The Leadership Odyssey: Book Club Reflections

Four months ago, I had the honor of kicking off a company-sponsored book club at a major global pharmaceutical company as part of its leadership develoopment initiative. The program spanned these four months and was designed as a self-paced journey using my book, "The Odyssey of Self-Discovery: On Becoming a Leader" (https://lnkd.in/g7kZcpY3).

The objective of the program was “to define leadership, understand the essence of successful leadership, and discover how to inspire leadership. Our aspiration is that you can leverage this knowledge to gain a deeper understanding of yourself, enhance your ability to lead effectively, and make decisions grounded in a vision for the future. Self-reflection is integral to gaining clarity on your own leadership values.”

Last week, I rejoined the group for a Q&A session at the successful closure of the program. The feedback about the book was overwhelmingly positive. Many readers provided specific feedback on what in the book resonated with their careers and their leadership journeys.

We discussed what inspired me to write my book and my writing experience.

• One reader shared that he really enjoyed the book’s unique structure, including stories, insights, summaries, and leadership exercises. Another person mentioned that she felt as if she was in the room for some of the conversations with the people I interviewed for the book.
• One reader was deeply moved by Professor Clayton Christensen’s story in the book, "How Will You Measure Your Life," which is one of the biggest questions a person can ask themselves. It really made him think about what success means.
• The section about job transitions resonated with one reader. He reflected on how to leverage his strengths when transitioning from one job to another or even one department to another.
• We also discussed the similarity between leadership and parenting, specifically how to teach children leadership skills before they enter the workforce. One reader mentioned she would like to share some of the lessons with her children.
• We discussed risk-taking during one's career and how it affects the trajectory of people's careers.
• We talked about how talented yet introverted people can become effective leaders. I shared Adam Grant's idea of promoting oneself versus promoting one's ideas.
• We discussed how organizations could better develop female leaders. Society is making progress, but it is not nearly sufficient.
• We extensively discussed the idea of influence without authority and Aristotle’s framework for persuasion. New employees need to first establish credibility before making recommendations for changes. Think trust first.
• We also discussed a recent interview with Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO, who shared his definition of leadership: bringing clarity to complex situations, bringing energy to people, and removing barriers in overly constrained problems.

Overall, it was a great discussion. Several participants mentioned that they would go back and read the book again for more reflection.

By the way, here is a review of the book received on Amazon last week (https://lnkd.in/g7kZcpY3) from a generous reader (Thank you, D. Shi):

“While the majority of leadership books focus on skills, this book distinguishes itself by providing profound guidance. The author integrates his prestigious education, outstanding career, substantial social connections, and personal life experience into the teaching of progressive topics towards effective leadership. He emphasizes awakening one’s inner leader potential and cultivating, and in many cases, transcending one’s mindset, as ‘self-discovery’ in the title fittingly indicates. The book is very practical as well. It discusses specific aspects and scenarios that audiences in different walks and stages can relate to. Personally, reading and internalizing the part discussing role adaptation between technical and business capacities has made my own career transition much easier. Overall, I’ve found the book both profound and practical, and it is a great resource to return to from time to time for reference, guidance, and calibration as career and life progress.”

If you are part of any book club, I would appreciate it if you could recommend my book to your club. If you have read my book, I would be grateful if you could share a honest review about how the book resonated with you.

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