Tweetwise: Leadership books by women

It was a confessional question on a Wednesday afternoon which led to an unexpected and positive exchange on Twitter.

“Any recommendations on leadership books or articles written by women? Just got rightly called out for sharing a slide which only had books by male authors.” I didn’t anticipate many responses.

The truth was I had been mildly irritated when my error had been pointed out. I work hard to ensure at least 50% of my course contributors are women and that they represent different ages, races and geographies where possible. Twice in the last year I’ve even been criticised for creating all women panels. But I was more irritated with myself for not having seen it.

What happened next amazed me. There was an influx of recommendations. Other women were nudged to respond in kind. Whole book lists were shared. It took me 4 hours to collate all the suggestions and at last count I had nearly 300 recommendations. I felt overwhelmed and hugely grateful.

Two things stand out from this experience. Firstly, the abundance of talent and wisdom that we can tap into at the push of a button. The scope of topics related to leadership and the range of authors was breath-taking. Second, the generosity with which it was shared. I wasn’t belittled or shamed. One person posted “Happens to the best of us. But look at you now showing what it means to own it and lead by example.”

The day after my tweet I wrote: ‘Truly humbled and inspired by the generosity shown in response to my request for leadership books by women. Blown away by the breadth of original, wise and wonderful work being created. Will collate and share.

So grateful. Twitter at its best.’So, thank you again and as promised, albeit a little late, here’s the list… http://bit.ly/WomenLeadBks