Friday's Five ✋ #205
Happy Friday! ☀️
What a week!
What I’m reading 📖
Regular ‘Friday’s Five’ will know that I love spending time in the quaint mountain town of Bad Gastein in Austria. Not knowing this, a friend gifted me the novel ‘Bad Regina’ by Austrian author David Schalko which is set in the fictional town yet inspired by the real Bad Gastein (Hotel Regina is one of the actual hotels in town). The story follows the 46 last remaining people in the ghost town who go against a mysterious foreign real estate magnate. I just started the book and I am hooked. More about the book.
What I’m listening to 🎧
One of my favorite co-workers in the past 10 years is Noor Van Boven, former VP People at SoundCloud and Chief People Officer at N26. I learned a ton from Noor and she’s all around a fantastic person with a sheer energy and positive attitude. She’s now moved on to start her own business and enjoyed listening to her share reflect on her career. She shares a few great nuggets of wisdom about leadership, career choices, and lessons learned. Thanks for sharing, Noor!
What I’m watching 📺
‘Modern Love’ started as a column in The New York Times, turned into an anthology tv series in 2019, and a new season 2 starting last week. The series explores love in its diverse and multiple forms inspired by true stories. In season 1 I’ve always loved (pun intended!) the selection of cast and film locations, and the storytelling. Watch the trailer for season 2 here.
What I’m thinking about 🧠
What’s my role in this?
I love this question that I heard one of my clients ask in a team coaching session this week. We spoke about how sometimes, team members are do deep in the weeds and feel overwhelmed and tend to look for outside reasons for a situation they say they don’t want. The question is a great reminder that we always have a choice about the role we can play.
What else?! 💯
In preparation for a podcast interview with Role Models, this week I watched a documentary that is out in the movie theatres starting today. ‘Die Unbeugsamen’ portrays the work of some of the most influential and trailblazing women in politics from the 60s to the 90s. The movie spotlights German political history in a way that hadn’t been done before and shows the kind of environment women in politics were fighting for representation. It was truly eye-opening and I am in awe by the courage, determination, and resilience they’ve shown against massive sexism and opposition. Watch the trailer here.
Thanks for reading, have a great weekend!
David