Having read The White Shirt book, which is the previous book to Roll Up Your Sleeves, I must say Michael Alan Tate’s new book reads better than the first. Like The White Shirt, Roll Up Your Sleeves is a parable about leadership. Many nuggets of advice are in Roll Up Your Sleeves, but the message of the book is knowing the difference between change versus transition.
To quote, “change is the event, the thing that happens. Transition is what we go through, and that involves an ending and grief and some significant emotional changes.” An essential element that Tate wants readers to see through his analogy is the importance of emotions during transition.
His focus on emotions is critical. Too often, the steps of change or other advice is communicated strictly at an intellectual level. Not that the information shared with us is bad advice, but we have to leave room for our emotions to process, which is rarely an overnight event. I remind many people I counsel and lead that part of our growth through maturity is reconciling what we know with how we feel. When the two sides level out together, one has matured. Sadly, some people avoid reconciliation between what we learn and our emotions and create lifelong problems for themselves. As one part of his illustration shows, there are no short cuts to transition. Trying to avoid the hard work usually brings more pain and longer transitions.
Not that I have it all figured out because I do not. But, I loved Roll Up Your Sleeves because the characters suggest a chart that fuses intellect with emotions into one transition process. This part of the parable should not remain fiction but is meant by Tate for one to consider and use in one’s life. With each stage of his transition process is also an image of a shirt sleeve “rolled up” to indicate different points of one’s journey.
Other solid points of advice exist throughout the book—some of new, some that mirror other leadership advice found in other publications, and more. With Roll Up Your Sleeves intended to be the second in a trilogy of books, Tate does a tremendous follow up to his first entry, The White Shirt. A follow up that is better than the original, leaving me excited for the next book to follow. So if you have read The White Shirt or not, you can read the Roll Up Your Sleeves, gain a quick summary of the previous book, and still enjoy the story and find the value in Tate’s advice for your transition process, no matter the obstacle you face.
**Full disclosure: Michael Alan Tate helped coach and consult me during a difficult time. He did this free of charge as his way to give back to those in ministry who are seeking to find their fitting and purpose. Similar to the different colored shirt buttons mentioned in both The White Shirt and in Roll Up Your Sleeves. See, the colors of the buttons represent different modes within the Birkman Profile that Tate utilizes with clients, even those he volunteers his services to which is not a cheap donation. As a result, while he does not pay me to review his books, I do as a “thank-you” to him.**
