We invite you to look back with us on 2019 and consider five of our favorite titles published this year. We hope you take time to sample one or more of these insightful books to deepen your appreciation for and practices around compassionate leadership.
The Inner Work of Racial Justice: Healing Ourselves and Transforming Our Communities Through Mindfulness
by Rhonda V. Magee, JD with Foreword by Jon Kabat-Zinn
How do we live productively and peacefully in a world surrounded by people with vastly different backgrounds than our own? Human history does not offer much hope for our ability to accomplish this, but law professor Rhonda Magee does. With book sections that progress from Grounding to Seeing to Being to Doing to Liberating,
Magee shows us how to recognize the profound depth of our shared common humanity and to honor that which has historically divided and separated us: our particular differences. She offers hope that mindful practices can help us transform ourselves, and in so doing, transform the world that is so in need of healing right now.
The Fearless Organization
by Amy C. Edmondson, PhD.
Sir Ken Robinson says, “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original.” Professor Amy Edmondson’s ground-breaking research around psychological safety illustrates the real-world truth in Robinson’s assertion, and shows how to create organizations unafraid to fail so that they can, in fact, operate on a higher plane.
Research shows that the single most important factor leading to successful team performance is psychological safety. The Fearless Organization explains the importance of psychological safety, the risks of not offering it in the workplace, and gives a practical framework for optimal environments for success.
Compassionomics: The Revolutionary Scientific Evidence That Caring Makes a Difference.
By Stephen Trzeciak, MD, MPH and Anthony Mazzarelli, MD, JD
If you are looking for proof that compassion and caring make a positive difference in outcomes, Compassionomics provides more than enough evidence-based confirmation. With a pure focus on compassion in the medical industry, Trzeciak and Mazzarelli begin by making a persuasive case for why we need more compassion today, and why compassion matters. This is followed up with chapters that focus on the value of compassion for patients as well as for medical care providers and organizations. We all have much to learn from this deep dive in the medical sector and seek to apply these findings into a multitude of organizations.
The Power of Human: How Our Shared Humanity Can Help Us Create a Better World
By Adam Waytz
Dehumanization is “the failure to consider others as having minds capable of thinking and feeling.” Unfortunately, due to our deep evolutionary history, we each have the capacity to dehumanize others. Between our substitution of technological screens for face-to-face human interaction, and the ascension of political practices exploiting our dehumanizing capabilities, we have seen a significant upswing in dehumanizing behaviors.
The answer, according to The Power of Human, is “seeing human,” which is “considering others as having minds capable of thinking and feeling.” Having made the case for the need to “see human,” Waytz proceeds to show how important being human is by creating significance in daily life, supporting moral care, and motivating positive action. Then, he teaches how to do that in our interactions at work, with technology, with those with whom we are in conflict, and with those close to us.
This book is an important tool that we can all use to help us heal the societal fractures we are experiencing today.
Seven Practices of a Mindful Leader
By Marc Lesser
Marc Lesser, co-founder of the Search Insider Yourself Leadership Institute inside Google, has written a book worthy of a Zen leader. It is simple at first glance, but you can go much more deeply as you consider the wisdom within.
The seven practices are divided into three sections. The first four practices, in the section “Investigate,” lead a leader to a deeper awareness of their present circumstances. The next two practices, in the section “Connect,” focus on relationships with others and the world as a whole. The final practice, “Integrate,” teaches integration of all the prior practices into an interwoven life of mindfulness.
Seven Practices of a Mindful Leader is a book that can be read quickly. But you might consider allowing the wisdom to seep in, with a slow and thoughtful approach, or read it a number of times, discovering new depth with each new pass at the practices.
Book Shelf Photo Credit: Center for Compassionate Leadership.