READING LIST>> Professional and Personal Growth
Crossing the Unknown Sea: Work as Pilgrimage of Identity
This is the kind of book I had no idea I was waiting most of my life to read, and once I did, so much of what I believed or thought about work was revealed to me and validated in David Whyte's words. Wise, provocative, passionate... and so much more. I've underlined something or another on every second or third page. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
AUTHOR: David Whyte
Wishcraft: How to get what you really want
Back when I was living as a (broke) free spirit (we are talking the neolithic period of my 20s), this book burst into my life like a thousand sparks of light, helping me understand there are many ways to craft a life and choose one's work. It's a bit dated in some ways (the original came out in 1979) but an absolute classic in others.
AUTHOR: Barbara Sher
Crucial Conversations
This is the line that sealed it for me: "When we face crucial conversations, we have three choices—avoid them, face them and handle them poorly, or face them and handle them well." Having a little too much experience with the first two approaches, I was ready to try something different and this book delivered. There are only a few books I would say changed my life and this is definitely one of them.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
AUTHORS: K Patterson, J Grenny, R McMillan and A Switzer
Die Empty
Okay, yes... the title is a little macabre. Set that aside and start with the sub-title: Unleash Your Best Work Every Day. I've read several of Todd Henry's books and this is the one I have come back to over and over again. Here's one nugget of wisdom for reflection: "The way we engage with our work is the way we engage with our lives."
AUTHOR: Todd Henry
Callings: Finding and Following an Authentic Life
With chapter titles like 'The Challenge of Finding Clarity' and 'The Way of Passion', this thoughtful and yet deeply practical book helps you sift through the fundamental questions that arise when you are ready to listen to the nudges and intuitive messages that attempt to guide you towards a life that expresses your deepest values and beliefs. Lots of great stories in here about how people navigate the whispers and shouts of what they feel called to do.
AUTHOR: Greg Levoy
How The Way We Talk Can Change The Way We Work
If there is one book I quote from on a weekly basis in my coaching and consulting work, it is this one. The key messages are simple yet profound on why people are resistant to change, and the solutions are immediately applicable. If you want to understand why people behave the way they do, this is an excellent primer.
AUTHORS: R Kegan and L Lahey
READING LIST>> Writing and Creativity
Naked, Drunk and Writing
Practical, funny, motivating: these are the words I would use to describe this how-to guide on crafting compelling personal stories. Lara coaches, encourages, coaxes and inspires the wordsmith in all of us to get onto the page the images, feelings and life lessons that are unique to us, yet universal in appeal. Great book to light the fire of within of every writer, aspiring or seasoned.
AUTHOR: Adair Lara
Writing Down the Bones
Oh what a joy is Natalie Goldberg! If you have any doubt that we are all immensely creative writers with a heck of a lot to say, you MUST read this book. It is with BIG thanks to these short chapters brimming with encouragement that I became a writer, submitted work, got published, received Canada Council funding for my poetry, and was invited to the Banff Centre for the Arts as one of six poets-in-residence. This book is cold, clear water for the writer's endless thirst. CANNOT RECOMMEND ENOUGH.
AUTHORS: Natalie Goldberg
Originals: How Non-Conformists Move The World
So maybe Adam Grant is everywhere and we've all seen a few too many of his posts on LinkedIN or Instagram. I get it. But hear me out on this one... this book is chock-a-block with stories, data, studies and insights that will make any organizational misfit (me) realize they are onto something with their (my) way of grappling with originality and forging ahead into the unknown in spite of the silencing, shaming and doubting of both the people around us and our own inner critics.
AUTHORS: Adam Grant
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
"If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot." Coming from the author of 65 novels, five non-fiction books and hundreds of short stories, I am liable to take anything Stephen King says about creativity as gospel. The charm in this book is that it is two books: the first is a humourous memoir, and the second is a masterful lesson in getting words, lots and lots of words, on the page. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
AUTHORS: Stephen King