The Bold Type – showcasing warm, inspirational and strong female leadership
I have binge-watched The Bold Type on Netflix in the last few months. For anyone that hasn’t watched it, it’s four seasons of three female friends working at a fashion magazine in America. Why was I so glued? It was a strong female cast, it wasn’t bitchy or mean and it dealt with really difficult issues incredibly well.
Inspired by the life of former Cosmopolitan editor-in-chief Joanna Coles, who also serves as executive producer, the seasons take you on a journey of their careers and personal lives. The themes covered include sexuality, transgender rights, political activism, racism and so much more. It’s a breath of fresh air to watch something that feels so honest and isn’t hiding behind metaphors. Equally brilliant is Melora Hardin as the editor-in-chief Jaqueline Carlyle – this character could easily have been hard and cold but instead she is warm, kind and full of empathy, with a fierceness to her that commands respect.
I know some people I have recommended this to have wondered why on earth I watch it! While others have followed suit and binged the seasons. For me, it’s definitely worth a watch.
Rest and recuperation
Last year we booked a camping trip in Cornwall for my husband and me and his family. There are some big birthdays this year, so it was a chance to all get together without having to be in a hotel and worry about some of the restrictions. This was my first camping trip and I loved every moment – from the rain as we set up camp to the blistering sunshine making it unbearable to be inside the tent!
Importantly, I needed the break. In the last 18 months I haven’t really stopped – like so many of us. After moving house in January we both wanted to have some time away from home and work. Camping was the ultimate detox and after a week away I had new-found clarity for my business, reset my own mentality around balance of work and home and have come back able to find my new routine in a post-lockdown world.
If you’d like to know more about prioritising your own rest and mental space, I recommend Burnout – Solve Your Stress Cycle, which I talk about in this blog and Your Oxygen Mask First, which I mention in this article for Insights for Professionals about the six leadership skills to master for better internal communication.
Rebel Ideas
While I was away, I finished reading Rebel Ideas – The Power of Thinking Differently by Matthew Syed. If you’re connected with me on Twitter or Instagram, you’ll know how much I adored this book. It’s the book everyone in business should read. It’s packed full of insights from our history as human beings, learnings from what we have done in the past, and current examples from organisations changing how they work.
The story of Derek Black is a gem. It shows how people can change their minds, no matter how strong their beliefs. The whole story of upbringing, hiding yourself from others and then learning to accept facts without thinking they are propaganda or reinforcing your own beliefs is fascinating to read. The examples from Pixar and Amazon among others about their deliberate ways of working that foster spaces for idea generation and listening are examples you can apply to your organisation today.
Listen to it or read it – it’s a must-read for 2021. I’d recommend buying it in print so you can highlight and tab – as I have done! There are parts of it I want to read again and again to make sure I have absorbed what is being said. That might sound a little bit much but there are elements that are fundamental for us to understand in an age of social media, mass polarisation and misinformation. Read the article I was inspired to write after reading this book – The pandemic revolution.
