Last year, I launched a Spring Leadership Series to think about leadership in nontraditional ways. As 2024 continued, I presented additional ways to think about leadership during my Olympics Leadership Series and Holiday Leadership Series. With a new year upon us, I've invited 25 thought leaders to share their responses to five questions relating to team-building, reading, and leadership. My #SpringLeadershipSeries2025 began the first day of Spring and continues through June 20th, the first day of Summer.
Before we begin, I'd like to applaud two special individuals for providing the inspiration for this series. First, big applause goes to Erika Andersen, a leadership expert and author who I've had the pleasure of knowing for nearly 15 years, and she's appeared on my blog 13 times since 2011. She wrote an article for Forbes entitled, "How Springtime Can Make Us Better Leaders," and that article serves as the core of the series as its first question. Second, I also applaud Joseph Lalonde, a leadership expert and author of a book called REEL LEADERSHIP, for planting the seeds for last year's Spring Leadership Series on my blog. After I read Joe's book, I started looking at movies as well as works of fiction, TV shows, and TV characters with "leadership-tinted glasses."
For today's post, I'd like to introduce Melanie Bell based in Houston, Texas. Melanie is the Co-Founder of Strategic Piece, a company that helps B2B businesses generate outstanding revenue growth by bringing together their marketing, sales, and service teams around an information-driven customer experience. However, Melanie is not only about marketing. She founded Leaders Who Fiction, a virtual monthly book club (where we met!), while running Strategic Piece. Through Leaders Who Fiction, Melanie helps people develop leadership skills by reading fiction and participating in intellectual, business-oriented conversations centered around a selected novel. Prior to Strategic Piece, Melanie was President of Marketing Interface, which she founded in 2014, after serving as Director of Marketing at SURGE Accelerator/SURGE Ventures. Melanie earned a BA in International Development from McGill University in Montreal and an MBA from Rice University in Houston.
QUESTION: Leadership expert and author Erika Andersen wrote an article for Forbes entitled, "How Springtime Can Make Us Better Leaders." In the article, Erika compared gardening to management and leadership. What are your thoughts, or was there something that stood out from the article?
MELANIE BELL: I love the infinite metaphors we can come up with for good/bad management and leadership. That being said, the gardening metaphor seems particularly appropriate and effective at reminding us of what we should be doing year-round, not just in springtime.
Two things jumped out to me.
The first was, "The most problematic situation though, is the employee who is almost OK," since this is something with which I've struggled. Oh, how tempting it is to will someone out of mediocrity, to see their potential and let that outshine their actual performance.
The second was "maybe the job changes so much that they can no longer succeed." As a consultant, I've experienced great long-term working relationships with clients where I eventually realize that the skillset they need from me has changed dramatically since the start of the engagement. It requires a hard conversation to tell a client that it's time to move on because they need someone who can provide what I can't for this new job they need doing.
QUESTION: What was the most recent example of inspiring leadership that made an impact on you?
MELANIE BELL: I'm feeling particularly inspired by all the work being done to fight book bans. This seems to be happening at every level of life from local communities and school boards to The Big Five (anglophone) publishers (Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Macmillan Publishers, and Simon & Schuster) collaborating to sue states implementing book bans at public and school libraries.
SHARE THIS: I'm feeling particularly inspired by all the work being done to fight book bans. ~Melanie Bell #SpringLeadershipSeries2025 #DebbieLaskeysBlog
QUESTION: What is your favorite team-building activity, and why?
MELANIE BELL: The best team-building activity I've participated in was a white-water boating adventure. This was outside of Montreal, and it had just turned cold, so we were freezing before we even left on the excursion. It was pure fun and, after we returned, we shared a meal together. I think sharing food with others is a great way to build camaraderie. I'm a big believer in fun activities rather than things like trust falls or more serious endeavors. Humor breaks down barriers.
QUESTION: Which book is on the top of your to-be-read pile, and why?
MELANIE BELL: Always our books for Leaders Who Fiction. We read Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus for the February meeting and Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami for the March meeting. But, outside of the Leaders Who Fiction choices, I just picked up two books from my local public library (big shout-out to librarians who make the world a better place!): Confessions by Catherine Airey and The Wildes: A Novel in Five Acts by Louis Bayard. I love stories about family.
QUESTION: In the past year, has a TV show, film, or work of fiction stood out as a result of its emphasis on leadership?
MELANIE BELL: I just finished a book called Becoming Madam Secretary by Stephanie Dray. It's about the first female member of a presidential cabinet, which was Frances Perkins. She was FDR's Secretary of Labor and largely responsible for things like ending child labor in the US and instituting Social Security. The book showcased her ability to compromise, to relentlessly pursue initiatives that were important to her and others, and to take big action with high stakes. I've heard some people who felt that the author portrayed her as having too much imposter syndrome — and we'll never know what was really going on in her head at crucial moments — but I think we all have moments of doubting ourselves.
My gratitude to Melanie for sharing her leadership insights and for being a part of my #SpringLeadershipSeries2025. Did these questions open your eyes to think about leadership in nontraditional ways? That was the hope!
Image Credit: Troubadour/St. Francis University.
Read Erika Andersen's article, "How Springtime Can Make Us Better Leaders"
https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikaandersen/2015/05/14/how-springtime-can-make-us-better-leaders/
Read about the initiative challenging "book banning" by major book publishers referenced in Melanie's response to the second question:
Read Melanie's previous appearances here on my blog:
HOLIDAY LEADERSHIP SERIES – Featuring Melanie Bell (December 2024)
https://www.debbielaskeysblog.com/2024/12/holiday-leadership-series-featuring.html
OLYMPICS LEADERSHIP SERIES – Featuring Melanie Bell (July 2024)
https://www.debbielaskeysblog.com/2024/07/olympics-leadership-series-featuring_01990085057.html
SPRING LEADERSHIP SERIES – Featuring Melanie Bell (June 2024)
https://www.debbielaskeysblog.com/2024/06/spring-leadership-series-featuring_0526172756.html
And thanks to Melanie:
The Best Book I Read in 2023 (February 2024)
https://www.debbielaskeysblog.com/2024/02/the-best-book-i-read-in-2023.html
Connect with Melanie at these links:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melanieabell
Website: https://www.strategicpiece.com
If you'd like to join the next Leaders Who Fiction's virtual book club meeting, check out @LeadersWhoFiction on Instagram or the club's website for details: https://www.leaderswhofiction.com
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for your comment!