The Power of Flexing: How to Use Small Daily Experiments to Create Big Life-Changing Growth

Leaders and workers must develop the skills to adapt to a fast-changing world, according to this encouraging if superficial debut from Ashford, chair of the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business’s Management and Organizations group. Ashford lays out a personal-development formula for a wide range of professionals that consists of creating “flex goals” that focus on an “area where you want to grow,” planning and conducting experiments, gathering feedback, reflecting, and managing one’s mindset and emotions. She includes stories of business leaders who boosted their careers by using such methods as mindfulness, approaching new situations with an aim to improve, coaching a team, and viewing life as “an ongoing experiment.” The best of her advice offers value to readers looking to make a change (such as a list of questions to help track one’s progress), but overall there’s nothing new, and the writing can be bloated: “The goals you set for enhancing your personal effectiveness can help you focus on your development even as you strive to master the daily tasks you must perform.” There’s nothing to set this one apart in a very crowded field. [em]Agent: Leila Campoli, Stonesong Literary. (Sept.) [/em]