PRO CONNECT
Photo by Laurie Bishop
Minette Norman is an award-winning author, speaker, and leadership consultant who previously spent decades leading global technical teams in the Silicon Valley software industry.
Minette knows that when groups embrace diversity in all its forms, breakthroughs emerge, and innovation accelerates. Her most recent position before starting her consultancy was as Vice President of Engineering Practice at Autodesk. Responsible for influencing more than 3,500 engineers around the globe, she focused on state-of-the-art engineering practices while nurturing a collaborative and inclusive culture.
As the author of The Boldly Inclusive Leader and the co-author of The Psychological Safety Playbook, Minette is committed to helping leaders unleash the full potential of the people in their organizations.
Named in 2017 as one of the “Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business” by the San Francisco Business Times and as “Business Role Model of the Year” in the 2018 Women in IT/Silicon Valley Awards, Minette is a recognized leader with a unique perspective.
Minette holds degrees in Drama and French from Tufts University and studied at the Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris.
“An effective mix of psychology, experience-based wisdom, and helpful advice to create a happier and more productive workplace”
– Kirkus Reviews
Leadership consultant and speaker Norman offers a book of practical tips and stories about inclusivity and how to employ it as a business leader.
Over a 30-year career in the software industry, the author has learned a lot about leadership, and this book’s 10 chapters each tackle a subject with advice on how to take inclusive leadership from theory to practice by setting the proper tone, getting comfortable with discomfort (“Your first step could be to try to understand what is making you so uncomfortable. One obvious reason is realizing that you are not an expert in diversity, equity, and inclusion”), learning to listen, building trust, employing empathy and compassion, welcoming all voices, embracing differences, running inclusive meetings, mentoring (“To what degree am I willing to learn from others, rather than being the expert leader?”), and being bold. All are important topics for leaders seeking to embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the author presents each in an engaging format, using stories from her career, research she’s done along the way, accounts of real-life applications, and, at the end of each chapter, daily and weekly exercises on the topic at hand, as well as self-reflective questions. The book combines the practices and questions into a single list at the end of the book, too—a small but thoughtful addition that makes the material easily accessible. Indeed, the book’s overall structure is inviting and easy to follow, and chapters can valuably be read in order or separately, although the chapters do effectively build upon one another when read in sequence. Norman’s prose style is easygoing, with reader-friendly elements including pull quotes on many pages for easy access (such as “You show up as an inclusive leader every day, not just when it’s convenient”). Norman’s anecdotes from her own executive career are pertinent and engaging.
A book that offers a pleasing and effective mix of psychology, experience-based wisdom, and helpful advice to create a happier and more productive workplace.
Pub Date: Aug. 8, 2023
ISBN: 9781956072112
Page count: 200pp
Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group Press
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024
Helbig and Norman declare that it’s time to make the office friendly to dissenting ideas, diverse employees, and human foibles in this leadership primer.
The authors, leadership consultants who were formerly a management consultant and a corporate executive, introduce readers to the corporate “psychological safety” movement, which seeks to enable employees to fully participate in the organization, speak their minds, and pursue novel initiatives without fear of punishment, enabling them to counteract the tendencies toward groupthink and institutional sclerosis in organizations that are rigidly hierarchical. Helbig and Norman present a series of “plays” that can be developed by learning practical skills. These skills include “communicating courageously” with underlings about uncomfortable issues; listening attentively; managing one’s reactions and avoiding getting defensive and angry when co-workers disagree with you; tolerating risk and failure as the necessary prices of learning new things; admitting when you need help and thanking people for their contributions; and knowing how to “design inclusive rituals”—like appointing an “Inclusion Booster”—to make sure that everyone gets heard. The authors convey all this with a mix of concise theory, bullet-pointed tips, and Helbig’s sprightly stick-figure illustrations. The book in large part boils down to a hands-on manual for running team meetings, a central institution of corporate life, in a productive fashion. Writing in lucid, evocative prose, Helbig and Norman offer a deep analysis of the manager’s leadership role in meetings, covering everything from individual psychology (“notice your feelings and your bodily reactions”) to the nuances of group dynamics (“Be aware of people who look as if they want to contribute but are having trouble figuring out how to jump in, and invite them to speak”). The authors provide simple, deft scripts (“Rhonda didn’t get to finish what she was saying; I’d like to hear what she has to say before we move on”) that leaders can use to keep everyone involved in the conversation. The result is an enlightening look at improving corporate cultures at their roots.
A useful, pithy guide to a respectful and welcoming workplace.
Pub Date: Feb. 22, 2023
ISBN: 9781774583098
Page count: 166pp
Publisher: Page Two Press
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2023
Day job
Leadership Consultant/Speaker/Author
Favorite word
longing
Hometown
San Francisco, CA
Passion in life
Transforming leadership in today's workplace, embracing our shared humanity, and creating inclusive environments
THE BOLDLY INCLUSIVE LEADER: TRANSFORMING YOUR WORKPLACE (AND THE WORLD) BY VALUING THE DIFFERENCES WITHIN: National Indie Excellence Award: Leadership, 2024
THE BOLDLY INCLUSIVE LEADER: TRANSFORMING YOUR WORKPLACE (AND THE WORLD) BY VALUING THE DIFFERENCES WITHIN: Book Excellence Award: Diversity & Inclusion, 2024
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