Literary Scene: Sarasota Author’s Debut Book on Leadership

By Ryan G. Van Cleave | January 2022

This month, we’re spotlighting Wisdom from the Wild: The Nine Unbreakable Laws of Leadership from the Animal Kingdom, a debut book by local author and leadership expert, Julie C. Henry. A former zoo and aquarium senior leader, Julie is president of Finish Line Leadership, a training and consulting firm, and has worked with over fifty organizations across corporate, nonprofit, government, association, and community sectors. 

What’s the elevator pitch for Wisdom from the Wild?

I use insights from wildlife and wild places to help people lead change.

Where did the idea for this book come from?

When I was in college in 1996, I was given a project: “Pretend you’re an education director of an aquarium.” I invented the Sarasota Aquarium and created activities for each age level. When it came to high school students, I thought, well, what can I teach them? Let me use the analogy of a coral reef to teach them business, because kids that may not be interested in the sea might be interested in business, but the kids who are interested in the sea can still learn about business. It was hitting two angles and casting as wide a net as possible. From there, it just grew.

The book is coming out this month, January 2022. Why did the book take so long to come out?

My first job out of college was at the Shedd Aquarium. Actually, the summer before that, I’d been at Cincinnati Zoo, and at both of those places, I was pioneering these ideas around with folks who may not be the typical audience for this topic. I brought them in and did retreats where I used these ideas as a hook to teach them different concepts. I came to Sarasota to work at Mote in 1999, and a few years later, the Sarasota County tax collectors’ management team came to the aquarium and I got to take them down to the coral reef habitat and work with them. 

I focused on the assumptions we make about animals in their habitat based on the way they look or how they move, etcetera, and how that relates to the way we assume things about our colleagues and how they communicate based on how their posture might be or how they’re looking at us when they’re talking and how those assumptions many times are wrong. 

After twenty-five years, I had enough experiences and enough meat on the bones, if you will, to put it all down on paper and share it more broadly.

What’s the most important thing people should know or understand about leadership?

At its heart, it’s about change, and being able to not just manage the change in front of you, but to be able to lead it effectively. In order to do that, you have to lead it in the way that you were designed to lead and have a process behind it. That’s how people trust change. And that’s how change sticks.

In all of your experience with leadership and consulting leaders, what has surprised you the most?

That change becomes this monstrous process. It’s scary, and it turns people away. And then our default mechanism is to either not participate or to dig in too deeply. We make it super, super complicated.

What was the biggest challenge you faced in creating this book?

Trying to make it digestible, so people could take away something no matter who was reading it, with a dose of inspiration and motivation along the way. I’m used to teaching and talking and training—writing was really a nervous prospect for me. 

I wanted it to be able to stand alone without my voice behind it.

What was the most important or useful thing you learned about writing along the way?

I have an entire new appreciation for the editorial profession. And the entire profession around creating books—I had no idea. We had five rounds of editing! But I can say for sure that my book is 1,000% better for it. 

If there’s one more thing I learned from writing a book, it’s the importance of staying on deadline.

Is this a book that’s just for CEOs and upper-level management?

I wrote this book for all leaders, regardless of their position, years at the company, or even years on Earth. I wanted to give leaders a new perspective on old challenges as well as a fun, creative lens through which to view their world. 

What’s next for you in terms of writing?

I would like to take Wisdom from the Wildand translate it for middle school and high school audiences because that’s where I started. Those are my roots—teaching kids. Starting leadership lessons at a young age is important and using animals as the hook is an easy way to get kids involved. I want them to be thinking about leadership early because they are already leaders themselves at that point.