Our third featured author of 2025 is stress and resilience expert, Paula Davis. She’s the founder and CEO of the Stress & Resilience Institute, and she’s spent her career helping people at every level—from CEOs to soldiers—to make work better.

Her latest book, Lead Well: 5 Mindsets to Engage, Retain, and Inspire Your Team, delivers actionable and science-backed tools designed to empower leaders to create a culture that values well-being as much as productivity.

In the wake of the pandemic and on the cusp of the generative AI revolution, the world of work has undergone a seismic shift. Chronic stress, burnout, and employee disengagement have reached crisis levels, and leaders are struggling to keep their teams motivated and inspired amid relentless change and uncertainty.

Paula says conventional management approaches are no longer sufficient, demanding a new leadership framework to address the root causes of these challenges.

To meet this moment, her book provides a timely and practical blueprint for a new era of leadership.

She draws on extensive research and workshops with thousands of leaders, and offers a transformative approach to building high-performing teams that can adapt and grow, even in the face of relentless change.

I hope you’ll click the play button below to learn more about Paula and her new book.

Join in on our chat below

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In today’s episode, I ask Paula about:

• Her thoughts on the role of ‘human-centered’ leadership in shaping a future where AI and human employees coexist
• How to balance authentic praise with preventing that ‘everybody gets a trophy’ feeling
• How managers can balance a team’s desire for autonomy with the need to maintain belonging and unity, especially when employees are scattered in different locations
• And lots more!

Order Paula’s Book

You can order your copy of Lead Well: 5 Mindsets to Engage, Retain, and Inspire Your Team right now!

Consider Ordering My Book Too!

Purchase a copy of my new book (written with Jesse Wisnewski) Read to Lead: The Simple Habit That Expands Your Influence and Boosts Your Career. There, you can also download the introduction and first chapter for free!

Note-Making Mastery Cohort AND the Read to Lead Community

Note-Making Mastery Cohort is now available as a self-paced course! Check it out.

Also, consider giving ReadtoLead+ a try free for two weeks!

Sample Paula’s Book

Check Out These Additional Resources

Grab a copy of Paula’s book now.

Check out this website for more from Paula.

Connect with Paula personally on LinkedIn.

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Finally, thanks for listening and remember, “Leaders read and readers lead.”