Summer Inspiration
It is late July and you may have already blown through your summer reading/watch list, or you are planning for some downtime during your upcoming August vacation. Our staff wanted to take a moment to share some of our favorite leadership-inspiring reads, listens and watches.
Read
The Most Powerful Woman in the Room is You, Lydia Fenet
(Recommended by Raven Rankine, Director, Client Experience & DEIB Services)
The book inspires readers, particularly women, to embrace their personal power and assertiveness in both professional and personal spheres. Fenet encourages readers to identify their strengths, overcome fears, and navigate challenges with resilience and determination.
Energy Rising: The Neuroscience of Leading with Emotional Power, Dr. Julia DiGangi
(Recommended by Nancy McGuire Choi, Chief Operating Officer)
Creating and leading transformational change requires individuals to harness the neuroelectrical energy firing in their brains. Through the examples of business leaders, couples, educators, combat veterans and more, Dr. DiGangi offers readers eight codes to help identify and harness that energy in order to form better relationships and connections to create impact.
Listen
Why Are There So Many Bad Bosses? Freakonomics podcast
(Recommended by Erin Gregg, Senior Vice President)
So often high performers are promoted to management roles, even though the individual has not previously demonstrated leadership skills. This podcast looks at the value of creating career paths for both great managers and individual contributors.
Watch
(Recommended by Kyle Simmons, Director, Client Experience)
Below Deck is a great show about leadership. Across different versions of the show (original/Mediterranean/sailing), you will see markedly different leadership styles from each of the captains. Reporting to the captain are middle managers of the interior and exterior of the super yacht, and very junior stewards and deckhands. Though the show includes many reality show tropes such as attractive people, beautiful locales, and “boatmances,” its success is due to the real-life drama of leading in unpredictable situations, living where one works, and meeting the pressure of high performance that comes with elite yachting.
(Recommended by Nancy McGuire Choi, Chief Operating Officer)
In this series, a Chef comes home to Chicago after working in the kitchens of world famous restaurants to transform the family sandwich shop into a renowned restaurant. It is a story of how teams are formed, how to overcome the resistance to change, and how bosses can inspire or damage their staff. Viewers are left with the sentiment that, ultimately, leaders need to work on themselves first before they can become truly transformational leaders.
(Recommended by Erin Gregg, Senior Vice President)
In this Emmy Award-winning series, Hollywood’s Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds learn to run one of the world’s oldest football clubs, located in a former Welsh mining town. They are seeking to transform the club, and in turn, the city of Wrexham and the lives of its residents. This is a story of organizational change and resiliency, with an inside view into the ups and downs that come with progress and change. The real-life stories of the people involved in making Wrexham’s vision real is a reminder that organizational change is not independent from the lives of those working to make it happen.
The Audience Choir (Live at O2 Academy Brixton, London) Jacob Collier
(Recommended by Tanara Bowie, Vice President, Client Experience)
Jacob Collier is a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who is able to lead large audiences in singing a song acapella. Through his energy and confidence, he builds confidence in his audiences to trust him and his ability to lead them in creating something beautiful. This YouTube video is sure to inspire you to create something beautiful!
What are you reading, watching and listening to this summer? Please share your recommendations with us on LinkedIn!
