By William Carmichael
Book titles have always held a fascination for me. It is a calling card of sorts. After all, the title and subtitle sets the tone, hints at the genre, piques the reader’s curiosity and hopefully draws them in. In this month’s book, Serve Up Coach Down: Mastering the Middle and Both Sides of Leadership by Nathan Jamail, the full title understates the book’s intent in my humble opinion. Being of service to one’s boss (up) and direct reports (down) is certainly its foundation but what readers will find is an excellent field guide on performance improvement up, down, and sideways within their organizations. It provides an experienced consultant’s wisdom and advice on the most common issues those in middle management face each day and does so with candor and common sense; all while using servant leadership as an effective catalyst.
Servant leadership with a twist!
For those who feel the topic of servant leadership has been overdone, I’m with you. I get it! For whatever reason it has become an all too often used catch-phrase. Another idiom carelessly tossed about. Our author must get it too because he deliberately uses this term sparingly within the book’s Introduction although it is certainly the crux that ties it all together. Serve Up Coach Down takes us on a very interesting ride within organizational hierarchy by showing us why the traditional idea of being a servant leader is flawed in its execution. How? It is no secret that the most important characteristic in being a servant leader (first coined by Robert Greenleaf in 1970) is making your main priority to serve rather than to lead. Here, Jamail is not arguing the purpose or objective, rather, he chooses to expand its true direction for those in middle management. To quote the author, “Simply put, leaders in the middle must be willing to serve up to those they answer to but to serve those they lead they must coach down.”
Middle management’s challenge
As in Jamail’s other books, Serve Up Coach Down uses a very effective narrative in driving his points home. Allow me to use this analogy. Imagine playing chess with a player who is sitting in another room without a chessboard yet can call out their response moves so you can move the pieces. How can that other player do that? Well clearly that player understands the game extremely well. He is one step ahead of us. To this end, Jamail understands the game middle management must play to win and drives his advice home with an uncanny understanding of what is going on. I am also impressed with his vernacular, which is unpretentious.
What exactly is serving up?
The beginning of Chapter 2’s- Serving Up Is Not Sucking Up provides the perfect example of how a middle manager can implement a servant leadership mentality. Here, Jamail explains how a middle manager quickly reacts to a potentially embarrassing situation for his boss presenting to a group by fixing an audio problem before catastrophe strikes. Where some would argue the manager’s actions would appear self-serving or “kissing-ass,” Jamail convincingly argues just the opposite. In this case, the manager demonstrated a “selfless act of support for the vision and direction of the organization.” Readers are encouraged to change their perspectives as well as assumptions about negative thought patterns that too often show up at work. Just as he instructs his clients, he tells us how we can take a step back once an opinion has formed so we can better see the whole picture. To quote the author, “When it comes to serving up, we must assume that our boss and those who lead us have more information and more visibility to make the best decisions for the company and us.” There is a logic and truth that supports this simple reasoning.
One section of Serve Up Coach Down that readers will find intriguing is its approach to the rapid-fire changes that all organizations now must implement. While the “change or die” dichotomy to some might be exciting, its unwelcome inevitably to others is unnerving. Here, Jamail doesn’t sugar coat anything. He offers up real doses of reality and does so with clarity and support. Call it “tough love” for managers at any level or at any point in their career.
Structure and Layout
The book’s effectiveness comes not just from the commonsense approach the author takes with middle management issues but from its simple layout. The twenty-six short chapters are spread out within seven parts that readers will find easily read over a weekend. Appearances are also deceiving. What first appears to be a requisite order is not. For example, some parts beg to be read first as I found with Part 4’s- Bridging the Knowledge Gap; a wonderful section about the ‘will or won’t’ mentality that all managers run into from time to time.
Introduction The Leader in the Middle
Part 1 Serving Up
Part 2 Coaching Down
Part 3 Serving and Coaching in Uncertain Times
Part 4 Bridging the Knowledge Gap
Part 5 Choosing Time Management
Part 6 Everyone is Important, but No One is Required
Part 7 Keeping the Power
As stated previously, what appears to be a requisite order, is not. Suffice it to say, I liked this book and I think you will too.
Who Will Benefit Most from This Book?
Middle and upper management, organizational leaders at all levels, HR practitioners, Training and Development leaders.
About the author: Nathan Jamail is a recognized leadership expert that has spent over 25 years in sales management and leadership coaching top-performing teams. He has worked with hundreds of organizations and thousands of leaders over the years including Cisco, FedEx, State Farm, T-Rowe Price, The Hartford, Comcast, Microsoft, the US Army Reserve, Georgia Pacific, Capital One Finance, and US Healthworks. He is the author of four bestselling books, including The Sales Leaders Playbook.
Strayer University
william.carmichael@strayer.edu
www.strayer.edu