Kim Scott starts her excellent management book by telling a story about one of her employees in the first company she owned. “Bob” was a kind, funny, caring, and supportive colleague. There was just one problem: his work was terrible. She liked Bob, and didn’t want to come down too hard on him. So she didn’t tell him how bad his work was, or how his poor work affected the rest of the team. She didn’t tell him how much he was screwing up. The rest of the team covered for him, and morale suffered.

Eventually, she had to fire him. But it was too late. The dysfunctional team had gotten such poor results that, before long, the entire company failed.

This situation resulted in dire consequences, but it led Scott to try to understand what had happened. Over time, she developed a management philosophy that she calls “Radical Candor.” This is what happens when a manager puts “caring personally” with “challenging directly” together.

Managers need to get to know their direct reports. They can’t know everyone in the company well, but they can share more than just their work selves with the people who report directly to them. “It’s not just business; it is personal, and deeply personal,” says Scott.

Managers also need to be willing to tell people when their work isn’t good enough, and when it is. According to Scott, challenging people is often the best way to show them that you care when you’re the boss.

These two dimensions, when combined well, result in Radical Candor. “When people trust you and believe you care about them, they are much more likely to 1) accept and act on your praise and criticism; 2) tell you what they really think about what you are doing well and, more importantly, not doing so well; 3) engage in this same behavior with one another, meaning less pushing the rock up the hill again and again; 4) embrace their role on the team; and 5) focus on getting results.”

The first section of the book describes the philosophy behind Radical Candor and goes into depth about the lessons Scott learned while working as a mid-level manager at Google, Apple, and other companies. For example, “Care Personally” and “Challenge Directly” can result in Radical Candor, if combined well, but they can also result in Ruinous Empathy, Manipulative Insincerity, or Obnoxious Aggression if combined poorly. She explains how to avoid the negative aspects of this combination, and tells anecdotes about mistakes she and others made before they got Radical Candor correct.

The book’s second section gives detailed suggestions for how to employ Radical Candor. These suggestions are interesting and helpful, both for new and experienced managers.

One of my favorite sections is about how to fire a poorly performing employee. In terms of knowing when it’s time to fire them, Scott asks: Have you given Radically Candid guidance? How is the person’s poor performance affecting the rest of the team? Have you sought out a second opinion, spoken to someone whom you trust and with whom you can talk the problem through?

If you have considered all these, you will need to think about the lies managers tell themselves to avoid firing somebody who needs to be fired. These include: it will get better, somebody is better than nobody, a transfer is the answer, and it’s bad for morale to fire someone.

When you have considered these lies, and you still need to fire that person, the way you do it matters. It’s important to feel the pain that is inherent in the situation, to recall a job that you were terrible at and think how glad you feel that you’re no longer in it. When you fire someone, you create the possibility for the person to excel and find happiness performing meaningful work elsewhere. Just because the person isn’t good at this job doesn’t mean there isn’t another job out there they could be great at.

Every organization has a process for firing people, and it’s important to follow that completely. The process usually involves consulting with human resources, your peers, and your own manager about what you are doing. When you do fire the person, make sure to show that you care about him/her while you also explain exactly why you are terminating their employment. Scott emails people she has fired about a month later, just to check in. She tries to find them jobs for which they are better suited. Even if that doesn’t happen, she keeps in touch.

The book includes many practical suggestions for how to create and implement Radical Candor in your team. The writing is clear, and the author’s thoughtfulness and caring are demonstrated on every page. Radical Candor offers a guide to those bewildered or exhausted by management, and it is written for bosses and anyone who has a boss.

“People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.” Simon Sinek repeats these two phrases a dozen times or more during the famous TED Talk that inspired this book. It’s a simple concept that is incredibly empowering: why you do something is more important than either what you do or how you do it. “Why” is the inspiration that makes people follow you or buy your products. “Why” might include your belief system or why you get up in the morning, and for Sinek, you should be able to express it in words.

Sinek’s personal life purpose is to inspire people to do whatever it is they want to do, and he’s good at it. He believes that products that are infused with the “why” of a company’s existence will be more successful than those that are based on “what” or “how.” Throughout the book, he relies on the examples of Apple, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Wright brothers as successful thought leaders that inspired people with their use of “why.” Apple’s “why” is to challenge the status quo. Dr. King’s “why” was to change America with the civil rights movement. Orville and Wilbur Wright wanted to learn to fly more than they wanted to make a name for themselves or create a fortune, although they succeeded in doing all of those things.

In one sense, the book is about marketing. For example, Sinek talks about how inspiration is more effective at influencing human behavior than manipulation. “From business to politics, manipulations run rampant in all forms of sales and marketing. Typical manipulations include: dropping the price, running a promotion, using fear, peer pressure or aspirational messages; and promising innovation to influence behavior—be it a purchase, a vote or support.” Manipulations work, but not a single one of them breeds loyalty. “Over the course of time, they cost more and more. The gains are only short-term.”

Manipulations are about “what” and “how.” They are not about “why.” Remember: “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.” Only if people understand why you are offering a product or skill will they decide whether they believe the same way you do. If they do, they will be loyal to you, regardless of price point or other manipulations.

In another sense, the book is a reminder that we need to reconsider what brings meaning to our lives. The leader of a company needs to be clear, in his/her mind, why the company exists and to be able to express it to employees. The next level down is the “how” level. These are typically the senior executives who are inspired by the leader’s vision and know how to bring it to life. The “what” level includes the people who implement the strategy and interact with customers.

Sinek says, “No matter how charismatic or inspiring the leader is, if there are not people in the organization inspired to bring that vision to reality, to build an infrastructure with systems and processes, then at best, inefficiency reigns, and at worst, failure results.” Everyone, whether they are the “why,” “how,” or “what” of an organization, needs to feel inspired to get out of bed and go to work every day. In other words, if this job isn’t doing it for you, then you need to figure out what you really want to do and do that instead. Find your own “why.”

According to Sinek, when the “why” gets fuzzy, organizations tend to go downhill. He uses the example of Walmart, which started focusing on the fiscal bottom line rather than fairness after Sam Walton died. When that happened, the company began to rack up lawsuits for its poor treatment of employees. Sinek says making money is never a “why” and will never sustain a business.

Another example is TiVo, which, despite having a superior product, has never been a financial success. The company’s marketing materials talk about what their product does and how it works instead of focusing on the fact that it allows people to have total control over their viewing habits (the “why”).

For the most part, I was excited to read this book. It presents innovative ideas that inspired me to think deeply about what I’m doing and why. After a while, though, I grew restive with the constant focus on Apple and a few other companies. And the message about the need to focus on “why,” albeit fascinating, ultimately became redundant. I raced through the first half of the book and trudged through the second half. You may have a different experience. Either way, it’s worth giving this book a read. Even if you don’t make it to the end, I’m convinced that you will be inspired to think differently about what you do.

The first thing you should know is that this is a re-release of a bestseller from 1999. As far as I could tell, the only thing different was an update of metadata at the end. So, if you have a copy of the first edition on your bookshelf, unless you’re a data wonk, there’s no reason to buy the new edition. If you haven’t read this book, it’s a worthwhile read.

Essentially, this book is about how to be a good manager. It is chock full of data-driven conclusions. After interviewing a million employees and 80,000 managers, Gallup discovered that twelve items describe the health of a workplace. The first six are most important. They are:

• I know what is expected of me at work.
• I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right.
• At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day.
• In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work.
• My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person.
• There is someone at work who encourages my development.

These items are positively linked to at least one of the four business outcomes: productivity, profitability, retention, and customer satisfaction, and most are linked to two or more. Employees who score high on the items are said to be engaged. Engagement is most closely linked to how satisfied the employee is with his or her immediate manager. People leave managers, not companies.

According to Gallup, the management role has four core activities. These are: select for talent, define the right outcomes, focus on strengths, and find the right fit for employees. Most of the book discusses these four core activities and how to excel at them. Discovering and working with people’s talents are at the heart of good management. The authors state that it’s more important to select for employees who have the right set of talents for the job than it is to select for either skills or knowledge. Both of these can be taught, but talents are inherent.

Gallup’s research describes 34 talent themes divided into four categories: executing, influencing, relationship building, and strategic thinking. If you buy the book, you can take the Clifton Strengthsfinder Assessment and the Q12 Employee Engagement Survey for free, and discover your individual strengths, at least as defined by Gallup.

It’s important to slot people into jobs that reflect their talents rather than their resumes. One of the most touching sections, for me, was about hotel housekeepers. Gallup asked hotels to identify their best housekeepers, and they interviewed these outstanding workers. Now, cleaning hotel rooms isn’t most people’s idea of a good time. In fact, it’s considered to be an entry-level job that most people will choose to leave as soon as possible. But, exemplary housekeepers love the job and often stay in it for their entire careers. When asked how they know if a room is clean, one said that the last thing they did before leaving a room was to lie on the guest’s bed and turn on the ceiling fan.

“Why?”

“Because,” they explained, “that is the first thing that a guest will do after a long day out. They will walk into the room, flop down on the bed and turn on the fan. If dust comes off the top of the fan, then no matter how sparkling clean the rest of the room was, the guest might think it was as dirty as the top of the fan.”

Sweet. Others talked about making a show for their guests. “Unless the guests object, we will take the toys that the children leave on the bed, and every day, we will make a little scene for them. We will put Pooh and Piglet on the pillows together. Pooh will have his arm in a chocolate candy box. Piglet will have his on the remote control. When the children come back, they imagine that all day long, Pooh and Piglet hung out on the bed, snacking and watching TV.”

These great housekeepers had talent. Seen through their filters, cleaning a hotel room wasn’t just another chore for them to complete. It was a world, a guest’s world. Making each guest’s world just right brought them strength and satisfaction.

In the mind of great managers, every role performed at excellence deserves respect. Every role has its own nobility.

I wish there had been more inspiring stories like this in the book. Instead, there were lots of sections based on data, for example: Rules of Thumb, How to Manage Around a Weakness, The Art of Tough Love. Maybe these sections will be exactly what you need to read, or maybe, like me, you will skim through them. I found that the last section, called “Turning the Keys: A Practical Guide” really made me sit up and take an interest. For me, this section was, well, practical. For example, the section on performance management was extremely helpful. Gallup found four characteristics common to the performance management routines of great managers.

First, the routine is simple. Great managers don’t want to spend their time trying to decipher alien terms and filling out bureaucratic forms. Instead, they prefer a simple format that allows them to focus on the employee’s difficult work.

Second, the routine forces frequent interaction between the manager and the employee. It is no good meeting once a year. More frequent meetings are essential in order to capture the specifics of an employee’s talents.

Third, the routine is focused on the future. The good manager discusses what could be rather than focusing on postmortems.

Last, the routine asks the employee to keep track of his or her own performance and learnings. The purpose of self-assessment is to serve as a counterpoint or comparison with the assessment of the manager.

After discussing the aspects of the routine, the book lists questions the manager can ask in the first interview with the employee. These include such things as: What did you enjoy most about your previous work experience? What do you think your strengths are? What are your goals for your current role? How often would you like to meet with me to discuss your progress?
I found these questions to be very useful. In addition, there are questions to use in the performance planning meetings as well as career discovery questions. Every manager, I believe, would find these helpful.

One thing I found annoying in the book was how it set up its ideas of the “rules” for management, and described how people who excelled at Gallup’s definition of management did things differently. For example, according to the “rules” they describe, traditional managers believe their job is to help a person overcome weaknesses rather than focusing on developing strengths. The managers I know do help their team members overcome their most glaring weaknesses, but they also help them identify their strengths. It’s not an “either-or” proposition. Maybe the rules—accepted wisdom–have changed in the seventeen years since the first release of this book. Even though it’s a bit dated, it’s still a thought-provoking book, and one that managers should know.

Addison describes his thirty years of working his way up the organization from an entry-level business analyst to the co-CEO. Although he probably began to learn about leadership during his MBA training, his nine leadership practices are mostly based on his experience.

Addison is from a small town in Georgia, and he plays up his Southern accent and folksy observations about human nature. His nine leadership practices are:

• Decide who you are
• Shine your light on others
• Build on your strengths
• Earn your position
• Focus on what you can control
• Develop a peaceful core
• Be a lighthouse
• Don’t burn bridges
• Make your parents proud

I’ve read many books on leadership, and these practices aren’t very different from those described by other successful leaders. But they are definitely his, spun in his unique style. He devotes a chapter to each of the leadership practices, along with a page that summarizes the main points and presents action steps for each. Here are a few of his most vibrant proverbs.

• A mediocre leader tries to impress people with how important he or she is. A great leader impresses upon people how important they are.
• There’s a big difference between a problem and a situation. If writing a check or making some kind of adjustment to what you’re doing can fix it, then it’s not a problem. It’s a situation. If an asteroid hits the earth, I call that a problem. But that doesn’t happen too often.
• Inside the head of even the most sane, calm, sweet-tempered person there lurks a raging negativity that will start spreading its weeds at every opportunity. The moment you turn your back, they’ll take over the garden of your mind.
• Most people’s somedays become a handful of people’s everydays.

Addison is a powerful motivational speaker, and at times his book is as gripping as his speeches. Other times, though, it reads pretty much like other leadership books written by successful leaders. Everyone who has been successful has their own thoughts about how and why they succeeded when others didn’t. These are interesting, and reading about them is useful to people who want to learn from the masters. What sets this book apart is the story of how Addison and his co-CEO weathered the financial crisis. Reminisces about this time are just now starting to be published. Addison attributes much of his success to being likeable and having developed a large cadre of people over the years who were willing to go to bat for him in a problem situation. And this was definitely a problem, not a situation.

We can learn a great deal from successful people’s personal stories. I just wish Addison had thrown in a few pieces of data or some research about leadership to buttress his claims about how best to lead. But that would have created a different kind of book altogether, and this one holds its own with other, similar volumes.

Whenever I talk to colleagues about their work situations, most of those who are over 40 complain about young workers. In the past few weeks I’ve heard: “they often don’t show up for work and I have to work a double shift”, “they think they deserve a better work environment than people who’ve been here longer”, and “they don’t have any social skills.”

The complaints are so universal that Bruce Tulgan has written a book focusing on how to bring young workers up to speed with “soft skills”. Hard skills are the technical skills required to do the job, and he believes these are generally strong in young workers. But the soft skills are often sorely lacking. Tulgan describes soft skills as those involving professionalism, critical thinking, and followership. He asserts that people are hired because of their hard skills, but are fired due to their lack of soft skills.

Tulgan has been doing research on generational shifts in workplace skills since 1993. “Generation Z” (born between 1990 and 1999) are the newest employees to enter the workplace, and his data point to a major difference between these young people and older workers in terms of soft skills.

Trends such as globalization, technological advances, institutional insecurity, the information environment, and an increase in diversity have contributed to the soft skills gap. In addition, two other trends have significantly impacted on the decline in soft skills. The first Tulgan calls “helicopter parenting on steroids”. “Gen Zers have been insulated and scheduled and supervised and supported to a degree that no children or young adults have ever been before.” As a result, relationship boundaries with authority figures are rather blurry for Gen Zers. They expect authority figures to set them up for success, be of service to them, and treat them as customers. They are often startled when authority figures see it differently.

Second, Gen Zers have been told their entire lives that “all styles are equally valid,” so they are less inclined to try to fit in at work and more inclined to try to make the work environment fit in with them. Soft skills are mostly about fitting in, but Tulgan sees Gen Zers as the ultimate non-conformists. They struggle with the reality that there cannot be a functional workplace where everybody makes his or her own rules of conduct.

Of course, not every Gen Zer has poor soft skills. Many young people excel at professionalism, critical thinking, and followership. Unfortunately, there simply aren’t enough of them to fill all the entry-level jobs.

Tulgan discusses how to hire for soft skills as well as how to train people in them. It is important to build soft skills into the basic job requirements. When hiring, look for red flags, such as a prospective hire who arrives late for the interview. Don’t hire this person, regardless of his hard skills. In addition, consider previewing the job for prospective employees, either through job shadowing or showing videos of workers doing the actual job. That way the new hire won’t be surprised at having to do the boring, difficult parts of the job in addition to the exciting and challenging parts.

Most of the book goes into great detail about exactly how to provide training to Gen Zers. This requires that managers become teachers and drill down into the missing basic skills. Tulgan gives readers explicit instructions about how to teach these missing skills. For example, he discusses five components of professionalism: self-evaluation, personal responsibility, positive attitude, good work habits, and people skills. For each component, he talks about the gap between the manager and the Gen Zer; the bridge, or what the manager needs to remember; a script for exactly what to say when presenting the skill; and finally, he includes specific lesson plans.

When teaching personal responsibility, for example, the manager might complain about the Gen Zer: “They are too quick to make excuses for themselves, blame others, and complain about external influences, obstacles, and constraints”. The Gen Zer might respond: “In my entry-level position, I often feel powerless in the face of so many factors outside my control”. The learning objective is to teach employees how to take greater personal responsibility by learning to stay focused on concrete actions within their control. Four detailed lesson plans include such objectives as defining “personal responsibility” and considering small things that are within the person’s control when facing a typical work problem.

After reading this book I understand the differing points of view more thoroughly than I did when just listening to complaints. This problem will not just go away, I fear, as young people mature. They need to be taught these skills, just as they are taught hard skills. I’m tempted to carry copies of this book around with me and hand them out to friends and colleagues who complain about the Gen Zers in their lives. Solving the soft skills gap can be done, but it requires time, energy, and thought. This book will help enormously.

In The End of Average, Rose shows us that no one is average. We are all jagged, to use his word, or unique. Two people with the exact same average score on any multi-dimensional measurement will have completely different attributes, with hugely differing scores on the individual dimensions. This means that they will have unique strengths and weaknesses that are completely obscured if we only look at the average score.

Weaving science, history, and his experiences as a high school dropout who eventually earned a Ph.D. and a prestigious job, Rose brings to life the untold story of how we came to embrace the scientifically flawed idea that averages can be used to understand individuals. His writing is smooth and his arguments convincing. We can understand groups through looking at averages, but not individuals.

Rose offers three principles of individuality: the jaggedness principle (you can’t apply one-dimensional thinking to something that is complex, which of course includes people), the context principle (there is no such thing as a person’s essential nature, because our behavior depends on the context), and the pathways principle (there are many valid ways to reach the same outcome, and the paths people choose are based on their own individuality).

These principles seem a little obscure, but Rose clarifies them through great examples and interesting stories. For example, he talks about personality profiles. Personality tests are fun to take and give some interesting information. However, says Rose, “trait-based personality tests assume that we can be either extroverts or introverts…but not both.” Yet, everybody is both. We might be extroverted among our friends and introverted with strangers, or vice versa. “Sure, you could say someone was more introverted or extroverted on average…but if you relied on averages, then you missed out on all the important details of a person’s behavior.”

In terms of business, one of every company’s ongoing struggles is how to hire the right person for the right job. SAT scores and the prestige of a candidate’s alma mater are not predictive at all of success on the job. These are unidimensional scales that don’t uncover people’s individual talents. Successful hirers take into account the full complexities of a person’s talents. For example, instead of a resume, some companies ask job candidates to submit a statement of passion for the company and to answer a few questions about their abilities. These companies “feel like they have found a way to uncover diamonds in the rough, to identify unorthodox or hidden talent.” But, while they may have identified overlooked talent, there is nothing unorthodox or hidden about it. It is simply true talent, and it has always existed.

Rose talks about how Taylorism (Frederick Taylor wrote about standardization and management in his 1911 book, The Principles of Scientific Management) directed us down the path of a one-size-fits-all model, leading to factories where every job was standardized, schools where kids were funneled into high or low level reading groups and then on to college or vocational training, and the differentiation between workers and managers. He disagrees with this type of thinking, and instead supports the value of individuals. He sees the benefits of valuing individual employees as: increased employee engagement, increased productivity, and widespread innovation.

This is not a book about leadership or management, although it includes these concepts. It is about “how we succeed in a world that values sameness.” We need to think beyond averages and more about individuals, whether it is how they succeed in school, at jobs, or in life. It’s a fascinating read if you’re willing to wade through a compelling re-analysis of history and our basic assumptions about the world. In my opinion, it’s well worth the trouble.

The book includes Steltzner’s ideas about leadership, but it’s not a leadership book per se. It’s more of a memoir about his life and what he has learned along the way. If you are an engineer or a leader who’s responsible for managing engineers, it will probably be invaluable, because it presents intriguing insights about how engineers approach problem solving. And, if you’re interested in space exploration, so much the better. Mars is currently a hot topic, and Steltzner shows us the inner workings of teams that dedicate years of their lives to getting to the red planet. Because of the inherent risks of space travel, serious pressure is part of undertaking such a project, and Steltzner discusses how he handles the pressure (drinking and running), as well as many other topics relevant in today’s business world.

Steltzner barely graduated from high school, and probably would have continued working in a health food store and trying to imitate Elvis Costello if he hadn’t become interested in why and how the stars appear to move. He tried to take a class in astronomy at his local community college, but the prerequisite for that class was a class in physics. He had passed geometry in high school with an F+, and that was after failing it the first time, so he was understandably nervous about the mathematics involved in a physics class. But he passed the class, and then went on to finish college, get a master’s degree, and eventually a Ph.D. in engineering. He attributes his achievement to his insatiable curiosity about the world.

The book isn’t limited to describing Steltzner’s personal story. He expounds throughout on the leadership techniques and philosophy that have worked for him. He states numerous times that he believes the only essential ingredient for success at work is an environment that’s structured to encourage our innate drive to wonder, question, and explore.

Here are some of his ideas that were most meaningful to me.

“The trick is to exhibit leadership—lead—without having to claim leadership or subjugate others. This is leadership really as a service function, as a gift to the group.” In other words, leaders only exist to facilitate the performance of a collective group, and leadership is always in service to the group. And “if you offer your direction to the group for their endorsement, you are not imposing your will. You are simply gifting your thinking of how the group should attack the problem.” He seems to be talking about leadership by suggestion rather than edict.

Another interesting idea is: “There are two forms of decision making; fear based and curiosity based. In fear-based decision making, we find ourselves wanting the answer as fast as possible. In curiosity-based decision making, we use one of the core traits of our species to pull apart, examine, and wade into the open question. In my experience curiosity-based decision making yields much better solutions.”

He also talks about the importance of finding one thing to love about every team member, which will help you connect with that person and smooth your working relationship. And how to stand patiently in what he calls the “dark room,” which involves not knowing how your solution will work, and sometimes not even knowing if there is a solution to your problem. And that understanding the connections between data points is even more important than seeing the data points themselves. Good leaders need to constantly strive to understand the connections among different functions.

These nuggets of experience and wisdom are tucked inside paragraphs about other topics. To find them requires close reading, but it’s worth the trouble. I have to admit that my eyes glazed over at some of the details about designing the spacecraft, but I’m not an engineer. Some of the Amazon reviews suggest that he could have gone into much more detail and those readers would have been happier. So, read the book and decide for yourself.

After you’ve finished you might want to watch “Seven Minutes of Terror: The Challenges of Getting to Mars,” which I found on YouTube. It shows the components of the craft as they are described in the book and how they worked. The whole thing seems absolutely crazy. But it’s the right kind of crazy.

Thaler and Koval are both advertising whiz kids who created a hugely successful agency through hard work and…well, grit. So they know whereof they speak. The book is designed to be an inspirational self-help book, and in that regard, I think it succeeds admirably. It is filled with fascinating stories about people who were not blessed with particular intelligence or talent, but who succeeded by showing grit. The stories are the backbone of the book, along with the “Grit Builder” suggestions at the end of each chapter.

However, I found myself arguing with the authors throughout the book. “What about luck? Isn’t that important for success?” They don’t address this directly, but I think they would answer, “You make your own luck by hanging in there and keeping at it. Eventually you will succeed.” And then I would argue, “But what about discrimination?” They don’t deal with societal and cultural barriers. The people whose stories they describe didn’t let those things become barriers. But then I mentally asked, “But there isn’t room at the top for everybody. How do you deal with that?” I think they would say, “We don’t. We’re just giving you the formula for success. You can take it or leave it.” Fair enough. I can buy that.

The authors think it is time for some good old common sense about the value of hard work. They say: “It seems as if we are getting soft. Grit is about sweat, not swagger. Character, not charisma. Grit has been equated more with methodical stick-to-itiveness and survival than any secret ingredient to success…Grit is the result of a hard-fought struggle, a willingness to take risks, a strong sense of determination, working relentlessly toward a goal, taking challenges in stride, and having the passion and perseverance to accomplish difficult things, even if you are wallowing in the most difficult circumstances.”

They don’t think too much of the self-esteem movement, which they claim has undermined “the natural grit that this nation of immigrants brought with them in building a new life in a new land.” In fact, they make a point to tell readers “You’re nothing special,” and “Don’t flatter yourself that you are super-talented.” Just get to work, and you can succeed if you stick to it.

The stories of people who have succeeded in spite of not being naturally great were really fun. Some I was familiar with, such as how Michael Jordan was cut from the school’s basketball varsity team as a sophomore and went home to practice and practice until he became…Michael Jordan. Other stories were of people not so well known, such as Marin Alsop who became the first woman conductor of a major orchestra, even though she had been told women couldn’t be conductors. Or Eleanor Longden, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia and yet managed to get a PhD in psychology through amazingly hard work and the support of her doctor and her mother.

Some of their “Grit Builders” include: become an overpreparer; add a half hour a day to apply yourself to whatever you want to master; if Plan A doesn’t work, embrace Plan B; and an excuse a day makes the goals go away, so just do it. We know all these things, but it’s good to be reminded of them, especially when the way forward seems especially bleak.

This would be a good book to read on a plane. It’s short, clearly written, and is designed to help you buck up when you are discouraged or dreading that next meeting.

Superbosses, by definition, are better than run-of-the-mill good managers because they unleash unprecedented creativity, engagement, and accomplishment in their teams, generating and regenerating great talent. Here are the five traits of superbosses, based on Finkelstein’s research: all possess extreme confidence, even fearlessness, when it comes to furthering their agendas and ideas. They are all extremely competitive. They are visionaries. They manifest integrity: strict adherence to a core vision or sense of self. And, finally, they are authentic.

Finkelstein divides Superbosses into three groups. The “Iconoclasts” are so wholly fixated on their vision that they are able to teach in an intuitive, organic way, as a natural outgrowth of their passion and in service to it, rather than consciously or methodically. These are the artists among the superbosses, the ones we think of as creative geniuses. The author includes Miles Davis, Alice Waters, George Lucas, Lorne Michaels, and Ralph Lauren among this group.

Then there are the “Glorious Bastards,” superbosses less attuned to developing others than they are to winning, no matter what. They understand that in order to win, they need the best people and the best teams. They may be egoists, they may want fame and glory, but they perceive the success of those around them as the pathway to that glory. As a result, they teach people how to win, inspire them with examples of what winning feels like, and push them to ever higher levels of performance. He includes Larry Ellison, Michael Milken, Roger Corman, and Bonnie Fuller among this group.

Finally, there is the benevolent “Nurturer” superboss. They are constantly present to guide and teach their protégés, and they actively engage with employees to help them reach great heights. This group includes Bill Walsh, Mary Kay Ash, Gregg Popovich, Jon Stewart, and Archie Norman.

Intuitively, one would think that the Nurturers would be the most successful, but Finkelstein disputes this thought. His research indicates that all three types of superbosses are extraordinary at spawning talent, and that’s ultimately what counts.

In the book, Finkelstein develops what he calls the “Superboss Playbook,” which discusses each aspect of superboss behavior and offers suggestions for how regular bosses can incorporate some of these behaviors into their management style. It’s a fun read, and you will probably find at least two or three things that you can do to inspire talent to reach greater heights. For example, the chapter on networking for success was one of my favorites. He says to not be afraid of attrition, but consider it inevitable. When employees leave, “be smart: act like a concerned godparent and stay in touch with them.” Ensure that succession plans are in place for all top jobs, and when employees leave, do your best to sustain the bonds that were built while your former employees were still with you. You don’t know how or when opportunities will come up to work together again.

At the end of the book is a list of questions to see if you manage like a superboss. Some of these are: Do you have a specific vision for your work that energizes you, and that you use to energize and inspire your team? How much affection or connection do members of your team feel with one another? What is the balance of competition and collaboration on the team? Do you continue to stay in touch with employees who have left to work elsewhere?

He ends by telling readers not to fall into the trap of thinking that becoming a superboss is impossible. It’s not. Yes, the superbosses profiled in this book are extraordinary people—forces of nature—but there’s no reason any of us can’t become at least a little bit more like them.

While reading this book, I found myself thinking more creatively and on a larger scale about my job and my life, and I kept coming up with new ideas and ways to impact the world in a small way. Even if you don’t want to become a superboss, this book will stimulate your thinking and give you some good ideas. I promise.

Are you new to your job and feeling out of your depth and overwhelmed? If so, you probably have more to offer than you realize. In a rapidly changing world, being new, naïve, and even clueless can be an asset. According to author Liz Wiseman, the willingness to learn can be more valuable than mastery, and rookie smarts is often more beneficial to an organization than veteran comfort.

Wiseman doesn’t suggest that experience is a bad thing. Nobody wants their airline pilots, or their bridge builders, or their concert pianists to be rookies. But, while experience provides a distinct advantage in a stable field, it can actually impede progress in an unstable or rapidly evolving arena. When the world is changing quickly, inexperience can be a blessing, freeing us to improvise and adapt quickly to changing circumstances. “In the new world of work, where knowledge is fleeting and innovation cycles spin so quickly that many professionals never face the same problem twice, rookies are often top performers, drawing on the power of learning rather than falling back on their accumulated knowledge.”

Wiseman cites some chilling data to support her thesis. “The total amount of information in the world doubles approximately every eighteen months. New biological data doubles approximately every nine months. In the field of medicine, knowledge doubles every two to three years.” And so forth. Her point:  When there is too much to know, the only viable strategy is to know where and how to find information you need when you need it. Rookies can’t fall back on their accumulated wisdom, so they have to ask questions, search for answers, and talk to experts. “When there is too much to know, having the right question may be more important than having a ready answer.”

Unsettling, but true.

The book is filled with great stories that will keep the reader turning pages, such as the one about how Magic Johnson, as a rookie, led the Lakers to a big win in the NBA finals.  And how Ezekiel “Ziggy” Ansah put on football pads for the first time in 2010 and was rated one of the top defensive players in the U.S. by 2013.

There’s more to the book than entertaining stories, though. There are numerous suggestions for how to use your rookie smarts. For example, rookies are highly adept in the following circumstances:  Exploring new frontiers and innovating, making immediate gains, when there are multiple ways to solve a problem, and when there is too much information for any one person to know.

“However,” Wiseman says, “when a single mistake is game ending, putting a rookie on the job can be disastrous.”

One of the ways to keep a mistake from ending the game is to give rookies regular and consistent feedback.  She states:  “A study published in the Journal of Consumer Research suggests that rookies seek and respond to positive feedback, whereas veterans seek and respond to negative feedback.” Wiseman suggests that smart managers need to make sure rookies have a regular stream of feedback in order to help them calibrate their performance and stay on track. Through feedback, rookies rapidly convert information into intelligence. And the managers also need feedback to help them optimize their own performance.

Wiseman makes a strong case that rookies can make significant contributions to organizations, especially the ones that are dealing with cutting edge technologies and changing conditions.

We were all rookies once and, if we’re smart, we will continue to be rookies in some aspect of our lives. Rookies spend their time at the beginning of the learning curve, and their naiveté and enthusiasm are contagious. After all, what can be more fun than learning something new and finding ways to apply it?