All Pride, No Ego: A Queer Executive’s Journey to Living and Leading Authentically

Fielding, who has worked as an executive at Claire’s, Disney, and 20th Century Fox, debuts with an uplifting guide for honing one’s leadership skills. Contending that if readers “control the controllable,” they’ll be better equipped to handle unforeseeable obstacles, Fielding shares how his plan for reassuming direct control of Disney stores after a long-term license agreement ended helped prepare the business to weather the Great Recession, which began three months after the company implemented Fielding’s strategy. The author extols the importance of surrounding oneself with a good team by describing how much he cherishes the support and camaraderie of his younger sister and discussing the fruitful partnership he shared with a product developer during his tenure as a district manager at Gap. Fielding also discusses the difficulties he’s faced as an openly gay executive, noting that during his first stint as a CEO, for the women’s clothing brand Claire’s, he “was a bit of a unicorn” and didn’t know any gay chief executives he could reach out to for support. As Fielding admits, his “advice is relatively simple and not that unique,” but it’s nonetheless sensible, and his affecting account of grappling with insecurities as a gay man in corporate America adds pathos. Readers will feel heartened. (Aug.)