Anne Merrill reviewed How to Lead by Jo Owen
Review of 'How to Lead' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
This book is refreshingly dense, compared to the lightweight, self-help feel of so many business books. I’m keeping it so I can reread it at some point. His approach to emotions was interesting and challenging for me. He advocates keeping your emotions to yourself, refining your skills at figuring out the emotions driving others, and scripting your communications to maximize impact. It struck me as such a manipulative, inauthentic way to behave. I put the book down for a little while in disgust before getting back to it. But then I pushed on and worked on engaging those ideas. He says that when meeting with people, you should put in preparation time that’s commensurate with the importance of the meeting. That’s been helpful advice. I’ve started sitting down to think through what I want, what’s driving them, etc. It’s helped me feel much more sure of myself in meetings. Even …
This book is refreshingly dense, compared to the lightweight, self-help feel of so many business books. I’m keeping it so I can reread it at some point. His approach to emotions was interesting and challenging for me. He advocates keeping your emotions to yourself, refining your skills at figuring out the emotions driving others, and scripting your communications to maximize impact. It struck me as such a manipulative, inauthentic way to behave. I put the book down for a little while in disgust before getting back to it. But then I pushed on and worked on engaging those ideas. He says that when meeting with people, you should put in preparation time that’s commensurate with the importance of the meeting. That’s been helpful advice. I’ve started sitting down to think through what I want, what’s driving them, etc. It’s helped me feel much more sure of myself in meetings. Even when writing emails to friends, it helps to stop and think about what this person wants and needs before I blurt out what’s on my mind. The more of these business books written by men I read, the more I realize that the business world takes place inside this mutually self-reinforcing web of masculine values: don’t reveal emotions, focus your energies on things that maximize your personal advantage, etc. The externalized emotional and domestic labor that this world view relies on is the vast negative space around this portrait of the economic man.