- Tamar Gaffin-Cahn
- Dec 1
- 3 min read
What I'm Reading
I recently finished Brené Brown’s newest book, Strong Ground: The Lessons of Daring Leadership, the Tenacity of Paradox, and the Wisdom of the Human Spirit. She shares lessons from successful leaders around the world, and it can’t help me learn more about leadership and systems thinking: an approach to problem solving by understanding the context and how one decision impacts another.
When making an upcoming decision, consider all the elements of impact or ripple effects. It’s like playing Sudoku; each decision to add a number affects the section, row, and column. As a leader or person of influence, how do your behaviors and decisions impact those around you? How does that affect those around them?
What I'm Listening To
I recently listened to Madonna’s first podcast interview, from only one month ago. She goes into depth, led by Jay Shetty, on her spiritual practice of Kabbalah. She shares powerful stories of her life, her practice in letting go of control, and how her view of motherhood has changed. Watch it on YouTube here.
From the description:
Together, Jay and Madonna dive into themes of transformation, the search for meaning in suffering, the freedom that comes with radical acceptance, and the power of forgiveness to heal our deepest wounds. Madonna shares the moments that tested her most, from loss and betrayal to near-death experiences, and how each challenge became an opening for growth when she chose to see it through the lens of purpose rather than punishment.
In the second half of the conversation, Jay and Madonna are joined by her longtime Kabbalah teacher, Eitan, for a powerful exploration of spiritual wisdom in action. They discuss why our struggles and inner battles are essential for growth, and how to reframe challenges as opportunities to reveal greater light. Eitan offers practical tools, from pausing and embracing discomfort to practicing “certainty beyond logic,” to help us find strength in life’s most difficult moments.
What I'm Doing
Many things to celebrate this month!
F*ckup Nights VOL I
This past month, I co-hosted F*ckup Nights Boston VOL I with my colleague, Sam Feldman, and it was a huge success! We sold out our venue and had three fabulous speakers share their professional failures and lessons learned. The room was packed with energy and laughter as we broke down the stigma of f*cking up.
Save the date: F*ckup Nights Boston VOL II on Thursday, January 22 at 6:30 PM at Trident Bookseller! Find out more on our Instagram or LinkedIn.
The Leader Within
Over the past seven weeks, I’ve been teaching a personal and practical leadership course for Graduate students at Emerson College. I am in awe of the students for their dedication to take a non-credit, optional, weekly course on top of their graduate school class, full-time jobs, family, and personal obligations.
In the course we:
Explored leadership concepts, creating a SMART goal, and reflecting on purpose and values.
Developed deep self-awareness through CliftonStrengths, identifying how their strengths help or hinder them, and how external factors influence their effectiveness.
Learned to navigate roles as leaders and followers, understanding what they bring, what they need, and how to build trust, stability, compassion, and hope in teams.
Practiced active listening and people-management skills, using open-ended questions, deliberate practice, and engagement strategies to support others effectively.
Strengthened collaboration and team awareness by applying curiosity, understanding team development stages, exploring team role styles (North/South/East/West), and integrating strengths into teamwork.
Built creative and adaptive leadership skills through improv-based exercises, identifying inner critics, and using strengths to navigate change.
In the final assignment, one student shared, “I have hope for the future and feel confident in my ability to lead in the journey ahead, and this class is 100% why.”
What's Moved Me
Context: I’ve been deeply moved and inspired by the work of career center advisors at colleges and universities across the country who are incorporating Life Design into their programming.
What’s Life Design: It's a theory and process developed by the d.school at Stanford University that combines the Design Thinking methodology and mindsets and applies them to life, careers, projects, and the big decisions we make. It challenges us to be curious, iterate, adapt, reframe challenges, and experiment in our life decisions. It has been transformational for so many. In a conversation with a seasoned practitioner of Life Design in a career center at a major state university, we reframed the push to find “purpose” to the following question:
Question: What is your mission in life, and how will you be intentional in the pursuit?
What I'm Wiggling To
Jessie Ware brings together funk, disco, dance, and pop to music you can’t not wiggle to. I hope you enjoy her song "Begin Again" as much as I do.
Stay Playful,
Tamar
