138 | EDUCATION ASIA | THRIVE | Teachers Corner
BOOK Review “We don’t start contributing once we become leaders. We become leaders because of how we contribute.”
WILD COURAGE BY JENNY WOOD
REVIEWED BY Kathryn Hemming
O ne of my favourite times of the week is Monday morning, when I head down to the beach near my home and listen to the latest episode of The Learning Leader podcast. I absolutely love it. The host - Ryan Hawk - listens attentively, asks great questions, prepares thoroughly and is consistent and reliable. I unfailingly return from these walks motivated and inspired to “start the week off RIGHT!” One of the interviews, with Jenny Wood, was so good that I came straight home and ordered her book on the spot. Wood talked about how everything we want is on the other side of fear. This in itself is nothing new. Margie Warrell, for example, is among many who have been writing about this for a long time.
The most basic question is often the most brilliant.
effort conquering. Again, nothing new as this is the basis for Mel Robbins’ book Let Them. What made this interview (and the book) stand out for me, was Wood’s reframe of nine character traits which are generally considered to be negative. She believes that these traits are “powerful principles for success” and this both shocked and intrigued me. How on earth could being weird, selfish, shameless, obsessed, nosy, manipulative, brutal, reckless and bossy possibly be positive!? Wood, however, comes across as a warm, thoughtful, self-aware, empathetic and enigmatic leader. She has also had an incredibly successful career so far as a former Google executive and Harvard Business Press Writer. I was intrigued and needed to read more.
Wood also spoke about how we need to be worrying less about what other people think. She says that we spend too much time and effort conforming and not enough time and
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