When is the last time you read a great story or a fiction book? Did you have a chance to discuss it with others or share some of the lessons learned? If it’s been a while or you can’t recall the last time, then this episode is for you.
Our guest today is Melanie Bell, who shares how reading fiction can actually help you become a better leader.
TODAY’S WIN-WIN:
People find it easier to talk about other people in the story, instead of themselves.
LINKS FROM THE EPISODE:
ABOUT OUR GUEST:
Melanie is the Founder of Leaders Who Fiction, an online book club and community that offers a unique way for people to acquire and develop leadership qualities through reading and discussing novels. On this fast-growing platform, leaders meet on the last Wednesday of each month for intellectual, business-oriented conversations centered around a selected novel.
Melanie is also the Co-Founder of Strategic Piece, where she works with C-suite executives at growth-stage companies to deliver exceptional revenue growth by bringing together their marketing, sales, and service teams around an information-driven customer experience built on the HubSpot platform.
ABOUT BIG SKY FRANCHISE TEAM:
This episode is powered by Big Sky Franchise Team. If you are ready to talk about franchising your business you can schedule your free, no-obligation, franchise consultation online at: https://bigskyfranchiseteam.com/ or by calling Big Sky Franchise Team at: 855-824-4759.
If you are interested in being a guest on our podcast, please complete this request form or email podcast@bigskyfranchise.com and a team member will be in touch.
TRANSCRIPTION:
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (00:01):
Welcome to the Multiply Your Success podcast, where each week we help growth-minded entrepreneurs and franchise leaders take the next step in their expansion journey. I’m your host, Tom DuFore, CEO of Big Sky Franchise Team, and as we open today, I am wondering when is the last time you read a great story or a great fiction book, and did you have a chance to discuss it with someone else or maybe think about or share some lessons learned from that?
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (00:29):
And if it’s been a while or you can’t recall the last time, then this episode is for you. Our guest today is Melanie Bell, who shares with us how reading fiction can actually help you become a better leader. Now, Melanie is the founder of Leaders Who Fiction, an online book club and community that offers a unique way for people to acquire and develop leadership qualities through reading and discussing novels.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (00:56):
On this fast-growing platform, leaders meet on the last Wednesday of each month for intellectual business-oriented conversation centered around a selected novel. Melanie is also the co-founder of Strategic Piece where she works with c-suite executives at growth stage companies to deliver exceptional revenue growth by bringing together their marketing, sales and service teams around an information driven customer experience built on a HubSpot platform.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (01:20):
You’re going to love this interview with Melanie and I just missed her most recent book club meeting here earlier last week, but I’m looking forward to joining the next one. And you’re going to really, really enjoy this. So let’s go ahead and jump right into it.
Melanie Bell, Leaders Who Fiction (01:37):
Thank you so much for having me. I’m Melanie Bell and I’m the founder of a company called Leaders Who Fiction.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (01:45):
Wonderful. Well, I love the name because it’s very clear, Leaders Who Fiction. But someone who hears that might say, “Well, what does that actually mean?” So I’d just like to start with you giving just an overview of what is Leaders Who Fiction.
Melanie Bell, Leaders Who Fiction (01:59):
We are an organization that’s essentially like an online book club and community for people who are interested in developing their leadership skills. And rather than doing that necessarily through formal training or reading business books, we do it by reading novels and then once a month we get together and discuss them.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (02:19):
That is so fascinating. Well, it’s one of the reasons I wanted to have you on the show. So I am a definitely self-diagnosed personal development junkie who loves reading personal development books and business books and all things related to that and have not really spent much time in fiction. And so I’d just love for you to share how reading fiction can make you a better leader.
Melanie Bell, Leaders Who Fiction (02:46):
There are a lot of ways, and I don’t want to just totally knock business books and personal development books, because they absolutely have a place, and I think it’s the combination that really makes people successful with it. But in reading fiction, it really develops our empathy skills. We have a way of identifying with characters and books that helps us walk around in people’s skin.
Melanie Bell, Leaders Who Fiction (03:07):
And it actually from a neurological standpoint when we read our brain switch into simulation mode. And so I mean, it’s as close to being another person as you can get. And so in terms of developing empathy, communication skills, identifying with other people, figuring out as you read what motivates certain characters, it’s all stuff that as leaders that we have to be figuring out too.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (03:33):
Can you give us an example or two of maybe a book or a section or something that you discussed or a highlight?
Melanie Bell, Leaders Who Fiction (03:39):
So the last book that we read was called, which the title sounds a little bit funny, but it’s called The Lonely Hearts Book Club. It was recommended by one of our members. And in the book, the main character is passed over for a promotion. And so one of the things that we dug into was why did she get passed over for that promotion, but also what was the responsibility of her boss in terms of mentoring her? Did her boss kind of fail her in not preparing her for that promotion? And so what was her boss’s role in getting her ready for that promotion and kind of failing her in the fact that she didn’t prepare her well enough for it?
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (04:21):
For the people who attended that session, what were some of the discussion about how the boss maybe failed the employee in that situation and not having her prepared for that?
Melanie Bell, Leaders Who Fiction (04:31):
Yeah. So it wasn’t one of the main plot points of the book, but it definitely was significant at getting the plot to advance and understanding the character. So one of the things that we talked about was really kind of talking to people who report to you and making sure that you understand what their goals are and then putting together that plan where they would, what do they have to do to be ready for those next career steps that they want to take on? So that was a lot of the conversation.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (05:03):
You let me know that there’s studies and research done on how reading fiction helps you be a better leader or helps you through that. So I’d love for you to talk through that a little bit.
Melanie Bell, Leaders Who Fiction (05:12):
Sure. So it’s been a topic. It’s been covered by Harvard Business Review. It’s been talked about in Forbes. There’ve been some university and academic studies done on this as well, just in terms of what are the benefits that we actually do get from reading fiction, including one of the most interesting things to me is that it’s one of the most effective forms of stress relief that there is out there.
Melanie Bell, Leaders Who Fiction (05:36):
And that even reading for a short period of time is really effective at lowering our stress levels. It’s actually more effective than even going for a walk, which is one of the most, I think that’s what I hear all the time, like, “Oh, if you’re feeling stressed, go for a walk.” But in addition to that, I just keep going back the really big things are some of these soft skills that have become so important.
Melanie Bell, Leaders Who Fiction (05:57):
We talk about the 21st century leadership skills and that empathy, the communication, especially if you’re reading well-written literature and your communication verbal skills just significantly go up. There is a correlation that’s there. And I think those are kind of the main kind of points that the research will hit on, is those soft skills, the communication and the empathy.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (06:21):
For your club and your business model here, someone who decides to join, do you help select the books or do you help provide questions or discussion? Are there leaders? How does that all work?
Melanie Bell, Leaders Who Fiction (06:33):
Sure. So someone signs up to come to a meeting. We currently have one meeting a month that’s at the same time, so that hopefully the consistency helps people remember when the meetings are. And we also have an online community platform. So if somebody can’t attend those meetings, they have an opportunity to share their thoughts about the book with the other participants in the group.
Melanie Bell, Leaders Who Fiction (06:54):
So sign up for the meeting. There’s one book that we choose every month that we share that everybody reads. Most of the time, well, I get to ultimate say on which books we choose, but a lot of the times I get recommendations from other people who are in the organization and have a book that they want to recommend and have the group read.
Melanie Bell, Leaders Who Fiction (07:14):
We just for the first time experimented with having a co-host, so somebody who she and I tag teamed on the discussion on the calls. But most of the time I’m the one who’s leading that discussion. And but people come with their questions that they have for the group based on what they’ve read. So it’s a nice kind of group participation thing.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (07:39):
Wonderful. Well, most of our listeners that will tune in are what I describe as successful owners or entrepreneurs or maybe franchisors where maybe they have franchisees in their system. So I’d love to maybe just get a sense of what can entrepreneurs and business owners take from your club and what you’re doing and this idea of reading fiction?
Melanie Bell, Leaders Who Fiction (08:04):
So actually a lot of the participants that we have in the organization are business owners or entrepreneurs. And I think this really speaks to, there are a couple of things that they get out of it. So one is a lot of times once you’ve started your own company, there isn’t a formal, you don’t have somebody to report to who’s coaching you along the way. I mean, quite possibly have a business coach. I think that’s a fantastic resource, but this community is another resource that people can just tap into.
Melanie Bell, Leaders Who Fiction (08:36):
I think it’s been interesting. Some people have been quite candid in sharing some of their obstacles that they’re facing, and I think just getting that community input on it has been really important. And so it’s just providing another tool, another resource that they have available. And so I think that feeling of isolation when you’re really the boss goes down a little bit, even if it’s just for one hour a month, that can sometimes be what people need.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (09:05):
I noticed that all of my consumption was nonfiction related, business books, things of that nature, relevant to what I’m doing, leadership books, things like that. And I decided with my kids, they get assigned reading. They’re old enough now. They’re in grades where they’re the books that they’re getting assigned, some of which I was assigned when I was a kid too in class and thought, “Wow, I remember reading that. It was one of my favorite stories. I really enjoyed it.”
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (09:33):
And so I started trying to read along with them and doing it. It’s interesting you mentioned about the stress idea because it was definitely a moment where the stress levels went way down. I was very engaged in the story and listening to it for audio or reading, if I’m reading a hardcover book, I echo the sentiment here to what you’re saying. I really saw that impact in my own life and what I’m doing here. It’s really interesting.
Melanie Bell, Leaders Who Fiction (09:59):
Yeah, that’s cool. And it’s cool when you read them with your kids, when you read books along with other people, whether that’s kids or coworkers. I know there’s a company out there that does kind of, they’ll come in as consultants and choose a book for a team to read.
Melanie Bell, Leaders Who Fiction (10:14):
And so just internally, they’ll start having book clubs and they found that it’s really good for internal team dynamics because if there’s tension or a problem on the team, people find it easier to talk about when they’re talking about a third party character and not, “Oh, so and so this is driving me nuts about this or that,” and that kind of thing.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (10:37):
So you can almost use the story to say, “Remember in the story for the book” or whatever, “Character, A, B, C, when this happened,” they might be able to draw a cross reverence to, “Hey, this person at the company drives me crazy the same way that the character was. What can we do about it?”
Melanie Bell, Leaders Who Fiction (10:56):
Exactly. Exactly.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (10:58):
Right.
Melanie Bell, Leaders Who Fiction (10:58):
And it’s one of those where it’s like it’s just providing another kind of shared experience, shared language for people to talk around.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (11:06):
I love the work you’re doing. I think it’s wonderful, just fantastic. Well, we always make a transition in the interview and we ask every guest the same four questions before they go. And the first question we ask is, have you had a miss or two in your career and journey and something you learned from it?
Melanie Bell, Leaders Who Fiction (11:22):
Anybody that’s worked longer than maybe a week or two, I definitely had my misses. I think for me, and this is kind of one of the seeds of germination for me in terms of coming up with Leaders Who Fiction, I had a really hard time the first time I stepped into a management role. It was with a smaller company, so the training and support was more informal and I had no idea what I was doing. Did a lot of things that I would not do now knowing, at a 2020 hindsight. And I remember feeling very alone with those struggles.
Melanie Bell, Leaders Who Fiction (11:59):
And so I think one of the misses for me was kind of missing the fact that that’s a normal transition to go through and seeking out certain resources and people who could have really coached me in a more formal process along the way. So that’s definitely one miss. Also, I’ve run my own marketing company for almost 10 years, so that’s my quote unquote “Day job,” and I’ve learned through that to trust my instinct about people a lot more than I used to and listen to watch those red flags.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (12:34):
Oh yeah, I can definitely relate to both of those for sure. I relate very much so to those. Let’s talk about the other side. Let’s talk about a highlight or a win or two.
Melanie Bell, Leaders Who Fiction (12:47):
A highlight for me, recently we had our largest gathering, our largest attendance number of people from Leaders Who Fiction recently. We’ve been around for three years, and actually seeing a quite full Zoom room was just awesome to see that, and hopefully see it resonate with people and make a difference.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (13:06):
I know I’m interested in checking this out and coming on and doing at least a book or two. I’ve got a book goal for the year, so it can be hard to stay motivated sometimes. So this is perfect-
Melanie Bell, Leaders Who Fiction (13:18):
Yes.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (13:19):
… perfect opportunity-
Melanie Bell, Leaders Who Fiction (13:19):
Nice.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (13:20):
… to join up and make sure I’m checking those boxes for books read and then also thinking about those books. Not just checking the box, but processing the information that’s coming through. The next question we ask every guest is, have you used a multiplier to grow yourself personally or professionally or any of the businesses you’ve been involved with?
Melanie Bell, Leaders Who Fiction (13:38):
Sure. So for me, having a business coach and a leadership development coach has been completely life-changing. Having an outlet of somebody to talk through these problems with and not where I’m just kind of asking for help and getting that extra bonus time that nobody really has, but knowing on a regular cadence that I have somebody who I’m checking in with, who’s holding me accountable, who is a sounding board, has just, I mean, I really think that that’s been a phenomenal shift for me.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (14:12):
Wonderful. And the final question we ask every guest is, what does success mean to you?
Melanie Bell, Leaders Who Fiction (14:19):
So to me, success is getting to do whatever I choose to do in the day. It is absolutely that freedom of, I mean, I really enjoy working, so it’s not like, “Oh, I just want to lay around and eat BonBons all day.” But it’s that I get to set my calendar, I get to set the priorities, which I think really probably resonates with a lot of your business owner, entrepreneur listeners out there.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (14:47):
Absolutely, absolutely. Well, Melanie, as we bring this to a close, is there anything you were hoping to share or get across that you haven’t had a chance to yet?
Melanie Bell, Leaders Who Fiction (14:56):
No. I mean, I’d love for people to come check out a meeting of Leaders Who Fiction. Right now, I’m building this up so it’s free to participate and there’s no like, “Oh, once you start coming, you have to come to every meeting.” So if people want to just check it out, make sure it’s not like a high school English class, which it’s not, you’re welcome to do that.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (15:17):
Wonderful. Well, where do they go? How do they join up or get involved then?
Melanie Bell, Leaders Who Fiction (15:21):
Sure. So the best place to go is the website, which is just Leaderswhofiction.com. I put up the next three books that are coming up that we’re reading, so that way if people feel like they’re a slow reader, you’ve got ample time. You don’t have to just jump right in and read a book, one book in the next week or something like that. And that’s got all the meeting times and how to register on there.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (15:45):
Melanie, thank you so much for a fantastic interview and let’s go ahead and jump into today’s three key takeaways. So takeaway number one is when she described that fiction develops empathy skills, and she said, I found this really interesting that, “When we read, our brains get as close to being another person as you can get. And specifically when we read fiction.” Takeaway number two, she said, some of the benefits of studying fiction is that it’s one of the most effective forms of stress release and that it also helps with communication skills.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (16:24):
Takeaway number three is when she talked about some of the benefits from her book club and getting together to discuss the fiction story or the book that had been read, and she said, “The club can act as another business coach, it provides community, it only takes an hour and it’s great to discuss this with other people.” And now it’s time for today’s win-win.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (16:50):
So today’s win-win is when Melanie talked about one of the benefits of the club, which is when she said, “People find it easier to talk about the people in the story instead of themselves, especially when it comes to life or business or work related situations.” I thought that was a phenomenal takeaway where someone can maybe express a challenge they’re having at work or maybe an opportunity that they see.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (17:19):
And so I thought that’s great way for you as a leader to communicate with your team, open up some new channels of communication, or invite people into a conversation with you as the leader of your organization, or maybe to connect better with your staff and with your team. I thought that was a great takeaway to refer to a character or a situation in a book that you all read about together.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (17:46):
And so that’s the episode today, folks. Please make sure you subscribe to the podcast and give us a review. And remember, if you or anyone you know might be ready to franchise their business or take their franchise company to the next level, please connect with us at bigskyfranchiseteam.com. Thanks for tuning in, and we look forward to having you back next week.