Flex: The New Playbook for Managing Across Differences

A must-read for those in management roles who want to take her career to the next level. I read Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling 15 years ago right after law school. The lessons there were critical to helping me get to this stage of my career, and this book provides the actionable insights needed for the next level. I think there’s a different bamboo ceiling at each stage of one’s career. I would love to know how the authors think about this, and how skills that help break the first bamboo ceiling (into management) may or may not be the same ones that will break the next one. How do you flex to break that next bamboo ceiling?

This is a book for now. What an excellent resource to read and to refer to for those who are in the marketplace. It is a great reference for those who are in leadership or those who aspire to go into leadership. I wish I had read this book early on in my career. It is so important to be able to adapt and communicate well in this diverse culture. This book is an easy read that provides practical application as well as gives inspiring real-life examples.

Flex by Jane Hyun and Audrey S. Lee provides information for corporate managers on how to manage effectively in a diverse company. The book also contains advice for employees and on orientation programs. The book focuses on three kinds of differences: cultural, such as having employees from different countries, gender, that is to say between men and women and age, including people from several age categories. The authors say that the usual approach in such companies is to ignore differences, saying, in effect, we respect all our employees and treat them in the same manner. Such an approach they say is incorrect and instead managers should recognize these differences and actively seek to become “fluent” in dealing with them. There is a need for “intentional learning,” to develop in leaders the ability to work and communicate effortlessly with many types of people who are different from themselves. One aspect of this fluency is “code switching,” using more than one language in a single conversation with someone else who native language is different.The authors state that there are four stages of competency: unconscious incompetence (don’t know and don’t know you don’t know; conscious incompetence (know you don’t know); conscious competence (know how to use something but have to think about it to use it) and the ideal which is unconscious competence (know how to use something and can do so without conscious effort. Their book is about reaching this last state.All great relationships are built on trust and respect, but understanding and relating to people who are different in significant ways is critical to success. Thus the book is about adaptive leadership behavior and being fluent across differences. All organizations have some sort of hierarchy and thus there is a “power gap,” an organizational distance that separates people based on their status and position in the organization, Closing this power gap is a big part of being fluent across differences. U.S. leadership style is “aggressive self-promotion, good will, positive intent.” They also describe the traits of fluent leaders.Regarding cultural differences they describe the contrast between (1) direct and indirect communication; (2) expressive and restrained communication; (3) relationship and task orientation; (4) individualism and collective orientation; and (5) high and low content.They go on to consider gender and age differences.The book also considers the topic from the point of view of those being supervised and peers. It also considers orientation of new workers, saying that “onboarding,” which is a longer process of orienting new workers is preferable to the traditional short, orientation approach at initial hiring.In sum Flex is a valuable book for corporate managers who have a diverse work force, but it is also useful for anyone since all of us deal with diverse people in our everyday lives. I rate it at four stars because the benefit is not equal for everyone. I would rate it as five stars for corporate managers in diverse working environments, but at three for the average person who is not in such a situation.

Book in excellent condition. Fast shipping and great packaging.

Jane Hyun is an expert with decades of experience helping managers learn how to optimize their diverse teams. In times like these this is a must read for every manager who wants to learn to be sensitive and successful.

Today’s workforce is very diverse. Different races, creeds, colors, genders, and age groups are represented. Second generation Chinese work with H1B visa candidates from India. Baby boomers work side-by-side with millennials, etc.This book is about how to operate successfully in the “global” workplace. We’ve been taught to treat everyone the same. According to the authors, this method just doesn’t work. Rather, we need to acknowledge differences and learn to “flex” our management styles to deal with the differences. If we learn to do that well we become fluent leaders, and the benefits to the top and bottom line will flow.The book highlights common differences with groups of people and provides many examples for how to deal with them depending on whom those differences are with: peers, bosses, or subordinates. In fact there may be a few too many. The length (about 300 pages) takes away some of the punch. Nevertheless, overall, it represents a sound approach for capitalizing on diversity in the workplace.--Nick McCormick, author, "Lead Well and Prosper"

As a leader it is crucial to understand the beliefs of your team, because their beliefs drive their feelings and those feelings influence if they follow you are not. This book gives some practical tools on how to communicate more effectively with employees that have different backgrounds than you the leader.

Great book on working with diverse group members whether the diversity is age, gender, position level or ethnicity. Would recommend for anyone who works with teams.

Flex is both a challenging as well as practical book. Jane and Audrey's experience bank gives them lots of case studies to talk about how cultural difference in the workplace is a real thing! And that skill is required to flex with these challenges.The book is a good marriage of current leadership best practices joined together with CQ knowledge and skills that cause any reader to recognize the application possibilities in their own diverse work settings.