Flex: The New Playbook for Managing Across Differences - Hardcover

Hyun, Jane; Lee, Audrey S.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0062248529 ISBN 13: 9780062248527

Publisher: HarperBusiness, 2014

Synopsis

The workplace around the world is growing increasingly multicultural, female, and younger. Diversity experts often tell CEOs and managers what not to do, and corporate diversity programs have become defensive measures against lawsuits and harassment charges. We have lost the ability to build the trust required to achieve great outcomes in our workplaces. In order to be successful in this new global business environment, we need to re-think the way we lead others. Flex offers a different approach - a proactive strategy for managers to navigate and leverage diversity effectively in this new global economy, showing managers how to: understand the Power Gap, the social distance between you and those in the workplace of different cultures, ages, and gender; flex your management style, by stretching how you work and communicate with others, and bridging the gap with more effective communication, feedback tools and building healthy teams; and multiply the effect, by teaching these skills to others and closing the power gap with clients, customers, and partners to create innovative solutions. Creating flex in a company's management style will impact all aspects of developing the talent you have, attracting future talent and building relationships with customers in this competitive marketplace. Now, Flex shows you how.

About this title

Review:

“If you are in leadership or want to remain competitive and you don’t have a culturally diverse board or staff, you are part of the past. We need to focus now on understanding the need for developing this untapped pipeline. This remarkable resource will set you on the right path.” (--Dr. Frances Hesselbein, President, Leader to Leader Institute (formerly The Peter Drucker Institute))

“A solid, common-sense guide to creating a successful and diverse workplace in terms of culture, age, and gender....clear and illustrative.” (Publishers Weekly)

“Hyun and Lee’s book accomplishes what few guidebooks for employers do: It empowers leaders not only to manage differently, but to think differently by cultivating cultural fluency that will enable them to work more effectively with diverse teams.” (Sylvia Ann Hewlett, CEO, Center for Talent Innovation, author of Forget a Mentor, Find a Sponsor: The New Way to Fast-Track Your Career Sylvia Ann Hewlett, CEO, Center for Talent Innovation, author of Forget a Mentor, Find a Sponsor: The New Way to F)

“FLEX provides a way for leaders to re-define how to lead by understanding, embracing and seeking out differences.” (Karyn Detje, Chief Talent Officer, Tory Burch)

“Flexis the first real field manual for managing across differences. Its lessons are relevant to people at every level and stage of their career. “Flex” is required reading for every manager who wants to empower his/her employees to reach their full potential.” (David A. Thomas, PhD Dean and William R. Berkley Chair Georgetown University, McDonough School of Business David A. Thomas, PhD, Dean and William R. Berkley Chair, Georgetown University, McDonough School of Business)

“Read this book. If taken seriously, you will certainly challenge yourself to change the way you lead in today’s global marketplace.” (Steve Reinemund, Dean of Business, Wake Forest University, Retired Chairman and CEO, PepsiCo)

“Flex is about thinking -- managing one’s thinking to meet the demands of business relationships inside and outside of your organization. From the conceptual rationale to the practical how-to, take this journey with the authors!” (J.T. (Ted) Childs, Jr., Principal, Ted Childs LLC)

“...a solid, common-sense guide to creating a successful and diverse workplace...Their guide is clear and illustrative...” (Publishers Weekly)

“Coauthors Hyun and Lee provide the modern manager with a playbook on how to switch among leadership styles to get the most out of employees.” (Library Journal)

“Hyun and Lee offer convincing evidence to illustrate how to enhance communication skills across various workplace divides.” (Kirkus)

From the Back Cover:

The workplace around the world is changing—growing increasingly multicultural, female, and younger. Experts often tell CEOs and managers what not to do, and corporate diversity programs can often appear to be like defensive measures against lawsuits and harassment charges. While technology has connected all of us as a global workforce, it has not equipped us with the capability to interact genuinely with people. In order to be successful in this new global business environment, we need to rethink the way we lead others.

Flex offers a new approach—a proactive strategy for managers to understand and leverage difference effectively in this new global economy.

Flex shows managers how to

• understand the power gap—the social distance between you and those in the workplace of different cultures, ages, and gender;
• stretch your management style and bridge the gap with more effective communication and feedback tools; and
• multiply the effect by teaching these skills to others and closing the power gap with clients, customers, and partners to create innovative solutions.

Creating flex in a company's management style will affect all aspects of developing existing leaders, attracting future talent, and building relationships with customers in this competitive marketplace. Flex shows you how.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperBusiness
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0062248529
• ISBN 13: 9780062248527
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 336