Are You Ready To Shed?

ReaderStrength™

Resources for Leaders

Vol. #12 12/18/03, Deanne G. Bryce, editor

ReaderStrength™ is published monthly

©LeaderStrength Systems, Inc. 2003

Are you looking for some light, yet powerful reading to prepare you for your own personal leadership journey in the coming year?

Shed or You're Dead: 31 unConventional Strategies for Growth & Change drew me into its pages and kept me turning until the end. The author, Kathy B. Dempsey teams up with an unusual partner, Lenny the Lizard, to share insight and wisdom in an easy, fun format.

You may be asking…Why a lizard? Kathy learned from a colleague, who owned a pet lizard, that if lizards don't shed their old skin they die because they can't grow.

Now you could be asking….how did Kathy come to know Lenny?, Here's Kathy's explanation…

"I was looking for birthday present for my nephew when my eye caught on a green lizard sitting on a lower shelf. I walked past it but a compelling urge called me to go back. It was like Lenny was sitting on a shelf waiting for me to adopt him. I picked him up and placed him in my arms. That was the beginning of my life-long relationship with a guy (lizard) named Lenny.

Shedding is growing, Lenny tells people, because on one side it is letting go of the old, on the other side, it's gaining of the new."

Years prior to meeting Lenny, Kathy was an ER nurse who was told at age 26 that she had contracted AIDS from a dying patient that she worked to save. This event nearly cost Kathy her life. Instead it transformed her from a hardworking professional to passionate person who is living her life on purpose, alive, awake and ready to shed.

Now Kathy shares unconventional strategies for growth and transformation. Each strategy is cleverly written as if the strategy were a wake-up call in itself. First the reader is introduced to a title that will make them look twice. For example, strategy # 16 is titled, "Get Angry!" After reading that title, I asked myself, "What? As a business professional shouldn't I remain calm and cool under pressure?"

As I continued to read I discovered something I already knew yet I appreciated a friendly reminder…

"Anger is not only okay, it is healthy and a necessary part of shedding, of dealing with loss. It's how we are able to grieve and go on. Of all the challenges to shedding, I have found many people get stuck at this stage. They don't know what to do with the anger. They either let it explode or stuff it and it comes out in other ways."

This particular strategy stood out for me because it resonates with the research I have been doing in regard to the brain and how we learn and grow. Neuroscientists now believe that unexpressed emotion leads to sickness and other types of non-healthy outcomes. In fact, in the workplace when people don't think that they can express their emotions, the organization itself remains stuck in non-productive behavior patterns.

Within the pages of this book you will find thirty other equally shocking, yet enlightening strategies. Here is a list of a few of the most unconventional:

Be Psychotic!

Don't Wear Clean Underwear

Eat Two Crickets a Day

Cheat

Be a Tyrant

Be a Snob

Are you ready to open your eyes, ears and mind to growth in 2004? If so, read this book and make losing your old skin a little more fun.

About ReaderStrength™

We humans have been writing about leadership for more than 2000 years. Is there anything new and exciting to be said about the subject? Perhaps not, but still we hunger for information and inspiration. ReaderStrength is an e-publication that adds value to your busy life as a leader by pointing you toward books to fuel your inspiration as you lead yourself and others. Send us your ideas and favorite leadership books so that we can share them with others.

Each issue is archived at www.leaderstrength.com/Reader.htm

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dbryce@leaderstrength.com • Leader Strength Systems