Flex: The Art and Science of Leadership in a Changing World

by Jeffrey Hull

From one of the world's preeminent leadership coaches, an insightful, indispensable guide to effective leadership.

For the first time, leadership expert Jeffrey Hull shares the secrets, strategies, and science underlying his, and his clients', successes. Interweaving real-life stories with practical tips and the latest evidence-based research, he equips readers with the insights they need to thrive in today's world.

We are in the age of the postheroic leader. Once, to move up the corporate ladder and succeed at the top, you simply had to set goals, motivate the troops, delegate to underlings, and groom a successor--probably one who looked and behaved just like you. But this white knight has become an anachronism. Whether a person is twenty-five or fifty, if they're leading a team now, chances are that they're managing a kaleidoscope of people from a variety of cultures, across a range of ages, all of whom are wired together 24/7. These changing demographics and structures have led to a seismic shift in terms of the tools needed to successfully manage and grow within a charisma and strategic thinking abilities now matter less than qualities such as vulnerability and relatability.

Based on his popular classes with Harvard Medical School physicians and New York University business students, Hull has identified the six key elements that leaders in this new workplace need to succeed, known as Flexibility, Intentionality, Emotional Intelligence, Realness, Collaboration, and Engagement. From start-ups to universities to Fortune 500 companies, he's been able to help leaders across the board develop the skill sets that have advanced their careers and won them accolades.

Genres: Leadership, Nonfiction

272 pages, Hardcover

Published June 4, 2019

Reviews

[Scott Markowitz · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a leader and a leadership coach I found a lot to love about this book. First, the examples are relevant and broadly generalizable. The leaders have personalities and challenges that we all see in our world. Second, it has many levels - for my own development, and for helping my coaching clients. A truly great depth. Finally, the books is so well written and the audiobook production so well narrated, it flowed perfectly and kept me engaged throughout. I will recommend this to colleagues in leadership and colleagues in coaching.

[Xan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Concept of beta leaders is interesting and it touches on some good ideas, but i think became slightly distracted in its quantity of case studies. My brain ended up working too hard to follow what the people were like and understand them - wish it had included either more raw theory and concepts, or data. Prose style is engaging and author's voice not pretentious or nonsensical, overall very easy/enjoyable to read language

It's a mix of the author's conversation with you, forms and quizzes to fill out and play along, section reviews, and the insisting on a brief story for every point made, that due to their frequency never become very deep, and i dont feel do a great job of making the point meaningful especially as you near the end.

it's completely okay to make an argument without a specific example of how exactly it fixed a problem in a previous lived experience, sometimes just logic is fine. Wish more books understood that. With all these other things crammed in, concept wise the book didn't have very much to say.

That being said, the bit of theory the book *did* have was insightful and valuable and keeps it from being a bad book. The rise of a beta leader, that younger generations especially value and see purpose in I think is very true as a gen Z'er myself. Also, the idea that we don't have weaknesses that we need to fix or change our whole leadership style, but instead expand our repetoire of possible styles to suit different situations i found to be very memorable and compelling and alone made the book worth reading for me.

Very catered towards a current employed manager at a large institution of salaried employees - think hospital or business firm - who want a guide to go through to pick out actionable steps to work on their interpersonal managing style. Think I almost would have preferred a sort of discourse on leadership theory over time, that's the part of the book i found most engaging, but purely as the leadership advice book it's aiming to be it succeeds in giving some actionable things to think about

[Alireza Hejazi · Rating 4 out of 5]

The main idea of this book is to coach yourself first. As six fundamental components of leadership agility, the author has identified flexibility, intentionality, emotional intelligence, realness, cooperation, and engagement. They describe a leadership strategy he calls FIERCE. The FIERCE concept is made to be your leadership accelerator and to assist you in developing your flexibility. It promotes a more transparent, flexible, and collaborative organization. The book offers a fascinating selection of coaching tales that are packaged in brief, deep leadership ideas for the highly unpredictable workplace of today. Its real-life accounts amuse readers while also offering them important insights into the complexities of the leadership landscape of today. The book is likely to be highly illuminating and helpful for anybody interested in managing the complexity of leadership today.

[Denise Dziwak · Rating 4 out of 5]

GREAT ideas on how to stay Flex in you leadership style

I liked the HIT workouts for leaders to flex from alpha to beta style and backwards.

Also a good summary of the latest evidence based coaching and good case studies to connect to.

Interesting how the author brings forth cases that can resonate with many leaders today and from there you can find clues to finding a way to reflect on your ways, change them as needed to re align with what you want and values.

[Amii Barnard-Bahn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've long been an admirer of the author, an exceptionally experienced coach who has many distinctions, including teaching at Harvard Medical School. He shares his proven coaching approach in FLEX, and the critical distinction between an Alpha and Beta leader. As he shares, in the age of the post-heroic leader, a new set of leadership skills is needed. Flex: The Art and Science of Leadership in a Changing World shares the six key elements that leaders in this new workplace need to succeed, known as F.I.E.R.C.E.: Flexibility, Intentionality, Emotional Intelligence, Realness, Collaboration, and Engagement. Highly recommend.