I love books and often fall asleep reading one. This winter I’ve had the chance to catch up on some of my leadership reading and want to share some of my favorites with you. They are in no particular order. While no one book is going to transform your business or your life, this list can help you identify a few elements that you may want to work on or practice. And even if you don’t get through each book from cover to cover, each one offers wonderful leadership nuggets for you to consider. Happy Reading!
- Whether it’s your all company meeting or a conference presentation, every leader needs to brush up on their presentation and public speaking skills: TED Talks, The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking.
- Stop enabling, empowering, and delegating. Instead, encourage personal responsibility, accountability, and excellence through a learning culture based in curiosity: Out of the Question, How Curious Leaders Win.
- Vulnerability – the very word makes many leaders cringe. Amy Cuddy makes the case for vulnerability better than anyone I know: Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent and Lead.
- This little book is a great EQ Primer and really helps us look at where we need to shift: No One Understand You and What to Do About It.
- When was the last time you did a little myth busting, encouraged a truth to power conversation, and helped your team avoid group think without getting sidelined? Originals: How Nonconformists Move the World.
- Many of the clients I coach ask for resources to better manage millennials. This book has some great suggestions: Bridging the Soft Skills Gap: How to Teach the Missing Basics to Today’s Young Talent.
- This laugh-out-loud e-book reminds me to take myself lightly. Warning – after you read it, you just might start looking for opportunities to do whatever the heck you want! Stupid On Purpose: The Art of Ignoring Good Advice, Doing Whatever The Heck You Want, and Actually Enjoying Your Life.
- When was the last time you rejuvenated yourself with Deep Work?
- As a coach, I work with my clients around the power of belief and the practice of visualization. In The Biology of Belief, Bruce Lipton asserts that it isn’t our genes that predicate who we are. Rather, after decades of research, he concluded that our perceptions and beliefs select our genes and therefore our behavior.
Do you have a favorite leadership read? What is it and what was the most important insight it offered you?
