Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.

Be the Unicorn: 12 Data-Driven Habits that Separate the Best Leaders from the Rest” is a compelling read for anyone looking to elevate their leadership skills in a rapidly evolving business landscape. Author William Vanderbloemen taps into his extensive experience in executive search to distill the essence of what makes a leader truly exceptional—akin to the mythical unicorn in its rarity and value.

The book is structured around twelve key habits that are backed by data and real-world examples, making it a practical guide for aspiring leaders. Vanderbloemen’s approach is both analytical and anecdotal, providing a balanced view that is both informative and engaging. Each habit is explored through the lens of “What We Know,” “What We’ve Seen,” and “What We Do,” offering readers a clear path to not only understanding these traits but also implementing them.

One of the standout aspects of the book is its inclusivity. The habits discussed are universally applicable, transcending gender, industry, and cultural boundaries. This makes “Be the Unicorn” a refreshing departure from the typical business tome that may cater to a narrower audience.

However, the book is not without its critiques. Some may argue that the emphasis on being first to market, as highlighted in the case study of the “Fast Responder,” may not always align with the success stories of today’s tech giants, which have thrived by identifying and filling gaps left by their predecessors. This raises questions about the adaptability of these habits in different contexts and the potential need for a more nuanced approach to leadership.

“Be the Unicorn” is a thought-provoking exploration of leadership in the modern age. It challenges readers to introspect and strive for continuous improvement. Whether you’re a seasoned executive or an emerging leader, this book offers valuable insights that can help you stand out and succeed in an increasingly competitive world. With its data-driven framework and actionable advice, it’s a worthy addition to any leader’s library.

Be the Unicorn by William Vanderbloemen explores the rare qualities that make exceptional leaders stand out. Vanderbloemen, through extensive research involving over thirty thousand interviews, distills the essence of what it takes to be a standout leader into twelve teachable traits. The book promises to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary, leveraging hard data to guide readers on their journey to becoming irreplaceable assets in their professions. The book is not just a collection of success stories but a practical manual designed to equip readers with the tools they need for personal and professional growth. Vanderbloemen's work is both a testament to the power of curiosity and a challenge to readers to embrace their unique potential, making "Be the Unicorn" a compelling read for anyone looking to leave an indelible mark on their world.

I received a complimentary copy from the publisher and all opinions expressed are entirely my own.

This was quite an interesting read on how to stand out and win in your career and workplace. The author in every chapter had a case study of a famous person and a characteristics that made them successful. It is written well and the chapters are short. Perfect for entrepreneurs , corporate baddies and non-fiction lovers.

I think it does have all the necessary components to be successful in your career. I enjoyed how easy it was to read. The book "Be The Unicorn" by William Vanderbloemen is an insightful exploration of soft skills needed to be a successful leader. However, it lacks a control group and testing studies to support the claim that anyone can learn to be a unicorn. The stories shared show what works best for Vanderbloemen's company, but not across multiple companies. The book's generic nature and lack of exploration into other companies and industries could have been more effective.

Thank you so much to #NetGalley for this ARC for an honest review.

A wonderful book. Highly recommended. You will enjoy reading it. Written in a very engaging prose. Nowhere would you feel being stuck or bored. Pick it up if you get a chance. A wonderful business book. Thanks to the author for a review copy.

An interesting read from the author. The twelve soft skills required for a “unicorn” are discussed. A unicorn in the sense of the book is an individual who stands out from the crowd in the jobs market. As a manager in a previous existence, I believe that soft skills were under valued at a job interview. If the scoring criteria is mostly down to experience, then often the ideal person for the role and team will lose out. Soft skills are the thing that gives the edge to a candidate who will enhance the workforce. The author discusses the 12 different skills he and his firm have identified and give tips and advice on developing those skills. Overall a good real and valuable information for those who want to stand out to potential employers.

I wasn't a fan of the style of this book. Twelve unicorn styles seems like a lot of leadership styles. I think that each of these roles are important to a team, not just a leader, but as the author points out, that may just be the collaborative millennial in me. I'm used to reading researched-based articles, so inserting quotes from a person and citing Tonya F. seemed like the kind of things that are made up or less, well..., trustworthy. This also refers to COVID and the pandemic a lot and I'm over it. We've all adapted and moved on and it's annoying to still blame it 3 years later. This read more like a journal than a research-based topic.

Easy to read but not exactly data-driven. The author chose 12 characteristics that he thought were important, found some data about each, presented in a way that drives his point but doesn't consider its flaws, and added a fun story from his life to it. Nothing very wrong with it but not exactly objective. I did not love the structure and ended up giving up the book after the few first chapters.

This book is easy to follow and could be a handy guide for all employees. It tells us of 12 attributes that are highly desirable in the workplace, backed by data, role models, and stories of organizations. 2 stand out chapters are on agility and productivity which are much relevant nowadays. Anyone who reads this book will surely pick up insights to practice at work.

It takes good habits to be a unicorn leader. This book distills these habits into a comprehensive guide that defines exceptional executives. The book underscores the importance of qualities like authenticity, agility, problem solving skills, anticipation, self awareness, and curiosity, and what you can do to strengthen them. The book emphasizes that these traits are essential not only for personal success but also for fostering healthier work environments and stronger team dynamics.

The book is easy to fly through and can definitely be remarkable for the storytelling side. Is it really possible to become a successful professional by developing those simple and yet difficult skills? There are twelve traits that the majority of successful people possess: being fast and agile, authentic, problem solver, anticipated, self aware of abilities, prepared for different circumstances, connected and curious, purpose driven, productive and likeable. There is evidence and engaging stories behind each concept to prove the point. In my view, developing and cultivating those traits and Skillman simply make each of us a better person.

One thing about me: if John Maxwell endorses it, you can count me in.

I thought this book provided some great insight on how to stand out as a leader and what skills you need to have and develop.

I love how throughly the team dove into these. They really showcased how and why the skills needed to be developed and why that makes someone stand out as a leader.

“Unicorn: something that is highly desirable but that is difficult to find or obtain”

In honor of my first semester of grad school starting soon, I was so excited to get this ARC!

I found this book to be insightful on the soft skills needed to stand out as a leader and how to develop said skills. However, I believe using a control group and testing studies would’ve been productive in backing up the claim that “anyone can learn to be a unicorn”.

It’s one thing to observe habits these “unicorns” possess and write a book about what they all have in common. It’s another to conduct studies across multiple companies and use control groups to back up this statement.

The stories shared seem to show what works best for Vanderbloemen’s company along with a few individual statements, a story here and there, and surveys for each habit rather than showing a wide variety of companies.

While all good practices to keep in mind, what makes an individual a “unicorn” to one company may not be the same for another company. I would’ve loved to see more exploration into the “unicorns” of other companies and industries.

Though a quick and easy read, nothing about this book stands out. Dale Carnegie’s “How To Win Friends & Influence People” did this genre of business books increasingly better. (There’s a reason it’s still a timeless classic that people still refer to!) William Vanderbloemen’s “Be The Unicorn” is rather generic and reads like just about every other book in this genre.

This is an insightful book that provides a comprehensive overview of the soft skills that the author deems essential for leadership and likability. Vanderbloemen does a thorough job of weaving together his research findings and personal anecdotes, along with practical advice and quotes from colleagues and clients.

I particularly appreciated the book's focus on the importance of authenticity, communication, and decision-making.

I wasn't so keen on the "all-access availability" idea and the emphasis placed on responding immediately. I like the term, "Begin as you intend to go on". I've seen way too many relationships, particularly families, affected by people fearing for their jobs, thinking they need to be available at all times for these ridiculously high-demand "leaders" who have emergencies on a regular basis due to skimping on staff and poor planning.

We need more leaders who'll actually lead the way and exercise strategic, decisive planning to eliminate the need for their employees to be so "agile.".. it causes burnout, especially nowadays when so many companies have either whittled their team down to a skeleton crew or have start-up scarcity going on.

This is a great resource though with clear , actionable advice. I gained some really good tips that I'll keep in my leadership toolbox.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone aiming to enter the workforce or elevate their performance. It brilliantly delves into twelve essential traits that lead to success, often referred to as the "unicorn" qualities. The content is presented in a clear and accessible manner, making it easy to grasp and implement in real-life situations. Personally, I'm thrilled to integrate numerous recommendations and insights from the book into my work environment. It's a valuable addition to our library collection that will undoubtedly inspire and guide others towards achieving their goals.#BetheUnicorn #NetGalley

Vanderbloemen and his team culled their extensive experience to find the behavioral and character nuggets that make particular people those successful go-to heroes in our organizations. A Unicorn, according to Vanderbloemen, is the “rare” individual who successfully gets the job and succeeds in the job. He describes several attributes of the Unicorns and also reports how these Unicorns view themselves, how they described themselves.

His first case study is the Fast Responder. He claims those types get the job. Admittedly only 2.6% of those surveyed thought they were Fast Responders. However, the most common complaint among job candidates is that the organizations take too much time to respond and decide. Does that mean the deliberative, not-wanting-to-risk-a-hiring-mistake companies lose out “winning” the Fast Responding Unicorn? Because the Fast Responder is not going to wait for the organization to decide. How does Vanderbloemen coach his organizational clients not to lose this type of Unicorn? And if you need Unicorns to be successful, does that mean his clients, if they’re like typical hiring organizations, aren’t?

In this chapter, he touts those companies who were first in the market as exemplars for would=be Unicorns. Unfortunately in our Information era, the longest-life technology companies like Alphabet (Google), Apple and Meta (Facebook) were not first-in-market in any of their endeavors. They found the glaring gaps in consumer experience with the then market leaders and surpassed their competencies and created competitive advantages that their competitors didn’t know the market demanded. Likewise, current auto manufacturing behemoths were not the first in market either. Perhaps the other characteristics of Unicorns should be prioritized.

Vanderbloemen claims you can learn to be a Unicorn. Most great leaders postulate that it’s their job to create Unicorns. I once had a lengthy discussion with a CEO who claimed he could not find any good employees. After nearly an hour of inquiry, I concluded, “I guess I’ve been lucky that 98% of my employees have been great.” You get what you expect to get and what you project, such as trustworthiness. We are all subject to confirmation bias: you only see what you believe you’ll see. In one fable, a gas station manager is asked by two different visitors what the townspeople are like. After he asks them what their hometown neighbors are like, one describes a wonderful group of people while the other describes unhelpful, gossipy, backbiting busybodies. He tells each that his neighbors are exactly the same. What the visitors experienced in their hometown said more about what they expected to see than what reality was. Teachers learn that if they teach their students as if they expect them to get very good grades, the students will excel. Likewise, great leaders can create unicorns. So were Vanderbloemen’s unicorns able to pick up those traits on their own or were they lucky enough to have good mentors, while the rest of the candidates weren’t given a chance to shine==they didn’t work for organizations that valued promptness or admitting mistakes?

We know the commonalities among the successful candidates Vanderbloemen studied. We don’t know whether those commonalities are absent from the pool of unsuccessful candidates. They weren’t studied.

Like other business studies touting the keys to success, it fails to have a control group. The author notes that his recruiting methodology reduces the candidate pool to a hundred and then they conduct lengthy interviews. It’s these interviews that provide the data for his analysis of how to become a “unicorn.” This is like throwing 10,000 tennis balls into a swimming pool, skimming off the top 500 and then measuring what made them float. The differences in those floating tennis balls are nonexistent. The reason for their selection had to do with the selection algorithms—the surface area of the swimming pool, their random placement in the group determining whether they were first in the water or last, and the skimming method. Those things determined which ones were included in the study, not anything inherent in the study’s subjects.

Likewise, if we take a group of undoubtedly successful leaders familiar to Vanderbloemen from his divinity school days—the disciples of Christ—and apply the author’s rules for success, we might come up with different recommendations. Christ did not select twelve of the most prepared and qualified rabbinical students. He pulled them from non-religious careers mostly. They may not have made it to the round of interviews to be considered to be in a pool of Unicorns. Were they fast-responding, authentic, agile, etc.? Later when Judas Iscariot had to be replaced (Acts chapter 1), what was the criteria? Just that a person had to have a good character and have been with them the whole time. Two people were named that we modern readers had never heard mentioned in the gospel accounts. Did they run them through a battery of assessments and panels of interviews? They rolled the dice basically. Even with this “slipshod” method of determining candidates to lead a movement, they built one that has endured for millennia and grown exponentially from a few hundred to a few billion.

Let’s even apply the Unicorn traits to the most touted evangelist in the New Testament: Paul. If Vanderbloemen had been a 1st-century recruiter and career counselor, would he have suggested something like this? “You know, Paul, you’ve been expelled from cities, almost assassinated, stoned and jailed. Shouldn’t you stick with making tents? You seem to be really good at that.” Would Paul have made Vanderbloemen’s top one hundred candidates and gotten to the next round—the lengthy interview—and qualified to be included in his study reported in this book, or would he have been disqualified based on his spotty record?

Perhaps the main commonality between Vanderbloemen’s successful candidates and those of the 1st-century church is that those people were taught, mentored/disciples by a great leader at some point in their career. Might we all aspire to be such a great leader and turn others into Unicorns.

There’s nothing that’s new here. Vanderbloemen’s perspective is helpful in terms of how hiring managers view these behaviors and character traits.

A piece of advice for the reader: do not try to develop and exhibit all of the traits. Even the surveyed Unicorns acknowledge one as a top trait though they may practice the others at times. So pick one or two to work on and develop those in order to be attractive to the types of organizations that appreciate them.

I love information backed with research and this book shares 12 habits that set aside some of the best leaders in various fields across the globe from the rest, and if you think that these 12 habits are easy and that everyone has them-well, it got me at the very first one 'authenticity,' and in a world of social media and the rush to create likes, this right here is difficult to gauge or exhibit.
Thanks Netgalley for the eARC, anyone looking to improve their leadership skills would definitely draw lessons from this book.

This book is highly recommended for those seeking to enter the workforce, or for those who want to step up their game. It discusses twelve tenants of a successful person, or unicorn. I found the chapters and information easy to understand and apply. I will be incorporating many of these recommendations and insights into my work environment. A definite addition to our library collection.

In my real life, I'm a VP in a global medical company so I'm always on the lookout for a good business related books. It's hard these days to find one that isn't full of fluff and clichés or just a recycle of ideas that have been around forever. When I saw this one, written by someone who ran a top executive search firm and was offering data driven advice, I thought it might be worth my time. Vanderbloemen offers us 12 traits that the best leaders exhibit and some tips on how to cultivate those skills. 

Each chapter offered case studies, examples of famous or successful people and how they emulate that characteristic, the study data on that trait and some strategies of how you the reader can improve in that area. I think the 12 traits are all ones that are useful for a leader and what I liked is that these were all things that men and women could use. Oftentimes. I feel business books are written by white men for white men and this felt really accessible. It's also easily readable, I was able to finish it in one trans-Atlantic flight.

Personally, I think I score pretty well on 11 out of the 12. Likability is the one I'll need to work on. That's never been something that is important to me, thinking that my productivity and drive would make up for that, but the author made some compelling arguments so I'll need to think about that...

Thanks to HarperCollins Leadership for gifted access via NetGalley. All opinions above are my own.

great advice and data backed suggestions

thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the copy for review