January 2025 List
Cylons, neuroscience, winter wisdom, and police procedurals.
In this post I share a handful of the readings, viewings, and listenings that have recently caught my attention and left a mark on my thinking.
But first, a quick Cylon story and a few questions for you.
Sometime ago a friend was talking about how her mother approached life; how she took in information, assessed situations, made decisions, and in general showed up in the world. One example that my friend shared was that because her mother came from a place where shopping was mostly done at family owned specialized stores (butcher, baker, green grocer, and so on) and that there were well established protocols of how someone of her mother’s status was treated at the shop, her mother found staff at most Canadian grocery stores to be unhelpful and unfriendly. My friend referred to this as her mother’s operating system and that her operating system was in need of an upgrade to adjust to Canadian suburban life.
Actually, she said OS which sounds more techy and opened the door for me take the wild leap that her mother was a Cylon, so she had a whole lot of explaining to do about what she actually meant. It is only now, as we move into 2025, that I’ve stopped to have a good think about all she said about our operating systems and and how to know if we are in need of an upgrade.
These questions are my way of inviting you along on my “good think”.
When was the last time you upgraded?
Dollars to doughnuts something has changed in you and the world around you since you last checked in on your purpose, leadership vision or North Star, values, priorities, and goals.
How do you know if your battery is running low, or if you have too much useless stuff going on under the hood, and are about to shut down?
Many folks are telling me that their attention and energy is hyper-fragmented and that their sense of self, capacity, and resiliency is feeling overwhelmed and threatened, and yet they have felt too busy or too uncertain to take stock, be honest about their needs, and reach out for support.
Are you hitting “later” on upgrade notifications?
Where do those come from, where do they show up, and what do they look and feel like? (Hint: a persistent cold, hunched shoulders, poor sleep, impatience …)
Perhaps something in this January list will prompt or inspire you to check in on your OS.
1
Look Again: The Power of Noticing What Was Always There, by Tali Sharot and Cass R. Sunstein
This book argues that change, even something small such as changing the route to work or thinking about a change, is a much needed “disruption” that allows for us to “reignite the sparks of joy, innovate, and recognize where improvements urgently need to be made” (from Simon and Schuster).
I haven’t gotten my hands on the book yet, but I did watch this Talks at Google with Sharot. My take-away is as follows:
we habituate to norms (for example social media over-use)
having an experience with dis-habituation (taking a social media break) can reveal to us the benefits of a change (lower stress or anxiety or more time for other things)
that some of us will, despite the positive experience of dis-habituation (social media break), return to those habituated norms (social media over-use) due to lack of internal and external supports.
This fits well with my 2025 theme of working with the grace and strength of focused, incremental, ongoing, and supported change (see post on Kaizen, swearing or not swearing).
2
The Journey of Leadership: How CEOs Learn to Lead from the Inside Out, by Dana Maor, Hans-Werner Kaas, Kurt Strovink and Ramesh Srinivasan
Emotional intelligence, purpose, adaptability, growth, ethics, healthy work cultures - all good stuff. And I have a few notes for cautious reading.
Perhaps not all of the CEO stories will resonate, this is after all McKinsey & Company territory. But sometimes a story that is outside of our own experience can provide us with some distance and objectivity for looking back in on ourselves and our work. Teams, boards, stakeholders, customers, and communities, have amazing similarities when it comes to why, who, and what is going on whether you are the CEO of a global pharmaceutical company or the CEO of a public library or not-for-profit.
The authors talk a lot about the Bower Forum, McKinsey & Company’s leadership retreat program. While you might not be hobnobbing with global CEOs, a confidential network of friendly, frank, and supportive peers is as important for you and your leadership work as it is for them. À la McKinsey & Co., the Courageous Leaders Project has a program* for you and your leadership colleagues; it may not include travel or turn-down service, but since it is on Zoom you can have your favourite mug and wear comfy slippers. :)
As with all leadership books, videos, and posts that claim to have a method, steps, secrets, truths and so on to leadership, read with curiosity and discernment to explore what is useful for you, what adds to your awareness and understanding, and leave the rest behind.
3
The Good Life: Lessons From the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness, by Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz
When I think about our operating systems and the notifications that they may be sending us about the need for an upgrade, I think about happiness and the good life.
I also have a fondness for longitudinal studies that may be owed to the early influence of my grandmother’s fascination with the Up! series.
4
Dabney Hailey on the Creative Confidence Podcast
Facilitative leadership is one of my favourite topics and this may be the most concise and engaging explanation of it.
5
Over Worked: Transforming the Daily Grind in the Quest for a Better Life, by Brigid Schulte
Turns out, it’s not just you.
6
Beyond Discomfort: Why inclusive leadership is so hard (and what you can do about it), by Nadia Nagamootoo
Because we can’t drop the ball on this.
Also there’s a workbook and other resources on the website.
7
Extras
As you know, I think about psychological safety a lot. Recently I was thinking about team members who speak up, be it on the board, the leadership team, or a project team, and how they might feel the risk (real or not) of being labelled “difficult”, or “not a team player”, or a “problem”. Defy: The Power of No in a World That Demands Yes by Dr. Sunita Sah gifts us the idea and practice of a “true no”.
I like winter and last week’s arctic outflow across the prairies, with nights of near -40C, got me thinking about how to winter. Harness Your Mindset to Thrive on Cold, Dark, or Difficult Days by Kari Leibowitz is a cozy neuroscience read on setting our expectations, knowing when and how to rest, appreciating the unique opportunities of the moment, rewiring our brain with how we tell the story of what is going on around us, and getting out in it. It seems to me that these are good approaches not just to the season, but also to life and work. I would also like to suggest “cozy neuroscience” as a new book genre - over to you my dear librarian friends.
Working with inner critics is significant to my coaching practice and something that I’ve been studying for a number of years. I’m pleased to share that I will soon have specialized certification in this area.
I have a deep appreciation for process, so maybe that explains my fondness for police procedural dramas. Or maybe it’s as my grandmother would say, sitting in her recliner with an ashtray barely balanced on a pile of paperbacks from the used book store, that “I really enjoy a good murder”. By a “good murder”, she meant nothing too gory and that the detective was likeable. I’m with her on both counts, but I tend to watch more than read my detectives. My current favourites include DS Tosh and DI Calder on Shetland for their easy-going, supportive, and at times humorous relationship and Annika for her literary musings and bags (or pockets) full of liquorice.
You may notice that the newsletter is shifting to an irregular schedule of two to three times a month. This gives me more time to provide coaching and leadership development services to you, and it gives you a delightful surprise when the newsletter shows up in your inbox.
It has nothing to do with me spending too much time watching police procedurals.
I’m here for you,
Babs
* From the Courageous Leaders Project
Cohort Coaching
Imagine you and four to six of your colleagues and friends joining me, your guide and coach, in a confidential online group experience devoted to:
Setting and celebrating professional aspirations and goals
Generously and kindly being accountable and supportive
Cultivating and nurturing the habits, beliefs, and leadership stories that will energize you and your work
You set the pace and the schedule (one to ten 90 minute sessions) and I'll be there for you.
Photo by Alex Padurariu on Unsplash