Listen, Develop Your Leadership!
So often when I’m talking with people about leadership development they tell me one of two things:
I don’t have the time
I don’t have the money, or my company doesn’t have the budget
Listen up! Podcasts and audio books are an easy way to develop your leadership. Listening is as easy as an app on your phone or joining your local library, downloading podcasts or books to listen to when you have time offline, and hitting play. Nearly all of us have some commute or exercise and could listen during those activities. Listening to podcasts and library books is free and engaging; two of my favorite things. And, listening allows you to maximize your time, and ensures you aren’t being a victim to your organizations budget. You must own your own development. Don’t wait on someone else. Leadership isn't just leading people; fundamentally it's leading your own life forward. I recently took two 2,000 mile+ road trips during which I listened to books and podcasts, balanced with some of my favorite tunes. I learned about the brain, compassion and its importance in the medical field, happiness, the ease of creating new neural pathways, the internet and how it’s growing up, breathing and getting in the zone, and so much more. Here was my playlist of listening to develop your leadership:
Tiffany Shlain-Growing Up the Internet on On Being with Krista Tippett (Podcast accessed via the OnBeing app)
When Tiffany Shlain thinks of her favorite quote from naturalist John Muir, she thinks of the internet: ""When you tug at a single thing in the universe, you find it's attached to everything else."" As a filmmaker and founder of the Webby Awards — the ""Oscars of the internet"" — she is committed to reframing technology as an expression of the best of what humanity is capable, with all the complexity that entails…Her perspective on our technology-enhanced lives is ultimately a purposeful and enriching one: the internet is our global brain, towards which we can apply all the wisdom we are gaining about the brains in our heads and the character in our lives.
James Doty-The Magic Shop of the Brain on On Being with Krista Tippett (Podcast accessed via the OnBeing app)
Brain surgeon James Doty is on the cutting edge of our knowledge of the brain and the heart: how they talk to each other; what compassion means in the body and in action; and how we can reshape our lives and perhaps our species through the scientific and human understanding we are now gaining. The backstory of James Doty’s passions is told in his memoir, Into the Magic Shop. In the summer of 1968, in the throes of a hardscrabble, perilous childhood, he wandered into a magic shop and met a woman named Ruth who taught him what she called “another kind of magic” that freed him from being a victim of the circumstances of his life, and that he now investigates through science.
How to Hardwire Your Brain for Happiness with Dr. Rick Hanson on The School of Greatness with Lewis Howes (Podcast accessed via the Stitcher app)
Dr. Rick Hanson has written multiple best-selling books about how to hardwire our brains to stay in the positive side of thought and feeling. In his conversation with Lewis conversation, Lewis asked questions related to personal experiences with emotional intelligence, positive thought, and the power we have to shift ourselves out of negative emotions and thought patterns. Everything Rick shared confirmed the importance of rewiring our brains to the positive. An key component of the learning in this podcast centered on was how important it is to slow down and consciously enjoy the good times because it actually helps reinforce those positive brain waves in the hardwiring of our brains.
The Power of Breathing to Get in the Zone with Laird Hamilton on The School of Greatness with Lewis Howes (Podcast accessed via the Stitcher app)
Laird Hamilton, the legendary surfer, athlete, and stunt man gets us thinking about breathing in a whole new way in this podcast with Lewis. They talk about how tapping into the power of breath affects athletic performance, relationships, business, mindset, and much more.
When Breath Becomes Air, Paul Kalanithi (Book)
At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, the next he was a patient struggling to live. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a medical student asking what makes a virtuous and meaningful life into a neurosurgeon working in the core of human identity – the brain – and finally into a patient and a new father.
If you’d like to know what books I’m leading my life forward with by listening, follow me on Goodreads and read my reviews. Please share what you’ve been listening to or reading to develop your leadership.