The Power of Conscious Connection: 4 Habits to Transform How You Live and Lead
Talia Fox
Ideapress Publishing (November 2023)

How to master conscious connections with self-awareness, reflection, and intentional communication

Why did Talia Fox write this book? As she explains, her goal is to “light a path of self-discovery and to create a strong bond with you, my reader. To do so, I open my life to you  and share  experiences that include  lessons learned from over 20 years of developing leaders. It is a pleasure to meet you. This book is the doorway to our very first conscious connection.” Fox thus establishes a direct, personal rapport with her reader. You will probably be among those who soon feel that she wrote this book specifically for you.

That said, it is imperative to keep in mind that the best of the so-called “self-help books” — notably Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography, Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich, Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People, and Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People — have value only to the extent you read them and then make and keep a total commitment to applying effectively what you have learned from them.

The key word is SELF. Even if you had a team of helpers that includes Fox, Franklin, Hill. Carnegie, and Covey, you are primarily responsible for accelerating your personal growth and professional development.

These are the four habits on which Fox focuses:: Learn, Observe, Value, and Engage. Use the acronym LOVE to remember them. She devotes a separate chapter to each. The most effective leaders realize that they have two eyes, two ears, and one mouth. They are lifelong learners and therefore spend at least 80% of their time observing and listening…and only 20% talking.

Connections are “conscious” when they are deliberate, intentional, strategic and driven by mutual respect and trust. It is no coincidence that companies annually ranked among those most highly admired and best to work for are also annually ranked among those most profitable and have the greatest cap value in their industry segment. However different they may be in most other respects, all of them have conscious connections between and among those who comprise their workplace culture.

Whatever their size and nature may be, all organizations need effective leaders at all levels and in all areas of the given enterprise. What is the secret sauce of leadership development? Read Talia Fox’s brilliant book. She explains the WHAT and then, with rigor and eloquence, she explains the HOW. Bravo!

Here are two suggestions to keep in mind while reading The Power of Conscious Connection: Highlight key passages, and, record your comments, questions, action steps (preferably with deadlines), page references, and lessons you have learned as well as your responses to the end-of-chapter “Takeaways” and exercises as well as other questions posed within the narrative. Pay special attention to the Appendix (“Love System Checklist”) on Pages 251-257.

These two simple tactics — highlighting and documenting — will facilitate, indeed expedite frequent reviews of key material later.