Rethink Everything

The Courage to Lead Differently

By: Kristi H. Turner

Narrated by: Kristi H. Turner

One corporate leader’s climb to the top, while refusing to sacrifice family for career and finding her power to lead differently.

In Rethink Everything we walk with Kristi Turner in each season of her career journey through corporate management, as she shares poignant notes to self, illustrating how they influenced her life decisions. As Turner shows, from the slightest whisper to the most dramatic experiences, life’s micro moments’ drive our soft- and hard-coded belief systems, which in turn inform every choice we make in life and define how we lead ourselves and others.

Turner weaves together stories of challenges, observations, and lessons learned from her childhood, ballet days, marriage, parenting, and career, to finding herself as the only woman in the corporate boardroom. She offers a fresh lens on pay inequality and the power of diversity. The listener sees how she fits in while still staying authentic to herself and her innate desire to work hard, be thoughtful, take risks, and make a difference. She illustrates the power of pausing, trusting your intuition, and mustering the courage to challenge the status quo, when the status quo just doesn’t make sense. By sharing this honest portrayal of what it means to lead herself while consciously being aware of her sphere of influence—those she interacts with both professionally and personally—she opens our eyes to the value of awareness, authenticity, and accountability.

With wisdom, generosity, and grace, Kristi Turner illustrates how our personal and professional lives can each enhance rather than be detrimental to each other. This idea that we should all pause and rethink everything periodically to check in is a priceless lesson that can benefit every individual, manager, leader, and business.

©2023 Kristi H. Turner (P)2023 Kristi H. Turner

Critic reviews

"This is my kind of leadership book—one that celebrates a truly integrated life, thoughtfully challenges the status quo, and normalizes the conversation around intentional rest. I'm confident that Turner's journey, and the priceless insights she shares, will inspire more leaders to rebel for the change they want to see in their lives, companies, and the world." (Shelley Paxton, chief soul officer, rebel leader, and best-selling author of Soulbbatical)

"Powerful advice for business managers and leaders from one of the strongest executives and top marketers I've ever had the privilege of working with. Turner shows us the importance of authenticity, diversity, and accountability at the top, and shares actionable insights on making better decisions in both business and our personal lives." (Campbell B. Lanier, III, chairman and CEO of ITC Holdings, serial technology entrepreneur, and investor)

“Rethink Everything is a must-read book on leadership, business, family and life balance. Such an insightful journey with practical tips to help you get to know yourself and improve all aspects of your life. Turner’s entertaining stories bring key leadership characteristics to the surface such as being determined, hard-working and possessing grit. She also shows the more subtle leadership skills that often get overlooked such as being empathetic, respectful, humble, and trusting your gut. Unlike most leadership books, this is shared from a very human perspective: it will make you laugh, it will make you cry, and it might even make you Rethink Everything.” (Suzanne Beisner, managing partner, Customer Focused Strategies)

Just what I needed to hear!

Kristi is an exceptional storyteller. While I had the book too, I was glad that I chose to "read" the book by listening to Kristi tell her own story on Audible. I found myself saying "me too," (not the movement, but the similarity of experiences), in every chapter of her career adventure. Wow! It was amazing to feel understood, heard, and no longer alone in our shared experiences.

Kristi and I are the same age with an uncanny amount of similarities including positive temperament, career choices, leadership style, marketing approach, big careers while still making our kiddos priority, navigating a male dominant business environment in our early careers, and applying an inordinate amount of pressure on ourselves to produce and deliver excellence. Given our similar paths, her wisdom and 'notes to self' struck me as deeply personal and authentic, yet they also served as a jolting reminder that it's time for me to RETHINK EVERYTHING for my upcoming season of life. Like Kristi, I'm beginning to realize that this next phase holds the potential to be my most fulfilling yet.

This book helped me in 4 significant ways:

1) Like Kristi, I recently took the leap of faith to pursue a sabbatical in my early 50s, (note: she calls it a soulbbattical based on her love for Shelley Paxton's book by that title, as well as the approach Kristi took versus what I did), What I learned is that instead of allowing for white space in my sabbatical, I quickly filled it with more to-do lists ,... trips to take (and checked off my list), books to read (and checked off my list), movies to watch (and checked off my list), the people I wanted to help, the projects to get done, close my rings on my Apple watch every day ... you get the idea. I was back to production, except this time, for fun things. I did not allow the white space. White space is scary and that is exactly why we need it. It's revealing. It's humbling. It allows us to discover what we really want to do next, IF WE ALLOW the white space IN. After 4 months of a sabbatical, I'm just now embarking on what I truly needed ... a soulbbattical (my next audible book).

2) Health is something that's easy to put off when you don't have significant problems, but it WILL BE a limiting factor in my ability to enjoy my future if I don't SCHEDULE time for my health.

3) In this next season of life, Kristi has inspired me to shift from DOING to BEING. As a consultant who is known to jump in and take on any task needed to help my clients, that's a tough one. I agree with Kristi though, that this shift for me will produce even greater fruit for me and my clients.

4) Dream bigger! Just one example ... Purpose driven organizations can start with me, with us. You don’t have to work for an organization already established as purpose-driven. Start the movement where you are … where I am!

Thank you Kristi for writing your story. You’ve inspired me greatly!

Like you, Kristi, I’m looking forward to what will also be my best season of life. I also look forward to "reading" (listening while walking in nature) your next book, as you are a truly gifted writer.

To those of you considering this book, DO IT! You will be inspired! I've read MANY business books, and this one is right up there among the best of them!