Connectable

   

Note: This is the NEW location for John Pearson's Pails in Comparison Blog. Slowly (!), the previous 100+ blogs posted (between 2022 and 2025) will gradually populate this blogsite, along with new book reviews each month.

PIC No. 3: Pails in Comparison 

• Title: Connectable: How Leaders Can Move Teams From Isolated to All In
• Author: Ryan Jenkins and Steven Van Cohen
• Publisher: McGraw Hill (336 pages, March 2, 2022)
• Management Bucket #8 of 20: The Culture Bucket

MARCH 1, 2022

Welcome to the third issue of Pails in Comparison, the sidekick of John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. This blog features my “PICs”—short reviews of helpful books—with comparisons to other books in my 20 management buckets (core competencies) filing system.

ARE YOU INTERRUPTIBLE?

What’s not to like about two co-authors who each spotlight their favorite chapter? (Can you even do that? Isn’t that like picking your favorite child?)

Chapter 11, “Be Interruptible” is Ray Jenkins’ favorite chapter in their helpful book, Connectable: How Leaders Can Move Teams From Isolated to All In. They note:

“Leaders are the least interruptible workers, and yet they are the ones who need to be interrupted most. The more important and serious you consider yourself, the less open you are to detours and interruptions.” And get this!

• “Three in four employees see effective communication as the number one leadership attribute.
• “Yet, less than one in three employees feel like their leaders communicate effectively.”

Are you interruptible? “During a conversation, not maintaining eye contact, not listening (or only thinking about what you’re going to say next), not making the conversation about the other person, or consistently using phrases like ‘I’m too busy’ are all telltale and easily recognized signs of not being interruptible.”

Am I growing more or less irritable? “A more important and much more difficult question that leaders must ask themselves to uncover their interruptibility is: Am I growing more or less irritable? How irritable are you when you are interrupted?"

They add, “Your reaction the moment you feel your attention being drawn away from the task at hand is revealing. What you feel in that split second is your gateway into understanding your interruptibility.” Yikes (If you’re gutsy enough to read this chapter—it is very, very convicting!)

Chapter 11 begins with the viral video of Professor Robert Kelly (during a 2017 BBC interview via Skype) who was interrupted by his two young children. View it here. Hilarious! Interruptible? Absolutely!!

Two young kids interrupt Dad’s BBC interview! View this 3-minute video.

Patrick Lencioni, author of The Advantage (read my review--I named it my 2012 book-of-the-year), says “Every leader and manager needs to read this.”

Shark Tank guru Daymond John labels Connectable “a must-read.” I agree. And by the way, co-author Steven Van Cohen’s favorite chapter? Chapter 4: “The Science of Belonging.” Must-read! Did you know that your brain on pain and your brain on loneliness “register in the same area of the brain?” 

PAILS IN COMPARISON: I’d compare this book to the helpful books in the Culture Bucket, including: 

• The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business, by Patrick Lencioni (2012 book-of-the-year: read my review) 

• Connection Culture: The Competitive Advantage of Shared Identity, Empathy, and Understanding at Work, by Michael Lee Stallard, Jason Pankau, and Katharine P. Stallard (read my review). Note: the Second Edition includes insights on COVID. Order from Amazon.

TO ORDER FROM AMAZON, click on the title for Connectable: How Leaders Can Move Teams From Isolated to All In, by Ryan Jenkins and Steven Van Cohen. For more book reviews, visit John Pearson’s Buckets Blog and subscribe to Your Weekly Staff Meeting.

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