Education
People Management
January 20, 2025
Lifelong learning: beyond the classroom
Reading suggestions that can help in the development of skills and contribute to more assertive decision-making in professional and personal spheres
In the dynamic scenario in which we live, the practice of lifelong learning – learning throughout life – is fundamental, as it goes beyond formal education environments, encouraging the pursuit of new knowledge, the development of skills, and the deepening of understanding about the world and ourselves.
By delving into specific topics through well-directed readings, we broaden our perspectives on issues that, until then, might have seemed complex or distant. By understanding a topic more deeply and applying it to our reality, we learn and grasp knowledge, thus becoming able to contribute more assertively in debates, behaviors, actions, and even decisions, both in the professional and personal spheres.
The books below were selected as suggested reading for 2025 not only because they address contemporary issues, but also because they invite deep and applicable reflections. The recommended works align with the purpose of inspiring intellectual curiosity and fostering critical thinking skills, indispensable competencies for people who wish to study continuously. After all, learning is an endless adventure.
The Right Way to Make Mistakes – How Failures Teach Us to Thrive. Author: Amy C. Edmondson (Intrínseca Ed.). This recent work is a true lesson on how we can deal with failures assertively. To do this, it is essential to understand the types of failure, which can be functional or dysfunctional. For the author, “confusion arises when we don’t have access to a simple, practical framework for distinguishing types of failure. Fear comes from the social stigma attached to failure” (Edmondson, 2024, p. 35). The author helps to work through the dichotomy of “two cultures of failure”: one that tells us to avoid failure at all costs and another in which it is even desirable to fail.
The courage to lead: hard work, difficult conversations, whole hearts. Author: Brené Brown (Ed. BestSeller). Leadership has nothing to do with rank, function, status, power. Leadership has to do with attitude and behavior. If you inspire another person to have dreams, to learn continuously, to be proactive, to want to be the best person every day, you are a leader. It is in this context that the author Brené Brown, already well known for her studies on vulnerability, provides answers to some questions she herself asks in the book. One of them is: can you identify the specific skills you believe are the foundation for courageous leadership? Furthermore, she compiles the main obstacles identified by leaders, reinforcing one of them: having difficult conversations, characterized as giving honest feedback to teams. A glimpse of what the reader will find in the book can be seen in an article from Forbes with an interview with the author: https://forbes.com.br/carreira/2024/12/a-formula-de-brene-brown-para-um-feedback-transformador/.
Difficult Conversations. How to Discuss What Matters Most. Authors: Bruce Patton, Douglas Stone, and Sheila Heen (Ed. Sextante). This book is a true guide on how to handle difficult conversations. Readers will understand that arguing about who is right or wrong is pointless; it is more important to explore each person’s stories. For example, a leader who promotes changes within an area is clear that they are doing what is important to help the company grow, but they are also co-responsible for any anxieties, fears, doubts, or resistances that the change will bring to the team. Thus, the authors invite everyone to stop finding culprits and map out each person’s contribution within a conflict. With this, conversations can be more fluid and transparent. The book presents three types of difficult conversations and explains how to handle them assertively.
Assertive empathy: how to be an incisive leader without losing humanity. Author: Kim Scott (Alta Books Publisher). As a former executive at Google and Apple, Scott developed the concept of assertive empathy, which is presented practically in the book. Good leadership cares about people, but also confronts them, and with this statement, the author brings three specific leadership behaviors, linking them to empathy. Leadership that confronts its team without caring about them falls into the trap of “offensive aggressiveness”. If leadership cares but does not confront its team, it ends up demonstrating “harmful empathy”. On the other hand, those who neither care nor confront their teams are a clear example of “manipulative insincerity”. In this sense, the book shows that leaders can reconcile delivering results with humanizing management, helping people find meaning in their work and create a collaborative environment. To do this, it must fulfill its three main responsibilities: fostering a culture of feedback (praise and criticism); building a cohesive team; and stimulating results that people can be proud of.
Humble Leadership. The Power of Relationships, Openness, and Trust in Professional Life. Authors: Edgar H. Schein and Peter A. Schein (Ed. Cultrix). The authors emphatically state that static, rigid, vertical hierarchies that value distance are totally counterproductive. With the dynamism of the environment and the interdependence of tasks, leadership needs to be more personal, ensuring open and transparent communication and fostering trusting relationships. Increasing innovation and solving complex problems involve the collaboration of a large group of people; without this, companies will continue to face productivity and quality problems in their services. Furthermore, the authors manage to answer a frequent question from many leaders: what level of relationship should I have with my team? Thus, they address four levels of relationship marked by different degrees of trust and openness, based on various degrees of “personalization,” a concept that defines the process of mutual construction of a working relationship. The authors make it clear that the challenge for humble leadership is to “build Level 2 trust and honesty, becoming more personal in both questions and answers; at the same time, it is necessary to avoid the formality of professional distance of Level 1 and the privacy violations evident in the intimacy of Level 3” (Schein and Schein, 2022, p. 70).
Accountability at work: how to commit, deliver on promises, and get others to do the same. Author: Carolyn Talyor (Editora Labrador). When a leader sets a challenge for an employee and the employee says they will deliver, a promise is consolidated in that conversation. The big issue is that often the delegation process, the promises made, and the follow-ups carried out do not happen effectively, leading to rework, delays, inadequate deliveries, or even a failure to deliver what was agreed upon. In this sense, the author brings in this book a set of principles, behaviors, and skills that enable leaders to create a scalable accountability system, based on the process of making and keeping promises. This system allows people to develop the mindset of accountability, consistently delivering on their promises. This book effectively contributes to leaders and teams who wish to work with high performance.
The fearless organization. Creating psychological safety in the workplace for learning, innovation, and growth. Author: Amy C. Edmonsdson (Alta Books Publisher). The book’s focus is on helping organizations and leaders foster an environment where people can speak, debate, present their points of view without suffering retaliation – psychological safety. But beyond that, the author brings deep insights into the importance of an environment of constant dialogue for organizational results, which can reflect in improved performance and increased quality of deliverables, products, and services. She states that no one wakes up in the morning excited to go to work and appear ignorant, incompetent, or unpleasant (the so-called interpersonal risks). Thus, we seek to appear intelligent and interesting to those around us. When we are adults, within an organization, we unconsciously avoid interpersonal risks in the following ways: don’t want to seem ignorant? Don’t ask questions. Don’t want to seem incompetent? Don’t admit mistakes or weaknesses. Don’t want to seem unpleasant? Don’t make suggestions. Therefore, if we find ourselves in an environment with little psychological safety, we will hardly give our opinions or suggestions. In this context, leadership is fundamental to encouraging people to speak up, give their suggestions and opinions, question the status quo to grow and help companies grow too. Essential reading for anyone who wishes to deeply understand the true meaning of psychological safety.
Achieved. Learn how to create paths to live with happiness and purpose. Authors: Carol Shinoda and Carolina Cavalcanti (Benvirá Publishing House). Newly released, this book presents, in a practical and profound way, what many believe to be utopia: happiness. The authors invite us to view happiness and life purpose as a combination of finding/building a life with more meaning. The real stories presented in the book bring reflections on happiness and purpose and, based on the concepts of well-being, such as those defined by Martin Seligman, and the idea of purpose that transcends personal interests, the book helps readers understand how to align personal and professional lives harmoniously. The authors also highlight the fundamental role of leadership in connecting the individual purposes of each member of their teams with the organizational purpose, creating healthier and more productive work environments. Essential reading for all who seek meaning in what they do.
The suggested literature not only enriches theoretical knowledge on leadership, communication, and management, but also offers practical tools that contribute to the numerous challenges experienced in the corporate environment and in life. These works are true guides for personal and professional improvement, helping leaders and professionals cultivate essential skills such as empathy, courage, accountability and the creation of safe environments. Investing in reading these works is investing in the development of competencies that positively impact not only organizational results, but also the quality of interpersonal relationships and human growth.
Who wrote this column
Denise de Moura
