Minda's Message

Leadership is a practice and as adaptive leaders (more so than for other types of leaders, such as transactional ones), this practice also necessitates a life-long, rigorous, and multi-faceted commitment to learning. As our environment changes, we need to analyze and interpret and make sense of what we are seeing both while we are on the dance floor as well as when we get up on the balcony. The pace of change is so rapid these days, on so many different fronts, that we will quickly get left behind by outdated, outmoded ways of thinking or doing or relating if we don’t develop a love for learning. While this learning can happen in many different ways and in different settings, I have always loved reading. When I was younger, I was a voracious reader and prided myself on the high number of books I would read during those summer reading challenges that our public library sponsored. I am sure that is one of the reasons I went on to get my master’s degree in theatre studies. There were so many more plays and critical analyses and theories that I hadn’t gotten to yet! As I entered the work force as a full-time working professional, my reading slowed. Then, I had kids and I kept reading, albeit not quite as much and the titles changed dramatically. Recently, I made an amazing discovery- audiobooks through Audible.com allows me to download books right to my phone and I can “read” whenever I want! Truly life-changing for me. My book reading has seen a nice uptick and while I have not returned to being the voracious reader I once was, I know that my commitment to learning through reading is no longer in jeopardy. One of the best things about reading books is talking about them with others who have also read them. This is where I think I may have some kindred spirits in the Fellowship. As a way to support you in your commitment to life-long learning as adaptive leaders and to create more opportunities to build relationships with one another and create a culture of conversation, I would like to start a Friday Fellows Book Club. The books I have in mind would be related to helping us understand our changing environments, tune in to the nuances and complexities of the human relations challenges of our time, and continue to hone and develop Friday Fellowship competencies: aligning values with action, telling your story and hearing others’, cultivating collective and collaborative leadership, engaging power and difference, and leading adaptively for sustainable change.

In the new Resource Library that we have started, you’ll find a few books already listed. (Check out “Tools You Can Use”) in this newsletter to find out how to access the library.

Feel free to add any that you would like to see discussed by the book club. If you’d like to have a hand in developing the idea and the plan, reach out to me directly at minda@fridayfellowship.org. Otherwise, be on the lookout for more details in the near future. Until then, happy reading!