A review by thehannahyopp
The Song of Significance: A New Manifesto for Teams by Seth Godin
challenging
inspiring
fast-paced
5.0
This morning, my boss surprised us all with a new professional development book & sent us off to read it. (Please note: that literally means that today I got paid to sit on my porch and read a book. In the wise words of Lizzie McGuire, “this is what dreams are made of.”)
After reading this book, I now need to go to the store to replenish my office supplies because hot dang did I run through pens and highlighters and post-its (oh my)! We’re big fans of Seth Godin at my office, but I still hadn’t picked up any of his books myself. Literally devoured this one in three hours, though, so after the store I think I’m hitting the library for his backlog, too. 😂
As a young mixed-race woman, I don’t connect well with many of the popular business and leadership books. Authoritarianism just isn’t for me and I don’t love being told what to do just for the sake of doing it. When I got my first job out of college, it looked a lot like those books recommend and I hated it. I figured I was the problem and office jobs just weren’t for me. Then everything changed, and last week I emailed my boss a hair-brained idea that flipped my job on it’s head all because of something I read in a book (ps pls also add Unreasonable Hospitality to your TBR right now). And she loved it. My “soft skills” make me good at what I do. My creativity and all the things about me that don’t fit the traditional “Professional Person” box make me good at what I do. And this book has helped me realize that we don’t have to create those boxes anymore. People deserve to be fully and unequivocally themselves everywhere—including the office. And our work will probably be better off for it.
Leadership is helping people to find what sets their soul on fire and to bring that to work with them. It’s capitalizing on their quirks because it makes work more human.
TL;DR: just go buy the dang book. And make sure to grab a new pack of pens, highlighters, and page flags while you’re at it.
After reading this book, I now need to go to the store to replenish my office supplies because hot dang did I run through pens and highlighters and post-its (oh my)! We’re big fans of Seth Godin at my office, but I still hadn’t picked up any of his books myself. Literally devoured this one in three hours, though, so after the store I think I’m hitting the library for his backlog, too. 😂
As a young mixed-race woman, I don’t connect well with many of the popular business and leadership books. Authoritarianism just isn’t for me and I don’t love being told what to do just for the sake of doing it. When I got my first job out of college, it looked a lot like those books recommend and I hated it. I figured I was the problem and office jobs just weren’t for me. Then everything changed, and last week I emailed my boss a hair-brained idea that flipped my job on it’s head all because of something I read in a book (ps pls also add Unreasonable Hospitality to your TBR right now). And she loved it. My “soft skills” make me good at what I do. My creativity and all the things about me that don’t fit the traditional “Professional Person” box make me good at what I do. And this book has helped me realize that we don’t have to create those boxes anymore. People deserve to be fully and unequivocally themselves everywhere—including the office. And our work will probably be better off for it.
Leadership is helping people to find what sets their soul on fire and to bring that to work with them. It’s capitalizing on their quirks because it makes work more human.
TL;DR: just go buy the dang book. And make sure to grab a new pack of pens, highlighters, and page flags while you’re at it.