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Center for Faculty Excellence

Leadership Book Club

The Leadership Book Club meets quarterly via Zoom. These professional development meetings consist of faculty members from across UAMS who are interested in developing their leadership.

The Leadership Book Club was created in 2023 by Dr. Amanda Golbeck from the College of Public Health.

Those who are interested can email COPH_OAA@uams.edu

Current Book Club Selections:

Will be discussed January 26th, 2024: Written to speak for those who’ve been without a voice throughout their professional career, Plantation Theory: The Black Professional’s Struggle Between Freedom & Security showcases the realities that countless Black corporate professionals face despite best efforts to prove their worthiness of opportunity. It challenges the status quo and urges future generations of Black excellence to recognize how much power they wield and evaluate closely the benefits and the detractors of choosing to work in Corporate America.
Will be discussed April 26th, 2024: The battle between old and new power is determining who governs us, how we work, and even how we think and feel. This groundbreaking book provides a new way to understand the world—and the tools we all need to thrive in it.
Already discussed: The truth is, all historically excluded persons who have broken through to greater levels of professional belonging and achievement have succeeded not by policy and systems change alone, but because of leaders who chose to remove barriers, open doors, and guide them toward their goals. The bottom line? Someone made a way for them. Using case studies, data, and candid storytelling, Tara Jaye Frank outlines how leaders with power and position can clear the path to workplace equity by: discovering where you are on your equity journey today; embracing the steps required to achieve true equity; understanding what your employees really want from you; developing a lens for the big barriers and intervention opportunities; connecting the dots between meeting talent needs and unlocking company value; recognizing when Waymaking matters most; and showing up—every day—as a leader who makes a way.
Already discussed: Talking to Strangers is a challenging and controversial excursion through history, psychology, and scandals taken straight from the news. In it, Malcolm Gladwell revisits the deceptions of Bernie Madoff, the suicide of Sylvia Plath, and the death of Sandra Bland—throwing our understanding of these and other stories into doubt.
Already discussed: No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving–every day. James Clear, one of the world’s leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.
Already discussed: In Team of Teams, McChrystal and his colleagues show how the challenges they faced in Iraq can be rel­evant to countless businesses, nonprofits, and or­ganizations today. In periods of unprecedented crisis, leaders need practical management practices that can scale to thousands of people—and fast. By giving small groups the freedom to experiment and share what they learn across the entire organiza­tion, teams can respond more quickly, communicate more freely, and make better and faster decisions.  Drawing on compelling examples—from NASA to hospital emergency rooms—Team of Teams makes the case for merging the power of a large corporation with the agility of a small team to transform any organization.

Future Book Club Selections:

Will be discussed in 2024: In The Unicorn Within, Linda Yates, the founder and CEO of Silicon Valley-based Mach49, the world’s leading growth incubator for the Global 1000, argues that to thrive, companies can and must harness their power–their ideas, talent, data, cash, resources, channels, and customers–to build a portfolio of game-changing ventures and beat the startups at their own game. In this all-in-one guide, Yates lays out a comprehensive twelve-week program, proven in scores of the world’s largest companies, for doing all of the above: building a team and finding customer pain points; creating new products or services; developing a rigorous business and execution plan; and launching, accelerating, and scaling each venture. 
Will be discussed in 2024: Time is not money. Time is life force .Are you consistently doing the work that you and only you can do? Or are you burdened by busywork, the bottleneck blocking your company’s profit and potential? Your time is far more precious than money. It is your presence, your memories, your quality of life. Free Time is about making small investments now to create greater optionality in the future. Free Time is a playbook to free your mind, time, and team for your best work.
Will be discussed in 2024: The title “Bullfrog” is given to the Navy SEAL who has served the longest on active duty. Admiral McRaven was honored to receive this honor in 2011 when he took charge of the United States Special Operations Command. When McRaven retired in 2014, he had 37 years as a Navy SEAL under his belt, leading men and women at every level of the special operations community. In the ensuing four years, he served as Chancellor to the entire University of Texas System, with its 230,000 students and 100,000 faculty and health care workers. THE WISDOM OF THE BULLFROG draws on these and countless other experiences from Admiral McRaven’s incredible life, including crisis situations, management debates, organizational transitions, and ethical dilemmas, to provide readers with the most important leadership lessons he has learned over the course of his forty years of service.
Will be discussed in 2024: In this ground-breaking book, Richard Rumelt, the world’s leading authority on strategy, shows how finding the crux of a challenge is the essence of the strategist’s skill. The crux is the key issue where action will best pay off, and Rumelt reveals how to pinpoint it so you can focus energy on what really matters. Drawing on decades of professional and academic experience, and through vivid storytelling of some of the most important business decisions of recent times, Rumelt illuminates how leaders can overcome obstacles, navigate uncertainty and determine the best path forward. Strategy is not about setting financial targets, statements of desired outcomes, or performance goals, it is about finding the crux and taking decisive, coherent action.
Will be discussed in 2024: Stories That Stick provides a clear framework of ideals and a concise set of actions for you to take complete control of your own story, utilizing the principles behind the world’s most effective business storytelling strategies. Professional storyteller and nationally-known speaker Kindra Hall reveals the four unique stories you can use to differentiate, captivate, and elevate:

The Value Story—convince customers they need what you provide.
The Founder Story—persuade investors and customers your organization is worth the investment.
The Purpose Story—align and inspire your employees and internal customers.
The Customer Story—allow those who use your product or service to share their authentic experiences with others.

Telling these stories well is a simple, accessible skill anyone can develop. With case studies, company profiles, and anecdotes backed with original research, Hall presents storytelling as the underutilized talent that separates the good from the best in business.
Will be discussed in 2024: The Song of Significance is a rousing contemplation on work: why it is the way it is, why it’s gotten so bad, what all of us–especially leaders–can do to make it better. Economic instability and the rise of remote work have left us disconnected and disengaged. Alarmed managers are responding with harsh top-down edicts, layoffs, surveillance and mandatory meetings. Workers are responding by quiet quitting and working their wage. But it doesn’t have to be this way. The choice is simple. We can endure the hangover of industrial capitalism, keep treating people as disposable, and join in the AI-fueled race to the bottom. Or we come together to build a significant organization that enrolls, empowers, and trusts everyone to deliver their best work, no matter where they are.