“What is the work you can not do?”

 

Why are you doing the work you are doing?

As school starts and we have a new group of freshman starting school I love asking them the following question: What do you love to do?  This helps them focus on what they want to study as they begin their college journey.  But what about those who are in the workforce?  Simple, Why are you doing the work that you do?  Scott Dinsmore’s TedTalk, How to find and do work you love is Scott’s mission to change the world by helping people find what excites them and build a career around the work only they are capable of doing.

Scott is a career change strategist whose demoralizing experience at a Fortune 500 job launched his quest to understand why 80% of adults hate the work they do, and more importantly, to identify what the other 20% were doing differently. His research led to experiences with thousands of employees and entrepreneurs from 158 countries.

While you listen to his talk think about the following:

1. What is your unique strength?
2. What do you value?
3. What in your experience has made you happy?
4. What in your experience has made you unhappy?
5. What matters to you?
6. What inspires you?

15 Leadership Books You Should Read

In these tempestuous times, when the very foundations we learnt to count on are gone, leadership has become more than a trendy fad or simplistic solutions.  It has become a really strength and a way to build companies, businesses and ideas that last.  The study of leadership is a study of the human experience.

As we move into summer, our team decided to pick the topic of Leadership for our booklist.  Our Executive Coach Marie recommends these books to her clients and uses them in her work.  We are so grateful she picked 15 we are sure will get you thinking about leadership in a different light.

 

1. Strengths Based Leadership: Great Leaders, Teams, and Why People Follow Tom Rath (Author), Barry Conchie (Author)
2. Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck–Why Some Thrive Despite Them All Jim Collins
3. Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us Daniel H. Pink (Author)
4. Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action Simon Sinek (Author)
5. Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work Chip Heath (Author), Dan Heath (Author)
6. Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking Malcolm Gladwell (Author)
7. Outliers: The Story of Success Malcolm Gladwell (Author)
8. The Talent Code: Greatness Isn’t Born. It’s Grown. Here’s How. Daniel Coyle (Author)
9. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success Carol Dweck (Author)
10. Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead [Deckle Edge] Sheryl Sandberg (Author)
11. Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose It, Why People Demand It James M. Kouzes (Author), Barry Z. Posner (Author)
12. Your Next Move: The Leader’s Guide to Navigating Major Career Transitions Michael Watkins (Author)
13. The Leadership Pipeline: How to Build the Leadership Powered Company Ram Charan (Author), Stephen Drotter (Author), James Noel (Author)
14. Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter Liz Wiseman (Author), Greg Mckeown (Primary Contributor)
15. Primal Leadership: Learning to Lead with Emotional Intelligence [Paperback]Daniel Goleman (Author), Richard E. Boyatzis (Author), Annie McKee (Author)

All these books are available on Amazon.