WB Reading List: Extravagant tenderness, biased performance reviews, and masterful change leadership

The Whole Language by Father Gregory Boyle

This book may not be on the typical leadership reading list, but I submit that the work Father Greg has done at Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles is the definition of leadership. This is his third book and, while not as compelling as Tattoos on the Heart, it describes the tenderness required to connect with and inspire change in people.

Takeaways: At Homeboy Industries they “start with belonging.”

“Clear is better than tough.”

“We can rest in being reactive and relatively adept at responding to situations that arise. We can sit around and wait for the need that comes up, the trainee who seeks us out, the crises that present themselves. But rather than settle into reactive dexterity, we ant to always be attuned to being proactively relational.”

Reducing workplace bias starts with fairer performance reviews by Josh Merrill

Confirm, a software company in the performance management space, studied 5000 performance reviews to compare “Traditional hierarchical ratings, based on individual manager reviews, and Network ratings, gathered from a wider range of employees within the company using the science of organizational network analysis.” This led to some interesting results that may prompt you to examine your performance management approach more closely.

Takeaways: “By analyzing performance reviews, companies can identify pockets of bias. This data leads to insights and action steps that can help reduce the impact it has on promotions and PIPs.”

Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) “is an effective way of reducing it and creating an even playing field for employees.”

The Most Successful Approaches to Leading Change by Deborah Rowland, Michael Thorley, and Nicole Brauckmann

This quick read lays out the “optimal ways to conceive, design, and implement successful organizational change.”

Takeaways: “Too often, [leaders’] attention is focused on the what of change — such as a new organization strategy, operating model or acquisition integration — not the how — the particular way they will approach such changes. Such inattention to the how comes with the major risk that old routines will be used to get to new places.”

“The first step to being a successful change leader is to be aware of the change-implementation choices available to you.”