Book Recommendations - Leadership

We ALL need to enhance our leadership skills - and some of the books that I find extremely useful are annotated on this webpage. 

Take a few moments to read about the books I've listed below to see if any of the books sound interesting to you and see if they would be helpful to you, too.  Everyone around you needs you to be at your best.  These books help you do that. 

Heath, Chip & Heath, Dan. Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

Holy mackerel.  This book is incredible.  I read it on a day when I was not feeling well and couldn't move out of a chair - and (so far have read it two more times).  The authors' previous book was very good, but this one is in the must read category.  I have been telling everyone, everywhere about this book since I read it in early March.  The authors are both academics and they know how to write in such a way that the concepts and the research supporting those concepts are sensible and easy to remember.  I don't care who you are or where you work or what you do, this book has applications for what you do.  I give it many, many thumbs up.  (I know that's movies, but I'm giving it thumbs up, anyway.  These are my reviews so I can write what I want! 

Jay, Joelle. The Inner Edge: The 10 Practices of Personal Leadership

This may be my favorite book of 2009 - and on into 2010.  WOW!  Dr. Joelle Jay is a master coach who has worked with executives around the country.  The insights and wisdom she has provides in this book, along with the tools available in the book and on the accompanying website are incredible.  As Joelle says, "This book isn't about leading your organization or leading your team.  It's about leading yourself." Get to a bookstore, library, or click the link above and get this book ordered right away.  You'll want to immerse yourself in it as you allow her lessons to seep into your pores.  If I gave stars, I'd give this a 5 star recommendation, no question. 

Buckingham, Marcus, GO Put Your Strengths to Work:  6 Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding Performance.

Marcus Buckingham is the face of the strengths movement.  His earlier books written while with the Gallup Organization helped propel him to rock star status.  Plus, he's a fabulous speaker and communicator and thinker (and yes, he's handsome, too).  Now that he's started his own company, he is building an empire to keep propelling the strengths movement ahead.  This book is an excellent read, you get to take a strengths assessment, and it has super nifty tools included (Love it and Loathe it cards, for example).  HIGHLY recommended to be part of your library.

Buckingham, Marcus & Donald O. Clifton. Now, Discover Your Strengths.

I cannot recommend this book enough and even though it's not a time/paper management book per se, it is because of their research-based philosophy that we need to spend our time, energy, efforts, and lives doing what we do best and helping those around us do the same. This is probably the book I have recommended to more people for a longer period of time than any other book I've ever read. It's life changing.

Buckingham, Marcus & Curt Coffman. First, Break All the Rules.

Anyone who manages others (even yourself!) will gain from reading this book and putting into practice the concepts presented by the authors. Read and answer the 12 Questions that "measure the core elements needed to attract, focus, and keep the most talented employees" on page 28. Your own answers may cause you to decide to change where and how you work...and the answers that your employees give are truly a measure of your organization's productivity.

Lencioni, Patrick. Death by Meeting: A Leadership Fable About Solving the Most Painful Problem in Business.

First of all, what a great title! As someone who has endured hundreds...no, make that thousands...of meetings that were deadly, the title caught my eye immediately. The content did not let me down. Lencioni's "fable" books (e.g., The Five Dysfunctions of a Team; The Five Temptations of a CEO; The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive) have the potential to be forced, but I don't find them to read that way. I wanted to keep reading this book (and his others) because I wanted to know what happened. Not all business books pull me through in that way! Excellent book if you run meetings or if you attend them.

Lencioni, Patrick. The Five Temptations of a CEO.

Lencioni, Patrick. The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive.

Rath, Tom, and Clifton, Donald O. How Full Is Your Bucket?: Positive Strategies for Work and Life.

Rath, Tom. StrengthsFinder 2.0.

After Marcus Buckingham left the Gallup Organization to start his own company (and write his own book....GO Put Your Strengths to Work:  6 Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding Performance), then it was important for Gallup to publish a new book on the Strengths work that they have continued to do.  And this is that book.  For some reason, I was poised not to like it (who knows why), but I like it VERY much.  It's clear, provides excellent action suggestions for each of the 34 strengths, and of course, has the magic code in it so you can take the StrengthsFinder assessment.  This is the book I now use when I'm teaching Strengths workshops.  Order it today if you haven't already.

Scott, Susan.  Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work and in Life, One Conversation at a Time.

Just the title alone intrigued me...and then when I read the Seven Principles of Fierce Conversations, I was hooked. For example, Principle 6 is "Take Responsibility for Your Emotional Wake." Scott points out that for leaders, there are no "trivial comments." Since reading this book, I have highly recommended it in my leadership training seminars, and am using it as a core text in an upcoming year long training. Reading it will have an impact on your professional and personal life--even if you don't do anything. If you DO follow some of her suggestions, your personal and professional lives will be "fiercely" affected.

Sutton, Robert.  The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't.

Now just tell me that this title doesn't make you want to read the book - or at least talk to someone who HAS read the book. I have read the book and have recommended it to hundreds of people because, unfortunately, many workplaces don't seem to have implemented the 'no asshole rule.'  In this time of toxicity in the workplace, which is a horrendous impediment to productivity, this book is worth reading and worth buying for others to read.  Unfortunately, the real a-holes won't get it, so don't waste your money on them.  Get your colleagues to read it and then discuss it in a faculty meeting.

Welch, Suzy 10-10-10: A Life-Transforming Idea.

Williams, Richard L.   Tell Me How I'm Doing.