Flex: The Art and Science of Leadership in a Changing World

I have two primary practice areas: the first is executive assessment for selection and high potential identification and development. My second area of focus is cultural development. As part of each practice area I do a lot of coaching, and my coaching focus has long been on helping leaders grow a balanced, situational, full-range type of leadership approach.One of my frustrations has been that I have not found a book that adequately supports this approach. Of course, the bookstore shelves are packed full with how-to books on various approaches to leadership and emotional and social intelligence. But, interestingly, they all seem to espouse one specific way of leading, typically the currently-most-popular approach. I wanted a book that was more fundamental, one that articulated the underlying process of becoming a full-range, flexible leader as well as provided tools to actually make the journey. A friend of mine recommended Dr. Hull’s, Flex: The Art and Science of Leadership in a Changing World.I have found Dr. Hull’s book to be the exact resource I needed to support my stance that leaders need to be whole persons who can draw on the full-range of their humanity and intellect to bring to the situation what is most immediately needed—to be tough, directive, unilateral, even impatient when necessary; or collaborative, involving, caring, vulnerable, even tender in other situations. Dr. Hull’s book in my opinion is a masterful integration of this very complex yet utterly necessary ability to be a full-range human in support of the agile, responsive organization.In my 30-year career in leadership development, talent management, and organization development, I have been a consistent proponent of leadership practices that seek to identify the most appropriate energy and approach for a given situation. Abraham Lincoln has long been both a model and a symbol for this kind of leadership for me. Lincoln was capable of being extraordinarily tough, even ruthless, when the situation called for it, and he could also be compassionate and tender at other times. There has never been a time when this kind of full-range leadership has been more important. Our world and business environments are growing increasingly complex. The “agile organization” is the new sought-after ideal. The ability to change directions, quickly seize opportunities, ride-out volatile markets, respond to competitive threats from places never-before imagined (i.e., often from not even within one’s own industry) is placing incredible stress on organizational leaders. In my experience it is becoming axiomatic that a leader rigidly entrenched in one leadership style and who operates with a fixed mindset will inevitably find her/his style inadequate to the immediate requirements—whether that style is collaborative or autocratic. For organizations to be agile, leaders need to be agile, and they need access to the full range of human-being in order to meet the full-range of situations every business encounters.I would recommend this book for anyone interested in helping organizations work better including leaders, coaches, and consultants—experienced or aspiring.

This IS the book! Let me repeat. This is the book!There is an abundance (probably an over abundance) of leadership books on the market today many by well known authors. I have read many of them as I suspect you have as well. "Flex: The Art and Science of Leadership in a Changing World" transcends them all.I read this book (twice) and also listened to audiotape (incredibly enjoyable) and each time discovered new and amazing insights on the topic of leadership but, more importantly, on myself. I tell you with sincerity that there were moments of personal and professional epiphany in this process. No book has had a more profound effect on moving me to a better place, not only as a leader, but as a person.There are things in life that you alone must experience to fully understand and appreciate. This book is one of those things.Dr. Hull has a warm and engaging narrative style that makes absorbing his thought-provoking work both enjoyable and inviting. This book should be on every leaders shelf or for anyone who aspires to a higher good in life.

As an executive coach and leadership professor at NYU and Columbia who reads an average of one business book a week, I find that many leadership books tend to say the same thing...only in a slightly different way. But Jeffrey Hull's "Flex: The Art and Science of Leadership in a Changing World" definitely stands out from the crowd! His six-element FIERCE model is one of the best new frameworks I've come across in a long time, and one that I will definitely incorporate into my coaching and teaching practice. A master storyteller, Hull is exceptionally skilled at simplifying complexity and continuously providing interesting and engaging examples that bring his concepts to life. Unlike the many business books that go up on my shelves never to be heard from again, "Flex" is one that I plan on keeping within arms-length to reference time and time again.

I've long been an admirer of the author, an exceptionally experienced coach who has many distinctions, including teaching at Harvard Medical School. He shares his proven coaching approach in FLEX, and the critical distinction between an Alpha and Beta leader. As he shares, in the age of the post-heroic leader, a new set of leadership skills is needed. Flex: The Art and Science of Leadership in a Changing World shares the six key elements that leaders in this new workplace need to succeed, known as F.I.E.R.C.E.: Flexibility, Intentionality, Emotional Intelligence, Realness, Collaboration, and Engagement. Highly recommend.

Dr Hull's Flex book provides an outstanding and insightful, easy to use, yet sophisticated and evidence-based framework to understand and practice effective leadership in today's world. This book is an essential roadmap for any leaders and provides easy to implement tools for anyone to start expanding their leadership repertoire to best deal with the situation at hand. Dr Hull does not dumb down effective leadership to a few principles that feel empty when having to implement them. He uses the richness, diversity and complexity of human beings to show how anyone can work to grow their leadership in ways that can effectively deal and support the richness, diversity and complexity of human beings. This is such a great book that I have started offering it to friends, colleagues and even my young adult children. Everyone needs to know what Dr Hull discusses in this book because everyone needs to learn how to lead themselves before they can lead others!

A great resource for leaders at all levels who find they have hit a stumbling block and what used to work no longer does. A practical step by step way of shifting their approach to a more coaching-based style of leading and partnering.

Flex is very readable and provides real and actionable insights into leadership in rapidly changing times. The book is filled with vivid examples that are recognizable and that help you to understand the concepts in really concrete ways. Most importantly, the book recommends adaptability (hence Flex) rather than a one-size fits all solution- which is always the right advice to give when it comes to leadership.