most when used on purpose, not out of habit. With mindfulness and self-awareness, leaders can filter through advice and conventional wisdom to act purposefully.
How you construct meaning is the single most important act of leadership that you can make. No other choice affects so much. Every thought, belief and action you make is affected by the way you perceive the world. So thoughtfully decide which glasses you are going to wear for each situation.
The Bad:
Excellence is the drug of choice for the ambitious perfectionist, and it can lead to exhaustion and ruin, especially when demanded of trivial things. It is intellectually lazy to work hard at everything.
Preparation can backfire when it causes you to fall in love with your own work and defend it when you should change. And sometimes preparation is an excuse not to take action.
The dark side of collaboration is an absence of clarity and accountability.
Meetings are ritualised collaboration, with more talking about the work than doing the work.
Collaboration has a cost (communicating, keeping people on the same page), a 'premium' which has to be exceeded by the payoff from collaborating.
Furthermore teams that get along don't necessarily get better results. Plus they might stick together long after their tasks have been completed.
People over-value diversity, choosing varied options rather than more of their favourites, to the detriment of their welfare/utility.
If you need to feel smart you won't think of dumb questions, if you need to look smart you won't ASK dumb questions. Both these needs can get in the way of doing something smart.
The Good:
Bold balance is not compartmentalisation. It involves separate focus on one area at a time, and each area is connected to a larger purpose.
"Hold strong opinions, weakly." - Act decisively, but remain open to new data, and the possibility of change. Stake out sharp, clear arguments, but learn to recognise when the argument's been disproved.
In the face of imperfect information, have the guts to make an educated guess and do a sensitivity analysis and move on.
There will at times be a clash between the urge to develop people and the desire to produce an excellent result. Let your people feel the powerful motivational force that you trust them to be OK in the moments of truth and they'll worry about excellence as much as you.
If you're deeply competitive focus on beating the hell out of your competitors. Leave your friends alone.
Making all of life preparation renders every moment an opportunity to learn and grow. Real time is the only time. This moment, right now, is the only one that exists for sure. Live in it more fully, more openly, and more bravely, and you'll never stop growing.
The contrast:
If you build a rough prototype, people will see potential. If you build a polished prototype, people will see flaws. - Baba Shiv, Stanford Professor
People with harmonious passion engage in an activity because they want to. People with obsessive passion engage in it because they feel they must.
Bad practice ingrains bad habits. Perfect practice makes perfect.
June 2, 2018
Its about adjusting your attitude toward the "bad work habits that Masquerade as Virtues"-questioning whether your intentions with them are correct or have been skewed out of the daily pressures of life- those virtues are still virtues, I didn't sense that the argument was to think otherwise, though at times i was struggling with whether that was what was being expressed. My conclusion was that the contents of the book was not as drastically novel as some other folks have stated the content to be. It is good to read something that calls into question some assumptions that have settled into day-to-day life and thats what Breeden did for me. I will let it sink in some more and maybe I might revise my thoughts about the book.
March 24, 2014
Jake is an awesome lecturer -- he came to my office as part of a corporate training program. The book has great ideas and examples, but you could probably read a summary of the 7 "sacred cows" to learn as much as you do through the book in full.
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November 8, 2013GBD_131108
March 16, 2015
There are many illusions and myth around business and innovation and Tipping Sacred Cows tries to debunk them in an interesting way.
January 20, 2016
Surprising and readable counter-intuitive takes on conventional wisdom, such as why making a fetish of excellence can easily backfire.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews