What We're Reading Now

New Year, New Possibilities

6 January 2026

Janie read The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander and reflected on what she read and adjustments she wants to make to pave the way for a great year.  

Tags: happiness, janie read, leadership

As I reflect on the past year and consider my goals for 2026, I found The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life by Rosamund Stone Zander and Banjamin Zander to be a helpful resource. This book has long been part of the Allison Partners library (Rachel has even blogged about it), but I’d never picked it up before and decided it was time.

For most of my career, I’ve thought leadership was about outcomes, such as hitting goals, measuring success, and keeping things moving. I’ve never felt like a natural leader and have always been more comfortable in the background supporting others and helping them succeed. The Art of Possibility helped me recognize that leadership isn’t always about being out front, it’s also about how you create space for others to succeed. I thought about the different ways I support our Allison Partners team, our clients, and about how I uphold my volunteer commitments and support others around me. I realized that I am a leader in lots of different ways and I’d like to lean into this more in the coming year. As I focus on getting back into a routine after the holidays, I’m going to try to remember these two takeaways that really stuck with me.  

Focus on contribution, not measurement.
It’s easy for me to focus on deliverables and my (seemingly never-ending) to-do list and not take time before diving into the next thing to reflect and plan. The Art of Possibility pushed me to ask myself one question before diving into my workday. “How can I best contribute today?” Pausing to ask this question and consider the answer helps me be more deliberate about how I spend my time. It also helps me not end each day feeling like I didn’t accomplish anything. This looks different each day, but I’m hoping when I focus on how I can be most useful, my work will feel more meaningful, even on the days when my time is spent differently than how I originally planned.   

Give people an “A” in advance.
Although I don’t directly manage anyone, how I see and interact with the people around me matters. Instead of waiting for someone to earn my trust, I always try to assume positive intent and capability from the start. At Allison Partners, we often call this taking a generous interpretation. Approaching everyone as competent and motivated changes my approach and how I collaborate with others. People respond differently when they feel trusted and supported. 

I don’t know if these shifts will make an impact on my work, but as I look ahead to a very busy first quarter, I will be aiming to take a few minutes each day to focus on the best contributions I can make each day and not just how much I can cross off my to-do list. I will also be trying to always take a generous interpretation, rather than assuming the worst. My hope is that approaching my work this way will not only lead to more overall satisfaction but that it will also yield better results.

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