Book Review: How We Lead Matters

A Book About Business and the Business of Life

This is not a business tutorial but instead, a powerful statement about the meaning and importance of leadership in business, and that in itself, is a marvelous and effective marketing and growth tool for women in business.

Interlaced among the pleasantly personal ponderances of Marilyn, her business strategies are there, too, wrapped in the diary-like entries of a remarkable women who asks us to play a game, “Can You Imagine?” All women in business should imagine, and this book will help you do just that.

Marilyn is the CEO of Carlson, a global group of companies in the travel service industry. She has served as the chair of the National Women's Business Council and founded the Center for Integrative Leadership at the University of Minnesota. Her list of accomplishments and contributions to business and charitable works is long and impressive.

She penned the book so that her grandchildren could know her “more fully,” and in doing so, we, the readers get a rare and intimate glimpse inside the mind, ideology, and personal life of a business women frequently referred to by Forbes as one of the top 100 most powerful and influential women in the world. But readers are also introduced to a mother, wife, sister, daughter, and humanitarian of extraordinary caliber.

It is the gracious and successful person, Marilyn, not just the brilliant CEO Marilyn Carlson Nelson, that makes this book worth reading more than once. By presenting a broad-spectrum of philosophies to consider, we discover that how we approach personal happiness and life in general, should not be separated from how we approach business. That is, accountability, ethics, and human moral codes apply to individuals, societies, and businesses, and are not mutually exclusive of one or the other.

in How We Lead Matters, Marilyn lends subtle advice through anecdotal stories, each of which is preceded by a quote, poem, or message to complete the afterthoughts she provides. Her voice comes in a whisper, not from a soapbox, and her writing style reflects the humility that makes Marilyn a leader by example; a leader that believes in “the boundless possibilities of we,” and in giving credit where credit is due.

Aside from the refreshing and casual, but oh-so-important details Marilyn scribes in her book, she shows us a very different perspective to consider regarding finding balance between life and work. She provides guilt-free encouragement to women who are “called to business,” and carefully weaves in brief, but profound thoughts on motherhood (including infertility), relationships, discrimination and other challenges, and, of course, business – especially when it comes to diversity and leadership examples.