From Expert to Executive: Mastering the SOPs of Leading

by Edward E. Tyson, Michael Ashley

“From Expert to Mastering the SOPs of Leading" illustrates the importance and power of demystifying, deconstructing, and rebuilding our notions of leadership in a bid to overcome the most pressing crisis facing modern organizations and their not enough leaders are actually leading. Written by Ed Tyson, a former Marine-turned-executive-turned-coach, as a fictional case study within a novella, “From Expert to Mastering the SOPS of Leading” highlights a matrix of interconnected stories of personal and professional struggle, through which a solution is the LeadershipSOPs. Behind the model’s elegantly compact SOPs acronym, lies a mnemonic double entendre, implying both a methodology identifying a consistent approach to leading (developing and deploying a personal playbook of standard operating procedures) and a framework highlighting which SOPs leaders must develop (those meant to structure, operate, and perfect powerful communities of effort). Too frequently, new and veteran leaders are left to find and travel the road from subject matter expert to executive alone. And, even when we do support them, we often doom our efforts to failure by overloading development programs with training on interpersonal skills and leadership styles (an approach which wrongly assumes these leaders already know how to differentiate their work from the team’s). A far cry from a dry textbook, “From Expert to Executive…” succeeds in depicting real-life leadership scenarios through the eyes of six fictional leaders and one applicant across more than a decade. It is a must-read, delivering tangible guidance to new leaders grappling with their responsibilities, veteran executives searching for scalability and sophistication, and mentors trying to simplify coaching conversations.

Genres: Management, Leadership, Business

210 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 5, 2020

Reviews

[Geoff Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book does an amazing job of telling the story of the struggle of an individual performer moving to a full leadership role. The book communicates the true difficulty of expert comprehending the value of time spent planning or in meetings, or even what leading really is. The aha moments are worth the time investment even if you have no interest in implementing the systems. The understanding it is capable of bringing to both the natural "people person" and the introverted individual performer about the others' perspective and the basics of leadership is incredibly valuable.

[Ketya · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed that the book delivers the key points through an interesting fictional story. At the end though, I felt it didn’t get into details of “how”. It almost felt like a lead generation tool for the writer’s consulting business - which probably it is :)

[Shirley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enjoyable and thought-provoking exploration of leadership and most directly the shift from subject matter expert to leader and executive.

[Liuyang Li · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book uses a fable style to illustrate how to lead.

If you like Patrick Lencioni/Table Group's books, you will like this one as well.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bumped my original 3 to 4 for a few reasons - i’ve found myself thinking back to a few parts multiple times and even recommending it to one of my direct reports who is working up towards a leadership role for the first time.
It’s still a bit cheesy but i am pleasantly surprised how much i’ve either referenced it indirectly, considered one of the principles, or thought of specific people would might benefit from reading

[Fastener Gal · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting way of introducing leadership concepts. I found the stories to be helpful and could connect with the fictional scenarios to real life.