Essential Reading - Our Top Picks for July

Each month, our Moore Stephens L&D team brings you its top picks for essential reading. In honour of Women’s day on 9 August, we look at two books which have changed the way we view women in leadership. Sheryl Sandberg’s seminal book is about leaning in and Fran Hauser’s work is about the Myth of the Nice Girl. Both have been instrumental in shaking up traditional views of women in the workplace and have inspired a generation of women to pursue a new type of female leadership.
 
Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead (Sheryl Sandberg)
 
Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In is a massive cultural phenomenon and its title has become the poster of today’s women empowerment movement. In this book, Sheryl Sandberg – Facebook COO and one of Fortune magazine's Most Powerful Women in Business – draws on her own experience of working in some of the world's most successful businesses and looks at what women can do to help themselves, and make the small changes in their lives that can effect change on a more universal scale. This is a ‘must read’ for all women in business!
 
The Myth of the Nice Girl: Achieving a Career You Love Without Becoming a Person You Hate (Fran Hauser)
 
Fran Hauser, start-up investor and former President of Digital at Time Inc., turns the ‘nice girl’ notion on its head in this book. She blows up the negative perception of ‘niceness’ that many women struggle with in the workplace and argues that ambitious women can achieve satisfying careers of power and leadership without sacrificing kindness or authenticity. In fact, these qualities should be used strategically. The book delves into a variety of business-related topics to prove that kindness and ambition are not mutually exclusive. The book is an invaluable and powerful read, a tool for navigating the workplace as a woman and as an authentic leader!
 
Happy reading!