Interview with Samreen McGregor, author of Leader Awakened: Why accepting adversity drives power and freedom
Samreen McGregor, author of Leader Awakened: Why accepting adversity drives power and freedom recommends a great group of books! Before jumping into the interview, please check out Samreen's book:
Description from Bookshop.org: (All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
Leader Awakened: Why accepting adversity drives power and freedom
The world we live in confronts us with unavoidable, and at times unprecedented, challenges and adversities.
These experiences can - but do not need to - impede your ability to lead. Leader Awakened invites you to accept, embrace and work with difficult or traumatic events and experiences. It gives you the tools to use them as a powerful catalyst for change and enable learning, empowerment, agency and wellbeing.
Learn how to:
- Become more acutely aware of the internal, external, personal, professional and organisational factors that affect you as a leader
- Understand the impact of your life story on your thoughts, behaviour, values and actions
- Discover fresh perspectives and explore new directions to see and do things differently
- Enhance your ability to deal with and navigate uncertainty
- Accept and face up to adversity and challenge and improve your wellbeing, relationships, agency, performance and sense of fulfillment
Buy On:
Bookshop.org US $16.99
Blackwells £15.99
Waterstones £14.99
Wordery $18.28
Q. Do you have a favourite smart thinking book (and why that book)?
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. Description from Bookshop.org: (All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
This book offered me a profound insight into the power of the subconscious mind and its impact on decision making. With the clearest and most relatable explanation (backed by studies and stories) that highlight our tendency for cognitive bias and heuristics. He also helps me to understand the irrationality of my mind.
Thinking, Fast and Slow
Why do we make the decisions we do? Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman, 'the world's most influential living psychologist' (Steven Pinker) revolutionised our understanding of human behaviour with Thinking, Fast and Slow. Distilling his life's work, Kahneman shows how there are two ways we make choices: fast, intuitive thinking, and slow, rational thinking.
He reveals how our minds are tripped up by error, bias and prejudice (even when we think we are being logical) and gives practical techniques that enable us all to improve our decision-making. This profound exploration of the marvels and limitations of the human mind has had a lasting impact on how we see ourselves.
Buy On:
Easons €14.29
Bookshop.org UK £12.34
Bookshop.org US $18.60
Blackwells £11.99
Waterstones £12.99
Wordery $15.84
Q. What's the most recent smart thinking book you've read (and how would you rate it)?
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk. Description from Bookshop.org: (All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
An informative and captivating exploration of what it takes to successfully heal from the impacts of psychological trauma. Van der Kolk demonstrates how society needs to wake up to how childhood neglect has a chronic nature to it, and remains a part of adult life. When ignored and untreated this can haunt individuals and their surrounding communities. What I found most influential in my work, is his exploration of how trauma is stored in our somatic memory and expressed in biological stress responses. Van der Kolk proves how this can be addressed through compelling and touching case studies.
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma
The effects of trauma can be devastating for sufferers, their families and future generations.
Here one of the world's experts on traumatic stress offers a bold new paradigm for treatment, moving away from standard talking and drug therapies and towards an alternative approach that heals mind, brain and body.
Buy On:
Easons €13.99
Bookshop.org UK £12.34
Bookshop.org US $17.67
Blackwells £11.99
Waterstones £12.99
Wordery $15.84
Q. Do you have a favourite childhood book?
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. Description from Bookshop.org: (All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak - a profound tale that exposes those less desirable emotions we feel as children, and how these play such an important role in our growth and livelihood. A boy who has upset his mother by being naughty gets called a Wild Thing. This spurs on a less conscious imaginative journey, in a land of the wild beasts, who conclude he is wilder than any of them - crown him king. The key message I took away is the legitimacy of staying with an unwanted emotion like anger.
Where the Wild Things Are
One night Max puts on his wolf suit and makes mischief - so his mother calls him 'Wild Thing' and sends him to bed without his supper.
That night a forest begins to grow in Max's room, an ocean rushes by with a boat to take Max to the place where the wild things are... Max tames the wild things and crowns himself as their king, and then the wild rumpus begins!
But when Max has sent the monsters to bed, and everything is quiet, he starts to feel lonely. He realises it is time to sail home to the place where someone loves him best of all.
Buy On:
Easons €10.07
Bookshop.org UK £8.54
Bookshop.org US $8.32
Blackwells £45.00
Waterstones £8.99
Wordery $10.96
Q. Do you prefer reading on paper, Kindle or listening to an audiobook?
I like listening to audiobooks as it means I can get through more books in my busy life - walking the dogs and driving are two favourite book listening times for me.
Q. Do you have a favourite bookshop (and why that shop)?
Karnac Books
Karnac Books an old independent book store that celebrates books in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. Given my interest in these topics has spanned much of my working life, I love immersing myself in the evolution of this special book shop.
Many thanks to Samreen for recommending a great group of books! Please don't forget to check out Leader Awakened: Why accepting adversity drives power and freedom.
Daryl
Image Copyrights: Rethink Press (Leader Awakened: Why accepting adversity drives power and freedom), Penguin Books Ltd ( Thinking, Fast and Slow), Penguin Books Ltd (The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma), HarperCollins (Where the Wild Things Are).
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