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

Whether advising CEOs, giving a keynote, or teaching students, Sue Ashford is often the first expert I quote. She’s also the only speaker I know who has ever gotten a standing ovation at an academic conference...Sue’s work on flexing has fundamentally changed how I think about being proactive and adaptable. ~Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of GIVE AND TAKE and ORIGINALS There has been a shift at your organization and now you have to take on a leadership role you don't feel prepared for. Your boss has told you that you seem aloof and unapproachable in client meetings. A teammate on your soccer league says you get overly emotional if the team looks like they're going to lose. These examples are moments where you need to rely on your soft skills and hone your interpersonal skills. But that's easier said than done. Sue Ashford, the chair of the Management and Organizations group at the Ross School of Business, has used her decades of research on interpersonal effectiveness to create an easy-to-follow plan to learn and grow in organizations and in the face of new tasks and duties. Flexing is a technique for experimentation that individuals, teams, and entire organizations can use to ensure they learn, grow, and develop enhanced skills as a natural outgrowth of every work challenge they encounter. Flexing takes learning out of the classroom and shows how it can be gained in every new project, work assignment, and problem-solving task you’ll ever shoulder, ensuring that practical, valuable takeaways will constantly emerge throughout your career. When you are confronted with a new challenge, or simply want to develop a skill, you begin your Flexing journey by setting your flex goal by stating explicitly what you want to learn and how you want to grow. Once you have your flex goal, you begin to run experiments, solicit feedback and tweak your experiments as you go. Flexing teaches growth mindset and reminds us to reflect on our own experiences in order to become the best versions of ourselves. Flexing can also be used in teams and organizations. Ashford dedicates chapters to helping small teams and large organizations implement flexing to ensure their staff is ready for new challenges. The Art of Flexing is practical and warm and will help readers on their journey to greater personal effectiveness. Read Less