All Pride, No Ego

June 26, 2023
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.

July 15, 2023
A veteran executive shares the formative events that shaped his successful business career. Through an effective combination of anecdotes, personal history, and memories, Fielding, born in 1965 in Toledo, Ohio, reflects on his life and exemplary career achievements. The author's mother was an alcoholic, and despite his father becoming detached from the situation, both parents instilled in their son the importance of hard work. From his early youth, Fielding recalls acknowledging his homosexual identity, but he resisted embracing it, considering surgery to deepen his voice and even suicide. "I prayed for change," he writes, and "shoved my feelings down." Eventually, however, he accepted himself as a "complicated unicorn" and went on to overachieve in school to prove he was just as good as his straight peers. A self-described "Type-A, compulsive, and overzealous control freak," the author launched his retail career with a post-collegiate department store stint followed by positions at Gap, Inc. in San Francisco. "For a little gay boy from Toledo, San Francisco was Disneyland or Oz," he writes. "It only existed in dreams and movies." He continued on to upper management jobs at Lands' End, Disney, Claire's, and Dreamworks, where he was global head of consumer products and further developed a leadership philosophy fostering curiosity, learning skills, and, above all, acceptance of the changing realities of the corporate landscape. Employing a sincere, affable tone, Fielding addresses many issues involving social justice, and he never masks his increasing frustration with the politicization of the queer community's struggle. He also shares an emotional segment about caring for his mother as she dealt with early stage dementia. Throughout this encouraging book, Fielding inspires leaders of all sizes and colors to embrace diversity, build community, and use intuition to fight against social injustice and intolerance. The author is also realistic: "While some days are better than others, the fight is truly never over." Accessible, compassionate business and life advice from a prominent queer corporate leader.

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