Open, Honest, and Direct: A Guide to Unlocking Your Team's Potential

by Aaron Levy

Building a business requires more than just a good product and talented people; it requires you to take a hard look at how you show up as a leader. Open, Honest, and Direct helps you dive into the heart of your business and your people, identifying changes you can make to transform the way you and your managers lead. Part business book, part personal-development guide, this is a how-to full of practical ways to not only build and lead a high-performance team but also bring out the best in your people.

Being a successful manager is less about staying constantly on top of your team and more about providing clarity and context for people. Levy’s method for creating open, honest, and direct leaders within an organization provides you with tactical tools you can put to use right away. This is a toolkit for designing a culture that supports employee performance and future-proofs your business.

Many managers are promoted because they are great at what they do, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into their ability to manage a team and get the most out of their people. In today’s business environment where the competition for top talent is intense, it’s integral to not only keep your top talent but also be able to coach all of your people and unlock their full potential. Open, Honest, and Direct is a field guide and powerful movement for leading that will give your organization the competitive edge it needs.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Leadership, Self Help, Personal Development

240 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 13, 2019

Reviews

[K Saju · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am always on the lookout for advice, articles. books on leadership and management and I have been pleasantly surprised on the scope and quality of the book which is very detailed and of the highest order. The language of the book is simple and concise and the author,Aaron Levy, has bound the book efficiently by starting of in providing a framework to first choose the right mangers then in building better leaders which includes a good section on self review and finally closing it by summarizing and restating the actionable framework.
Though every chapter had various gems of advice my favourite was chapter 4 on intention and attention.
This is a book which I would heartily recommend to both the emerging leader as well as the established ones. The former gains an actionable framework while the latter can validate their workings against the framework and gain dine deeper insights.

[Richard Propes · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a copy of Aaron Levy's "Open, Honest, and Direct: A Guide to Unlocking Your Team's Potential" as part of a Goodreads giveaway and am grateful for the opportunity to offer the book an honest review.

I struggled with how to rate "Open, Honest, and Direct." I vacillated between a 3 and 4-star rating several times in my mind. In reality, a 3.5-star review feels most accurate yet that's not allowed and a 4-star review simply feels a touch high for my overall feelings about the book.

"Open, Honest, and Direct" will most likely resonate with those early in their leadership experiences. Levy has incorporated a wealth of practical knowledge and exercises that can be utilized by leaders and up-and-coming leaders to evaluate one's own leadership style and practices and to ensure one's leadership is truly being as effective as possible.

If you're a more established leader, then "Open, Honest, and Direct" is less likely to be beneficial as an awful lot of this material is familiar and has been shared before. For example, while I resonated with Levy's recommendations regarding honest communication this type of recommendation is shared much more thoroughly and effectively in the book "Radical Candor."

One question I always ask myself after reading a book on leadership is "Would I let this person lead me?" Would I be part of their team? This isn't necessarily the same as saying "Is this person a good leader?" However, I'm most drawn to books that leave me feeling like "I would work for that person" or "I would be part of that team." I finished "Open, Honest, and Direct" feeling like I would never consider working for or being a part of Levy's team. Is he a solid leader? Of course. He's accomplished amazing things in business and that's respectable and admirable. However, I found myself not always resonating with his communication style and I occasionally felt like he was contradicting his own recommendations.

For example, there's a section in the book where he's talking about the importance of clear, direct communication to build up the team yet the consequence of the communication was a more passive resolution that two team members left the team. That just feels in conflict to me. I sometimes felt like Levy wasn't entirely in touch with the impact that he was having himself on the resolution of difficult situations.

While I had some issues with the book, for the most part, I appreciated its simplicity and I definitely appreciated Levy's generous insertion of practical exercises toward the end of the book. I appreciate writers who create ways for a book's impact to linger and Levy has definitely done that with "Open, Honest, and Direct."

[Lea Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like a good book on communications so I was pleased to receive this from a Goodreads giveaway. While this book's main focus was on inculcating open, honest and direct communication within a group from the leader's perspective, I always find that as a team member, I can also gain insights from this kind of text.

I read this on two legs of a cross-country, multi-state work trip, and I really took to heart the chapter on effective listening. We're all aware of the edict that we work on active listening. But despite knowing this, Open, Honest, and Direct gave me a very explicit instruction to listen to what my inner dialogue was doing when I was supposed to be listening. Sorry friends and co-workers, I have not done a good job. My inner dialogue runs from trying to race ahead the speaker to the point, to trying to figure out what I am going to have for dinner.

This book's real strength lies not in its content as much as it's design. See, Aaron Levy openly talks about what a waste multi-day seminars are that teach teach teach without any application. So Levy lays out the principles, then discusses how to put those into practice, but then MOST importantly, talks about the reflection that is needed for continuous improvement of these principles in action. This is where most leaders fail. I've encountered so many managers who know all the right buzz words to describe how a working environment should function, but they are terrible at actually practicing the principles they espouse.

3.5/5 Stars.

[Hope · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative and practical, but didn't keep my interest.

While there are many nuggets of interest throughout this book, it took me a long time to finish. Perhaps best done as a training exercise with a group of new-hires, the e-book version didn't translate effectively. Action items and reflection questions made this seem more like a workbook than a guide.

The most important chapters are near the begining, and much of the rest was common sense at this point in my career. I think I could have done without all the extra takeaways and just read the main content if reading in physical form.

If you're new to or curious about leadership, this could be a great resource. If you're more seasoned or looking for new ideas, you can skip it.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won a copy of this book from Goodreads Giveaways.

This was a really concise look at how to develop a management style that seems intuitive but takes a lot of work. I think the way it’s written works well for someone who is just starting down the path of management, or for someone who’s been doing it for a while and finds their current model isn’t getting them what they want. There’s a lot of information packed into a small space, but it’s set up in a way that flows and there is also a toolkit at the end (and available online) that looks to be extremely helpful.

[Rezky Ramadhani · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an easy reading for a leadership and management book. Especially, the author focuses on how we took action for all of the theories. There are so many to do lists that we can do after reading the theories.

[Aurora · Rating 4 out of 5]

It works

I won this book as part of a Goodreads giveaway. I learned so much about myself, the workplace and my firstborn, who is even more amazing in my eyes.

[Chris Anderson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really just a mash up of other books that had original thoughts by better writers and novel research. Study servant leadership and read Crucial Conversations instead

[kruse · Rating 5 out of 5]

For a book on being a people manager, this is the best book I’ve read so far. The info is easy to understand and digest. Not overwhelming. High recommend and will be referring regularly.

[Brenda Keckeisen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good Read

Had some go tips for leadership. I find that communication in any business is the most important item there could be!

[Tiffany Guthrie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a bad read. Took me a while to get through it.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read

I won this as a giveaway on Goodreads. Business books are iffy for me since they seem to be either very relevant or completely worthless to my needs. This was relevant. I'm not in a leadership role but I feel like this is applicable to anyone looking to improve communication with the people they work with. It gave me some good things to think about.

[Marta · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book about how anyone can become a strong(er) people manager, and how any employee can become a stronger contributor through having a manager who cares. It has practical advice about how to be a better listener and how to make people feel heard and valued. I have recommended it to several people I work with.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a small business owner with staff of 20, I am always looking for good ideas on working with our Team - as building team potential and working with staff effectively has always been a challenge for me. The author offers some good advice using real life examples. I especially like the chapter where he talks about listening with intention.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first giveaway I ever won on Goodreads.

Took me some time to finally get to it, but it comes at the right time for me as I am studying various books on communication in the workplace. The concepts are simple and sometimes obvious, but the book is short and an easy to read. It gave me some good ideas to implement immediately and some to work towards. Overall, a decent read.

[Drew]

I have received this book through a giveaway and look forward to reading it

[Kasey]

Thank you for the opportunity to review this book as a giveaway recipient. I am excited to read it and will update my thoughts on this book soon!

[L E · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goodreads Giveaway - was very timely as I am researching leadership strategies. Clear, concise advice with action steps. Quick read that will have impact.