One of the genres I tend to read is leadership books, and they come in all shapes and sizes. Some are more prescriptive and researched based (e.g. The Human Side of School Change, by Robert Evans), others written from the experience of the authors (e.g. Onward, by Howard Schultz about Starbucks). Reboot: Leadership and the Art of Growing Up, by Jerry Colonna, is a third form; the reflective consultant sharing his wisdom. While there are others in this category that I liked more (e.g. anything by Patrick Lencionni), he did have some honest, thoughtful insights that made the book worth reading, and my writing about it here.
The core of Reboot is the notion that we live our character/psychology/traumas in our leadership. In order to be better leaders, therefore, we need to engage in what he calls ‘radical self-inquiry’ to understand ourselves more deeply, and thus make better choices. For Colonna, this means a lot of looking to our past, becoming aware of, confronting and learning to manage the fears that unconsciously animate our present choices. It also means looking past the facade that we as leaders really understand what needs to happen,the illusion that simply because we are in charge we have the answers, and instead admit that we are learning (and therefore somewhat lost), just like everyone else. This is the ‘growing up’ part of the subtitle – that we need to understand and own who we are, take responsibility for it, and not live in an illusion about our present.
In Reboot, Colonna moves back and forth between stories about his own life, those of his clients (which are often useful case studies), and the ideas that animate his vision. Personally, I think the book could have used a stronger editor. Too often chapters did not have a strong through-line; and stories about his own past were too frequent and often did not deepen his ideas. These passages felt excessively self-revelatory, even as I realize this was an honesty he was trying to model. With that said, in each chapter there were one or two gem ideas that made the book worth reading, and repeated ideas that allowed them to deepen throughout the book.
If you’re interested in this type of self-growth, or improving your art of leadership, it’s a book worth reading.
Just Because I Liked It:
- At Netivot, our teachers are learning an enormous amount from Rabbis Dov and Ishai Zinger about how to bring ruchniyut to our learning community. Here’s an article Rabbi Dov Zinger that fleshes out his approach, which is being adopted by our middle school teachers, and a reflection I wrote after a recent conversation I had with Rabbi Yishai Zinger.
- I’ve come across the name of Batya Ungar Sargon before, as a past editor of the Forward, but never heard her speak. I really enjoyed this conversation she had with Coleman Hughes about the challenges facing journalism today, and challenging some of the ideological trends that circulate in today’s culture. She’s an independent thinker, very provocative (in a good way), if sometimes a bit judgemental.
- We never know what happens in someone else’s marital relationship – how conflict is negotiated, and how partners manage changes in their spouse over time. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin addresses these questions in a recent series. I found the conversation with Ephraim and Aliza Bulow, where Ephraim decided to no longer be religious, though they are still very happily married, quite revealing and heartening.