Readings
What I Am Reading
I believe in lifelong learning, especially for those who are in the workforce. The day that I stop learning is the day I will start atrophying and will become calcified, ineffective, and useless. It is fundamental for leaders to read, assess what they know against new knowledge that is being created, and evaluate what to unlearn and what new to learn. Having an agile and adaptive mindset is critical for leadership.
I read and listen to books on Audible. I also read articles. The Harvard Business Review, the Sloan Management Review, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, and Diverse Issues are among my regulars. I also read refereed journal articles. I read most when I am teaching. When I am not teaching, as a dissertation reader for students pursuing their doctorates, I also come across readings that pique my interest. As an editor for Wiley, I get to read interesting works, pre-publication. Lastly, I serve as a reviewer for John Hopkins University Press, which gives me an opportunity to read book proposals and manuscripts before publication.
SUMMER 2025 READING LIST
Transitioning from Manager to Executive
Transitioning from manager to executive requires a shift from operational focus to enterprise-level thinking and influence. This piece highlights mindset changes, relationship recalibration, and strategic visibility as key elements of success.
The Role Of the Modern CEO
This article argues that modern CEOs must lead with resilience, navigating complexity and volatility with adaptability and strategic foresight. It emphasizes the CEO's role in fostering organizational agility, psychological safety, and long-term value creation.
Creating a Network for Career Growth
Rather than relying on a single mentor, professionals should cultivate a dynamic network of peers, sponsors, and connectors to support career growth. The article encourages proactive relationship-building as a strategy for resilience, learning, and opportunity access.
The Implications of Agentic AI
Agentic AI refers to autonomous systems that can initiate, plan, and act with minimal human input, potentially transforming productivity and decision-making. The article explores implications for leadership, accountability, and workforce transformation.
Wise Leadership
Wise leadership stems from the ability to slow down, reflect, and engage with complexity rather than react impulsively. This article offers practices for creating the cognitive and emotional space needed to make sound, ethical decisions under pressure.
Performance Using People-Centered Strategies
This study explores how organizations can unlock human performance by redesigning work around purpose, well-being, and continuous learning. It calls for a shift from efficiency-centered models to people-centered strategies that prioritize human potential.
Leading A Team You Didn't Build
When leading a team you didn’t build, success hinges on building trust, diagnosing dynamics, and creating a shared vision. This article offers a practical framework for assessing team health and reshaping culture without alienating members.
CEO's Handling Tough Decisions
This article outlines lessons for CEOs facing crisis, including decisiveness, transparency, and the courage to challenge norms. It underscores that tough decisions must be paired with empathy and stakeholder alignment.
The Power Of Mattering At Work
Employees who feel they matter are more engaged, productive, and loyal—yet many workplaces overlook this basic need. This article explores how leaders can cultivate mattering through recognition, inclusion, and aligning individual roles with organizational purpose.
High-Achievers Experiencing Joy
Even high-achievers can experience joy by intentionally designing their days to include moments of meaning, connection, and renewal. The piece shares strategies like reframing stress, curating energy, and aligning work with personal values.
Remote Work - Sustaining Creativity, Empathy and Iteration
Remote work alters how teams collaborate, ideate, and problem-solve, challenging traditional design thinking methods. The article discusses new tools and rituals needed to sustain creativity, empathy, and iteration in distributed environments.
CLASSIC READINGS
5 Strategies for Getting More Word Done in Less Time
5 Strategies for Getting More Work Done in Less Time Great article on personal productivity. Get more done in less time by organizing yourself and through marginal efficiency aggregation. Those marginal gains add up. IQ aside, it pays to be social. You have to be competent.
These 3 Personality Traits Affect What You Earn- but Only After Age 40
Great empirical research, though it focuses only on men. Gain some good insights about extroversion.
What Is The Right Way To Find A Mentor
Many people want a mentoring relationship with someone they admire, but often fear asking. Get some great tips to initiating the conversation and nurturing the relationship.
Every Leader Needs to Navigate These 7 Tensions
Leaders need to be on both sides of these dichotomies. Self-awareness and contextual awareness are key to knowing when to lean more on one versus the other.
What is Active Listening?
Listening, reading between the lines, asking clarifying questions, and confirming what we heard are critical at all levels of leadership. Some great tips for honing your skills.
Stop Letting Email Control Your Work Day
Email can be a colossal waste of time, especially in higher ed, where we love listening to ourselves and writing beautiful prose. Get more done by taking control of your inbox.
Five Rules for Leading in a Digital World
Less bureaucracy, more sense-making, more speed, innovation, execution, entrepreneurialism, and architecting are all great characteristics of the leadership needed for our digital world.
How to Create Slides That Suit Your Superiors: 11 Tips
Follow these tips for presenting to executives and you will be golden. When in doubt, ask them what they want.
The Future of Team Leadership is Multimodal
Like it or not, the multimodal hybrid workplace is here to stay. People want flexibility and engagement. There are ways to create a sense of belonging for all. This is about leadership, not just the corporate world. Leaders who think and act enterprise-wide, rather than from a place of territorialism make better team members, support and are constructively critical of one another, and are more effective advancing organizational mission.
Why Territorial Managers Stifle Innovation- and What to do About It
Territorialism creates silos and keeps organizations and people down. Communication is at the Heart of Positive Employee Relationships Employee creativity and innovation are key to organizational effectiveness. Whether it is relationships with colleagues, peers, direct reports, supervisors, the team, or the organization, effective communication across different media is a critical skill to master.
Communication is at the Heart of Positive Employee Relationships
Employee creativity and innovation are key to organizational effectiveness. Whether it is relationships with colleagues, peers, direct reports, supervisors, the team, or the organization, effective communication across different media is a critical skill to master.
How to Make Better Friends at Work
People have different boundaries about friendships at work. There are so many benefits to having strong relationships.
From Vision to Reality: How OKRs Are Reshaping Team Goals in 2024
Structured yet adaptive approaches are key to translating vision into strategy and tactics, and getting results.
Effective Leaders Decide About Deciding
I love the RACI model, but it isn't applicable for higher level decision-making. Leaders should be clear with their directs about the areas and types of decisions they can make the call. This urgency stakes matrix is super helpful.
Three Steps to Building a Learning Culture That Delivers Innovation
Continuous learning, recognition of progress and wins, and optimism help with delivering innovation. Lessons from failure are also helpful.
Lessons Learned From Outside Innovators
Outsiders can spark new thinking by challenging norms and spotting overlooked opportunities.
Building a Stronger Early Childhood Workforce
Challenges facing the early childhood workforce can feel vexing, but successful efforts to address fair compensation, training, and career pathways offer solutions
Superagency in the workplace: Empowering people to unlock AI’s full potential
Almost all companies invest in AI, but just 1 percent believe they are at maturity. Our research finds the biggest barrier to scaling is not employees—who are ready—but leaders, who are not steering fast enough.
State Opportunity Index
Strengthening the Link Between Education and Opportunity
Three ways to Lead Learning
Which one is best for your organization? by Gianpiero Petriglieri
6 Ways Congress Can Advance Workforce Development
The 119th Congress should work to expand access to education and training opportunities and create good jobs for more American workers while meeting the needs of employers and the economy.