Summer Fridays are my days to learn—to take professional development courses, to brush up on coaching skills, but mostly to read. I’m lucky enough to be able to block off the days and use those hours to read books that grow my knowledge of professional development, help me understand core issues facing higher education, and give me ideas for how to better support faculty during the academic year. This summer, my reading is targeted because I’m in the early stages of a new book project focused on higher ed leadership and burnout, which has also included conducting what will amount to over 50 interviews by the time the fall semester begins. So, I thought I’d share some of what I’ve read so far and what’s on the list for the rest of the summer. These books cover a variety of topics ranging from burnout to trust to compassionate leadership to change management, topics that, judging from my interviews so far, should resonate with any leader in higher education today.

Exploring Passion at Work and Burnout in Higher Education
I fell down a rabbit hole recently. Despite trying to convince myself that I had collected enough literature to be able to start writing my new book on women’s leadership