Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World

Overall, “Nine Lies About Work” provides a fresh and thought-provoking perspective on common workplace beliefs. Buckingham and Goodall’s approach is grounded in reality and practical experience, making it a refreshing antidote to conventional wisdom and generic business advice. 

Furthermore, the book’s structure, centered around the “nine lies”, makes it very easy to digest and understand. Each “lie” is discussed thoroughly, with a good balance of evidence, anecdotes, and practical implications, making the book a compelling and quite engaging read. 

Finally, the core book strength is its focus on the individual. The authors argue convincingly that organizations should recognize and leverage the uniqueness of their employees, rather than trying to mold them into a preconceived ideal. 

While the book’s contrarian approach is refreshing, some readers may find the labelling of certain principles as “lies” overly provocative — mainly for the sake of being provocative. For instance, the claim that “people need feedback” is broadly seen as fundamental to professional growth, and the authors’ attempt to refute it may seem counterintuitive. Their other claims can be seen as controversial as well — for example, their insistence of moving away from work-life balance onto something similar to “work as a lifestyle”.  

Moreover, while the authors provide somewhat compelling arguments for each “lie”, there is limited practical advice on how to apply their insights in the real world. This might leave readers who are looking for concrete steps on how to implement these changes somewhat disappointed.

Finally, many of the authors’ proposed alternatives to these “lies” are not very applicable to all business spheres. For example, not every company or job (and, perhaps, not even a majority) can offer what the authors see as an alternative to the aforementioned work-life balance — that is, shifting attitude towards work as something good. And the importance of good teams (instead of company culture) is much less noticeable in smaller companies with just a few dozen people there, where overarching culture ultimately prevails. 

Forget what you know about the world of work 

You crave feedback. Your organization’s culture is the key to its success. Strategic planning is essential. Your competencies should be measured, and your weaknesses shored up. Leadership is a thing. 

These may sound like basic truths of our work lives today. But actually, they’re lies. As strengths guru and bestselling author Marcus Buckingham and Cisco Leadership and Team Intelligence head Ashley Goodall show in this provocative, inspiring book, there are some big lies–distortions, faulty assumptions, wrong thinking–that we encounter every time we show up for work. Nine lies, to be exact. They cause dysfunction and frustration, ultimately resulting in workplaces that are a pale shadow of what they could be. 

But there are those who can get past the lies and discover what’s real. These freethinking leaders recognize the power and beauty of our individual uniqueness. They know that emergent patterns are more valuable than received wisdom and that evidence is more powerful than dogma. 

With engaging stories and incisive analysis, the authors reveal the essential truths that such freethinking leaders will recognize immediately: that it is the strength and cohesiveness of your team, not your company’s culture, that matter most; that we should focus less on top-down planning and more on giving our people reliable, real-time intelligence; that rather than trying to align people’s goals we should strive to align people’s sense of purpose and meaning; that people don’t want constant feedback, they want helpful attention. 

This is the real world of work, as it is and as it should be. Nine Lies About Work reveals the few core truths that will help you show just how good you are to those who truly rely on you. 

“Nine Lies About Work” is a valuable read for leaders, managers, and HR professionals seeking to challenge traditional workplace norms and beliefs. It provides a new perspective that can lead to more human-centered and individual-focused practices. 

For those wanting to learn about more types of corporate culture where the employee voice is of greater importance, check out our reviews on “Work Rules!” by Laszlo Bock where he discusses the corporate culture at Google, or “No Rules Rules” by Reed Hastings about Netflix. For more ideas about freethinking leaders, you might be interested in “Brave New Work” by Aaron Dignan. 

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