Book Review: “Permission to Screw Up” Kristen Hadeed

This book caught my eye from the cover design, and seeing that the forward was by Simon Sinek. This is very readable, and accessible, through Hadeed’s storytelling, and synthesis of leadership lessons that have made her the successful entrepreneur and business mind that she is today. Published in 2017, this book is more relevant than ever for leaders and educators, as Hadeed has a reputation for their success in hiring and retaining Millenials.
“This book is for anyone who wants to be a better leader, no matter your industry. No matter who you are or what your position is…No matter how challeng
ing your job is, no matter how badly your company culture sucks.” (Hadeed, 24)
This is a raw verision of the rise of Hadeed as the Founder and CEO of “Student Maid”. She uses this book to recount in a pretty unvarnished way, the story of her company and all the leadership lessons that she learned along the way.
You would be interested in this book if you:
(1) Are leading teams that included Millenials
(2) Are inspired by an entrepreneurial story(3) Are looking to gain more of an entrepreneurial mindset
(4) Are looking for strong female leadership examples
This book is not organized by leadership lessons; rather, it is written chronologically as her company grows. And I love this about the book, because it shows how she ‘stumbles’ into these leadership lessons. I’ve distilled them below:
Leadership Lesson #1: Trust
“Trust people with enormous responsibilities, allow room for mess-ups, then give them the chance to fix their mistakes so they can learn from them.” (Hadeed, 31)
Within this lesson, Hadeed talks about the challenges that she had giving up some control of her company as it grew. She also talks about the courage that it takes as a leader to sit on the sidelines sometimes.
Leadership Lesson #2: Putting the “Cheer” in Leader, doesn’t always fit the bill
“I had mastered the “cheer” part of cheerleader, but I still had a long was to go on the “leader” part…Giving a pep talk can be powerful. But there’s a time for pep talks and a time for reality checks. And a good leader knows when and how to give both.” (Hadeed, 73)
This sections explored Hadeed’s growth from cheerleading a company into being, and being afraid of losing anyone ~ cleaning houses as a student isn’t a high-retention industry! ~ to realizing that critical feedback can be something that keeps people not only in their role, but also growing in their role.
Feedback is also not something just for employees. Leaders need good, timely feedback in order to thrive.
Leadership Lesson #3: Culture into Words
“I had an understanding of how I wanted Student Maid to feel and I was looking for people who would keep it feeling that way…And the reason I had been so selective about whom I let on the team wasn’t jsut a matter of customer trust, it was also a matter of preserving Student Maid’s culture…Allow me to introduce the Commandments.” (Hadeed, 120)
The commandments were Hadeed’s way of putting the culture on paper, to make it tangible, and to be able to be understood and distributed to anyone and everyone working at Student Maid. These commandments not only helped Hadeed offload some of the hiring, but also helped in making key personel decisions and strategy decisions. Did the decision abide by the commandments? Simple question, but not so easy in practice.
In this section, she explores how leaders are the gate-keepers of culture, and must put in the work. She explores the intentionality that goes into that work, and why it is important.
Leadership Lesson #4: Cultural Leadership
“Holding someone up while they chug a beer upside down builds one kind of trust. But letting down your guard to admit when you’re struggling builds a much better, much deeper kind. In one, you get nothing but a hangover. In the other, you walk away feeling accepted and supported.” (Hadeed, 190)
This section of the book explores the lessons that Hadeed has learned throughout her journey with the company, not only as it expands, but as parts of it get sold, and as key people who had been with her since the start move on. Vulnerability is critical to being understood, and there are some very intense moments that she captures in sharing her upbringing. This inspires others to share, and this builds the trust and understanding that took Student Maid to the next level.
The Story within the Story:
What I enjoyed about this book, wasn’t the ‘hit me over the head’ approach to leadership lessons; rather, it was in the storytelling of how Hadeed acquired the habits of mind and practice to not only understand leadership, but also the wisdom to put it into practice.
Leaders are Connected:
* Hadeed quickly became part of different networks for entrepreneurs. This exposed her to different lived experiences that she paid attention to. Not only this, but she found mentors and peers that she could relate to, rely on, and depend upon. These relationships became critical to her throughout the growth of her company.
Leaders are Readers:
* It is abundantly clear that Hadeed values the diverse stories of leaders across different industries and topics. Everything from Stephen Covey to Dale Carnegie, and Tony Hsieh – whom she connected with strongly.
* Reading allows leaders to know the experience of others and determine whether or not it is something that they can adopt into their repetoire. Hadeed, even took a speed reading class to get through several titles in one sitting. (Hadeed, 116)
Leaders are Intentional about Connection:
* Hadeed is famous for being a business leader that attracts and retains Millenials – notorious for being more self-serving and less resilient than most other generations – in one of the dirtiest, hardest industries: cleaning. Her success comes from being intentional about how she connects with her employees, and also how she expects them to connect with her.
“But we require [our millenial employees] to come inside [at the end of their shift] because we have learned that if we want to encourage close bonds within our team, we have to be intentional about it and make time for people to cultivate them.” (Hadeed, 186)
Leaders Know how to Communicate:
* Throughout this book, there are examples of when communication has gone well, and when it has not. Her learning results in Commandment #9: “Speak now or forever hold your piece”: We maintain open communication with the entire Student Maid team, which means we voice all our concerns, questions, comments, criticism and praise. (Hadeed, 124)
* This includes the HOW of communication: “One of the biggest things that we teach our students in [one of our onboarding workshops] is that text and email are terrible ways to communicate about anything that matters.” (Hadeed, 187) And this is a message that these Millenials take to heart!
I can highly recommend this book for its readability, and the way that Hadeed brings us along her journey.