Latest Book Review: True North, by Sal Naseem

A few years back I got introduced to the incredible Sal Naseem. We were speakers at an event and while I didn't get to see him speak that day, our subsequent connection has led me to see that he and I, by all accounts, share a very similar view of the world. 

Needless to say then, this summer I finally got round to picking up his book. 

True North reflects that unwavering compass that shapes who we are, what we believe in and what we stand for. 

Throughout the book, Sal breaks down what it was like to repeatedly lean into his true north as he climbed the career ladder as a minority within the vastness of the UK’s public sector - and fought the system to bring about greater fairness and justice.

Telling the story of his own lived experience, but also that of his wider South Asian family growing up in Scotland at a time when racism was the norm - has it ever stopped being the norm? - he expertly deconstructs what it’s like to fight to be seen, fight for a seat around the table and fight for equitable standing in rooms that so often lack any colour.

Coining the phrase “the Concrete Ceiling,” Sal describes the barriers that are all too common within organisations: cultures, attitudes and policies that “actively prevent the progression of people from marginalised groups or communities.”

The use of concrete is a deliberate analogy. Something you can’t break through. Something you can’t see beyond. A reference point many people from marginalised groups will recognise and understand.

Perhaps the standout part of the book for me was the light Sal shines on how people from different walks of life don’t see the world the same way.

Reflecting on a review of events affecting marginalised communities, he describes the “gap in literal understanding” among senior members of his organisation.

Communities could look at a series of events and see one thing, while public-sector leaders looked at exactly the same events and saw hardly anything wrong. As he says:

"Unless there was a glaringly obvious case of misconduct that was overt and impossible to deny, they wouldn’t see an awful lot wrong with what they were seeing."

As Anaïs Nin famously said, we don't see the world as it really is, we see the world as we are. How true that is! 

True North isn’t a leadership book and it isn’t a biography. It’s an unravelling of what it’s like to exist within an unfair system - and what it means to challenge and change things for the better.

Sal points to the need for greater moral courage today - a phrase that seems to come up repeatedly in the books I’ve been reading lately - and the need for us to be really clear about who we are, what we believe in and what we stand for.

As Sal so expertly puts it:

“If you want to drive change you need to retain this moral courage and make the decisions which will still allow you to look at yourself in the mirror, even if they’re not popular. Especially when they’re not popular.”