Everything Counts – Your 2022 Summer Reading and Listening List

Three friends and colleagues had a warning for me as I was preparing for the launch of my book. The composite version of their declarations went something like “with a growing family, my community involvement and a demanding job, I hope you put out an audiobook otherwise it could be a while before I read your book.”

I heeded the advice. Audiobooks are a growth sector and a great way for busy people to keep up with recent research, helpful insights and practical advice from prominent leadership, business and HR thought leaders.

Consuming published content not only helps you face the current problems you tackle at work by expanding your capabilities, but they also help build your confidence.

Reading about others, who, just like you, have faced similar professional challenges can provide inspiration from how they struggled, addressed the problem, and made progress on those issues. Just like you can. And it’s easier than you think.

Reading a mere 20 pages a day represents roughly 30 books a year, 20 minutes of audiobook listening per day (depending on which speed you listen anywhere between the normal speed of 1x and chipmunk speed) is at least 20 books a year based on an average 250-page non-fiction business book. And keeping up with your weekly favourite professional development podcasts is doable if you curate your listening and focus on a few gems. (I’ll help you navigate through the oodles of leadership/HR podcasts in an upcoming article).

Ok, I can hear some of your objections now. You have a crazy busy life and fitting in even the smallest professional development reading or listening habit is tough. I might cheekily suggest you read, listen, or watch YouTube videos of time management/productivity guru and Getting Things Done author David Allen, but I digress.

You may also tell me you read so much for your work, and you’d like to keep your other reading and listening for lighter fare and relaxation. I get it. Reading/listening for distraction and enjoyment is healthy. But I’d respectfully nudge you by saying you owe it to yourself, your team, and your current and future employers to invest in yourself and your career. Learning continuously, at a pace that works for you by steadily acquiring tips, tools, and knowledge will make your life better.

Let me quote my friend and colleague and the Government of New Brunswick’s Wellness Specialist Alina Cress from an in-demand and greatly appreciated presentation I was fortunate enough to witness recently. “Everything counts, regardless of how small an action or activity and even if it’s not your ideal of habitually dedicating a big chunk of your time to something, everything counts.”

If you can’t read 20 minutes a day, how about 15? If you can’t read every day how about regularly sneaking a slice of time when you can? If you can’t keep up with three weekly workplace podcasts, how about one or two? Everything counts!

Hopefully, I’ve convinced you to carve out a small amount of your precious time to read or listen for the sake of your professional development and your well-being. Here’s my take on some book titles worthy of your attention and I’ve indicated where audiobooks (AUBK) are available.

Have a great summer of happy reading and listening!

Compassionate Leadership, How to Do Hard Things in a Human Way by Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter, 2022 (AUBK). Hougaard and Carter are champions for a more human approach to leading and managing and use some of the world's most prominent and successful companies to illustrate. This magnificently researched Harvard Business Review Press book from the Potential Project duo helps leaders connect through empathy and lead with compassion, choose courage over comfort and teach us how to have “good hard conversations.” Any book endorsed by top global CEOs, his Holiness the Dalai Lama and Harvard Business School professors is well worth it.

Love + Work by Marcus Buckingham, 2022 (AUBK). This offering is the latest from the global researcher and best-selling author who, while at Gallup, helped popularized strengths-based approaches that now dominate our thinking in performance improvement and personal development. This HBR Press offering is uplifting and a powerful guide to being at our best. No wonder notable senior executives I know, and respect are making this required reading for their teams.

How Learning Works, 7 Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching by Susan Ambrose, Michael W. Bridges, Michele DiPietro, Marsha C. Lovett and Marie K. Norman, 2010, (AUBK). Dr. Jon Sensinger, Director of UNB’s Institute of Biomedical Engineering highly recommended this title to me. While the book is grounded in teaching students in the classroom, the 7 principles have universal application and provides sound teaching and learning theory for workplace educators.

The Future of the Office, Work from Home, Remote Work, and the Hard Choices We All Face by Peter Cappelli, 2021. Cappelli is the George W. Taylor Professor of Management at the Wharton School and director of Wharton's Center for Human Resources. A very timely 108-page read as employers struggle to find their way with return to the workplace practices and hybrid work arrangements.

Future Me Future Team, Using Positive Evolution to Be the Person Others Want to Succeed With by Eleonora Andretta, 2019. The Toronto-based coach, author and entrepreneur brings her vast European business experience and challenges the notion that there is no “I” in team with her 12 steps to Positive Evolution. A snappy 124-page action-oriented read. Have your pencil handy.

Insight, The Surprising Truth About How Others See Us, How We See Ourselves, and Why the Answers Matter More Than We Think by Tasha Eurich, 2018, (AUBK). Recommended to me by my colleague, self-awareness champion and industrial/organizational psychologist Dr. Tammy Carroll. The end of chapter concepts and takeaways are highly applicable and Eurich closes the book with a 7-day insight challenge and 15 impactful coaching questions.

Wait, What, and Life’s Other Essential Questions? by James E. Ryan, 2017, (AUBK). I’m a sucker for books about asking questions but when they’re also funny, profound, and easily digestible in a 138-page format, I’m in! This book grew out of a commencement speech that went viral given by the author in his role as the dean of Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education. The self-avowed borderline obsessive about asking questions shares 5 questions that will not only make you better at asking questions but equally better at answering life’s significant questions.

Boundless Leadership, The Breakthrough Method to Realize Your Vision, Empower Others and Ignite Positive Change by Joe Loizzo and Elazar Aslan, 2021, (AUBK). Leadership disciplines of mind, heart, and body from a contemplative neuropsychiatrist.

Unprecedented, Canada's Top CEOs on Leadership During Covid-19, by Steve Mayer and Andrew Willis, 2022, (AUBK). Fascinating C-suite perspectives.

The Power of Regret, How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward by Daniel H. Pink, 2022, (AUBK). Pink is always bold, always fascinating.