Assertiveness is Not Aggressiveness
2024-12-15
If you’re a long-time reader, you may dimly recall a blog with this title from a year ago. Well remembered! This post contains but a modest wish.
Any time of year is a good time to curl up with a good work of fiction. If it transports us emotionally so that we’re there with the characters, our levels of empathy increase over time. We have known this since Bal and Veltkamp’s 2013 PlosOne paper.
A few readers asked me to update the post, and recommend another book to read. As I read Orbital by Samantha Harvey (Booker Prize 2024), I deliberately won’t say too much about how the story of the six astronauts on a space station unfolds so as not to spoil it for you, for it is worth reading.
Any such book is important to read, as enhancing empathy enhances our emotional intelligence – a key trait for good leadership. This can help you in all your leadership relationships: with your team, your colleagues and collaborators, with your admin, and with your upper management.
Ten minutes a day suffices; it can be a great way to unwind before lights out. So, pick up a book and be transported in 2025. One book at a time. One day at a time.
2 thoughts on “A Modest Wish”
You really have me tempted now CJ, nice review and I won’t get past the bookshop tomorrow without thinking of your recommendation. Hope to meet you in 2024 here in Ireland for a good chat.
Thank you, Yvonne! I look forward to catching up in person in a few months.