Sue's Musings

Now I’m recommending a book I have not yet read, but is on my list. Since this month we’re focusing on how leaders are sometime part of the problem, here’s a book that helps us put the focus back on ourselves. Speaking just for myself, sometimes it is helpful to find a tool that will almost mechanically force me to focus on my own contributions to a situation, because it is SO easy just to blame everyone else! As Peter Block attests to in this book, we all have a choice in how we look at things, and approach things, and this book is about making good choices as leaders.

This is the book description from amazon.com:
People keep asking “How?” as a defense against living their life, says best-selling author Peter Block. In this witty, insightful award-winning book, Block shows that many standard solutions and improvement efforts, reinforced by most of the literature, keep people paralyzed. Here he places the “how to” craze in perspective and teaches individuals, workers, and managers ways to act on what they know. This in turn allows them to reclaim their freedom and capacity to create the kind of world they want to live in. Block’s “elements of choice” – the characteristic of a new workplace and a new world based on more positive values – include self-mentoring, investing in relationships, accepting the unpredictability of life, and realizing that the individual prospers only when the community does.

In the next article I’ll share with you some of my learnings about this book. And who knows after reading it, I’ll probably have a few more!