The Power of Flexing: How to Use Small Daily Experiments to Create Big Life-Changing Growth

by Susan J. Ashford

A leadership and learning expert shows you how to change your behavior, develop soft skills, and achieve personal and professional growth through a series of small experiments she calls “Flexing.”  

A personnel shift at your organization puts you into a leadership role you don't feel prepared for.  Your boss tells you that you seem aloof and unapproachable in client meetings.  You need to win the support of the members of a local community group for a project you feel passionate about. Addressing these diverse issues depends on improving your soft skills—such as time management, team building, communication and listening, creative thinking, and problem-solving. But this isn’t as easy as it may seem. Sue Ashford, the chair of the Management and Organizations group at the Ross School of Business, has the solution. In this timely book, she introduces Flexing—a technique individuals, teams, and entire organizations can use to learn, grow, and develop their skills and knowledge with every new project, work assignment, and problem. Flexing empowers you to embrace any challenge and adapt to any change, yielding practical, valuable takeaways that ensure growth. Flexing helps you move ahead when you’re confronted with a new challenge, or simply want to develop a vital skill. It’s a journey that begins with setting a flex goal—stating explicitly what you want to learn and how you want to grow. Once that flex goal is set, you then begin to run experiments, solicit feedback from peers or colleagues, and monitor and tweak your progress on the way to achieving your goal. Flexing can be tailored to each person, allowing you to reflect on your own experiences and incorporate the lessons you learn in the next project you tackle. It’s a growth mindset that will help you become the best version of yourself. Flexing also works with teams and organizations. Ashford teaches small groups and large how to implement flexing to ensure their members are ready for new challenges. With more people moving to remote working full-time and developing new ways of collaborating in teams, this warm and practical guide will help every professional and any organization on the journey to greater effectiveness.

Genres: Nonfiction, Business, Leadership, Psychology, Self Help, Audiobook, Buisness

304 pages, Hardcover

Published October 5, 2021

Reviews

[Marlena Fiol · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a timely book! Whether in our personal or professional lives, the challenge that lies before each of us today is to become who we are truly meant to be. In The Power of Flexing, Ashford provides a framework and a set of tools to help us get there. Read it. Ask those on your teams to read it. And together. grow into becoming your best and truest selves!

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

I skipped reading chapter 2 to 9.

[Craig Cash · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic book if you’re looking for ways to take control of your own growth and development (which everyone should!) Ashford lays out a framework for personal development and I look forward to implementing it in my own life.

[Zosia · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I liked about this was that it made growing as a person seem like a cool, casual, everyday thing instead of One Large Painful Moment. You can just experiment with different ways to be! No need for it to be gut-wrenching and hard. A good message for me, who has leaned into gut-wrenching.

[Michaela · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh, did not finish.

[Steve Granger · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Power of Flexing provides deep insights into strategic personal growth (my alternate title for this book!). The prolific Sue Ashford masterfully applies her wealth of knowledge and sound evidence in outlining key considerations for taking actions in response to or in anticipation of a quickly changing world of work. Recommended for anyone interested in personal growth, whatever their motivation.

[jaidev khatri · Rating 5 out of 5]

solidifies the impact of continued learning

The boom took a story mode that is where i relate most to.
There were short, concise simple sentences that make quick sense and were relatable.

I would recommend this book to everyone at any stage of their career. This emphasizes thag learning can happen at every stage.

[Kwang Wei Long · Rating 5 out of 5]

Susan introduced a framework for personal growth leveraging on coaching concepts.

I am embarking on coaching certification and i find this book can be a good resource for people who want to start embarking on personal growth with a more structured approach and getting a glimpse of how and what coaching is and how it can assist with that.

[Gregory Dunlap · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book to be a great accountability motivator. Much of what we achieve comes from our commitment to achieve that level of success. Every chapter gave me a fresh perspective; it takes action to pursue perfection, and there is nothing wrong with perfecting yourself.

[David Fredh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book with clear practical advice on how to ensure you drive learnings, try new things and stay open and curious to make sure you feel good, grow and find paths around blockers for you or your team

[Kevin Demel · Rating 1 out of 5]

I attempted to read this book but ended up just skimming it. I think she was trying to get people to perform small experiments daily to improve. I can understand the concept and how it can be applied to learning any subject. But the book didn't seem to help me do that.

[Smaraki Mohanty · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book goes in depth about how to have a learning and growth mindset, incorporate small experiments in your work and life, engage in reflection and not be afraid of seeking feedback.

[Rob Cardenas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Growth and comfort will never exist….it’s the people and organizations willing to constantly take risks that will be successful now and into the future.

☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼

[Amy Colbert · Rating 5 out of 5]

A useful approach to systematic personal growth. Packed with examples.

[Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nothing like a good experiment!

[Kris Muir · Rating 4 out of 5]

Flexing means finding small, testable, and ultimately meaningful ways to grow yourself. I really like the framework here for leadership development, and the chapter on systemic reflection highlights the research and a panoply of techniques. Much of the book is digressive with examples, but the core structure and tactics are worth adding to your toolkit.

Happy Reading!