Strong Like Water: How I Found the Courage to Lead with Love in Business and in Life

Laila Tarraf was the Chief People Officer for Peet’s Coffee and Tea, the iconic Berkeley coffee roaster, but she had a secret: she was failing in the most important relationships in her life. Yes, she was a strong and effective business leader, the successful daughter of immigrants, and the mother of a toddler, but she was disconnected from her own feelings and had little patience for those of others.

All that changed, however, when three of the people most important to her—her husband, father, and mother—died in quick succession. Laila had spent her life leading from the head, convinced that any display of vulnerability would make her soft. But as this trifecta of losses led her to reconnect to her feelings, one painful step at a time, something remarkable happened: she became a better leader, a better mother, and a better person. Leading from the heart became the true source of her power.

This is a book about healing, about waking up, about learning who you are—who you really, truly are at the core—and reclaiming and embracing all the pieces of yourself you long ago abandoned in the name of survival. For women longing for balance, this is a path to opening our hearts and infusing our leadership and relationships with love, compassion, and authenticity.

“ Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox: what is soft is strong.” —Lao Tzu