I am a book lover and always curious what others endorse. At the end of last year, I polled my clients to inquire what book was most influential for them in 2018. Recently, I also saw a list of books that fellow leadership coaches recommend. Some of the books below made both lists!
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For those who may want to add some reading material to your bedside, perhaps consider the following:

1. How Women Rise: Break the 12 Habits Holding You Back from Your Next Raise, Promotion, Or Job, by Marshall Goldsmith and Sally Helgesen
2. Virtuous Leadership, by Alexandre Havard
3. Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility, by Patty McCord
4. Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman
5. Whistling Vivaldi: And Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us (Issues of Our Time), by Claude Steele
6. Aware: The Science and Practice of Presence--The Groundbreaking Meditation Practice, by Daniel Siegel
7. The Obstacle Is the Way, by Ryan Holiday
8. The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom, by Don Miguel Ruiz
9. Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well, by Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen
10. Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, by Chip and Dan Heath
11. Small Great Things, by Jodi Picoult
12. Winners Take All, The Elite Charade of Changing the World, by Anand Giridharadas
13. A More Beautiful Question by Warren Berger
14. Mastering Leadership by Bob Anderson and Bill Adams
15. Falling Upward by Richard Rohr
16. Presence-Based Leadership by Doug Silsbee
17. Becoming by Michelle Obama
18. Dare to Lead by Brene Brown
19. Radical Candor by Kim Scott
20. Leaders: Myth and Reality by Stanley McChrystal, Jeff Eggers, Jay Mangone
21. The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer
22. Leading with Dignity by Donna Hicks
23. Hit Refresh by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella
24. Lead Yourself First: Inspiring Leadership Through Solitude, by Michael S. Erwin and Raymond Kethledge
25. Leadership in Turbulent Times, by Doris Kearns Goodwin
26. Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life Without Losing Its Soul, by Howard Schultz and Joanne Gordon

​A well-written book can broaden thinking, teach new insight, and challenge current perspective. Arlie Russell Hochschild’s most recent labor of love not only feeds the soul with her book “Strangers in Their Own Land,” she will break your heart with her ability to describe the divide in America. Leaders in this country are facing a new moral imperative that cannot be managed without a discerning ability and willingness to listen to perspectives that are different from their own. Behind every political argument, demonstration, or statistic, is a human being trying to make sense of this life. Sense making is very personal.
 
Hochschild moves out of the comfort zone of like-minded thinkers in Berkeley, California to the Southern tip of Louisiana. She explores the divide between the environment and development, the right and the left, capitalism and democracy, all in an attempt to truly listen, engage in sense-making, and build empathy for those who live and breathe beyond the divide.

​It is by far one of the most intriguing books that have hit my post-doc night stand. I have gained three valuable insights from this must-read that I encourage every leader to explore.

1. Do not assume you know. We will never know any experience except our own. Everyone deserves the right to tell his or her own story to an unassuming listener. 
2. The majority of Americans have similar interests. We want to protect what we love, and we want to provide for our families and our future. When we strip away the differences, we are left with surprising similarities.
3. It is harder to listen than to defend, but the rewards of listening are much greater when we set aside our assumptions, beliefs, and judgments and sit in curiosity of the other. Empathy can cultivate in our hearts and souls when we take a seat in curiosity and questions versus knowledge and expertise.

As a sociologist, Hochschild has spent her career studying aspects of humanity that many of us will never have the time or ability to equal. However, behind every complex and arduous concept is something simple. How willing are we to learn, unlearn, or be prepared to see something in a different way? By shedding our preconceived notions of the “other” (whoever that “other” may be), we can rediscover the connections that make us all fallible human beings all striving and seeking comparable things.

As leaders and professionals, we need to find time to peruse material that does not sharpen what we already know, but material that unsettles and challenges us to go deeper into what we believe and why. “Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right, a Journey to the Heart of our Political Divide,” is the perfect dose of heart-breaking and soul-feeding insight deserving of every leader’s night stand. For those who have read it – I would welcome your viewpoints!

Who thinks different than you and what would it take to sit in gentle curiosity of them?