Mid-December 2012 Book Selection-James Scouller, THE THREE LEVELS OF LEADERSHIP, Management Books 2000, 2011. This is an excellent book on leadership which e=was published in England and draws on the extensive leadership literature in the United States and great Britain. The three levels of leadership are the public, provate, and personal levels of action. the author looks in detail at the differences between being a leader and leadership leadership is discussed in terms of its four dimensions of motivating purpose, task progress and results, upholding group unity, and attention to individuals. Te book is full of examples, exercises, and lists of behaviors. For example, there is a list of 34 public leadership behaviors. This is an important book for all leaders to have on their bookshelves and peruse on a regular basis.
December 2012 Book Selection-Mark Miller, THE SECRET OF TEAMS,Berrett-Koehler, 2011. This is another good book from the associates of Ken Blanchard. The book tells the story of a team in a large company charged with the task of helping other teams in the international company become more effective and high performing. The study team explores the secret of making a team great. Out of the discussion comes the three pillars of great teams-talent, skills and community. the book describes in detail why these three pillars are so important. The book also ends with a short team assessment based on these three factors. The book is a fast read but is clearly worth your time.
Mid-November 2012 Book Selection-Diana McLain Smith, THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM, Jossey-Bass, 2011. This book is all about relationships and how to sustain them. In many ways, this was an excellent book for me to follow up on the last selection CLICK. Smith explores the anatomy of relationships in terms of actions and reactions, frames, social contexts, and behavioral repertoires, With an extensive look at one relationship in an organization, she explores in detail the process of transforming that relationship to make it more effective. She presents a change process that goes from a disruption in a relationship to reframing and revising the relationship. i strongly recommend this month’s two book selections.
November 2012 Book Selection-Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman, CLICK, Broadway, 2010. This book explores relationships in an unique way. Have you noticed that there are times when you meet someone and you immediately seem to have someting special between you. You click. The book explores the click phenomenon. The author brotheres explore the click accelerators of vulnerability, proximity, resonance, similarity, and safe place. They follow the discussion of accelerators with high self monitors. As in their other book SWAY,this book is easy to read and has many examples to illustrate their conceptual points. I strongly recommend the book.
Mid-October 2012 Book Selection- Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves-LEADERSHIP 2.0, Talent Smart 2012. This book presents one of the first instruments to measure adaptive leadership. Thjose who purchase the book can take the self version of the instrument with the cost of the book. If the reader wants to use a 360 degree approach to the model for other observers, then there is a charge for this application of the instrument. The authors discuss leadership in terms of core leadership skills and adaptive leadership skills. The authors define core leadership skills from the perspective of strategy, action, and results. the adaptive skill sets stem from emotional intelligence, orgaizational justice, character, and personal development. Those of my readers who have read the authors other book EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENT 2.0 will be aware of the excellent instrument that they developed based on the work of Daniel Goleman.
October 2012 Book Selection-Michael Useem, THE LEADER’S CHECKLIST(EXPANDED EDITION),Wharton Digital Press, 2011. The author argues that checklists provide an important mechanism to document how leader’s demonstrate their leadership activities. Fifteen checklist principles are presented from the articulation of a vision to to placing common interests first. The book also presents case studies that demonstrate the application of the checklist. There is an extended discussion of the rescue of the Chilean miners and the role of Chile’s Mining Minister in the rescue. there is also an excellent discussion of the World trade centers Dsaster and the role of the new York fire chief in that disaster. finally, there is an unique interview with the author by the publisher.
Mid-September 2012 Book Selection-Robert B. Cialdini,INFLUENCE(Revised Edition), Collins Business, 2007. Who are the people and situations that influence the way that we make decisions. This book reviews the psychology of persuasion through many psychological experiments by the author and others that influence us directly. Cialdini explores in depth the principles of reciprocity, commitment and consistency, social proof, liking, authority issues, and scarcity. if you liked the books of Ariely, you will surely like this book and find it very informative.
September 2012 Book Selection- Ken Blanchard and Colleen Barrett, LEAD WITH LUV, FT Press, 2011, Blanchard uses a discussion between Colleen and himself about servnt leadership as a critical part of the success of Southwest Airlinws. Barrett is President Emeritus of that airline. Throughour this short book, the authors discuss how Southwest leaders and employees use fun and LUV to make the flying experience an excellent experience for its customers and a fun place to work. They discuss the leadership philosophy and practice of Southwest Airlines in terms of the triple bottom line of being an employer of choice, a provider of choice, and an investment of choice with your employees as partners; a compelling vision; and having critical short-tetm goals and objectives.
Mid-August 2012 Book Selection-Betsy Myers, TAKE THE LEAD, Atria Books, 2011. This is an excellent book full of stories of the real world . It looks at leadership from the perspective of authenticity, connection,respect clarity, collaboration, learning, and courage. The stories are often told from the perspective of women leaders although there are also stories from the male perspective as well. The forward is by David Gergen and the afterwood is by Warren Bennis–what a great set of bookends. What I specifically enjoyed about the book was how readable it was. I strongly recommend the book to my blog readers.
August 2012 Book Selection- Time- THE 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE OF ALL TIME, Time Home Entertainment, 2012. This is aan excellent comilation of over 100 individuals who have influenced not only their own times but in many cases future times as well. the influencers clearly were leaders in the important sense of their influence. The editors present short biographies of all these game changers from Buddha to Leo Tolstoy. This is an excellent book for your leadership book shelf or your coffee table.
Mid-July 2012 Book Selection-Dan Ariely, THE UPSIDE OF IRRATIONALLY, Harper, 2010. This is the author’s follow-up to the book PEDICTABLY IRRATIONAL. This book looks at the positive side of irrationality and the author uses both experiments and personal storeies to explain his arguments.For example, he explores whether big bonuses really improve performance, why we value things we make rather than things others make, and how emotion affects decision-making. The book is exceptionally easy to read and readers will enjoy finding out that the way we do things and activities are not rationally decided.
July Book Selection-David A. Ansell, COUNTY,Academy Chicago Publishers, 2011. I have known Dr. Ansell for a number of years and heard him speak last April at the Mid-America Regional Public Health Leadership Institute. He is not only an excellent speaker but is also a great storyteller. His leadership and his support for the indigent and health care for all are well known in Chicago. This memoir about his experiences for seventeen years as a physician at Cook County Hopsital are clearly an indictment of the health care system in Chicago and elsewhere. I strongly recommend this book to you for seeing leadership in action as well as the impact of politics on health care. The dumping of the poor and indigent on one hospital is hard to read as well as the inhumanity of many health care organizations in rejecting anyone without insurance.
Mid-June Book Selection-Stephen Flynn,THE EDGE OF DISASTER, Random House, 2007. Although this book was written in 2007, it is more relevant today than it was during the Bush Administration. The chance for a disaster happening are greater today than they have ever been. Part of this is due to a slow down in preparedness planning, a lack of resources for these activities, too much money spent on wars abroad and not enough on intenal needs for preparedness. Our infrastructure is getting weaker and outdated,. We do not seem to know how to work with our provate partners. There is still secrecy regarding potential terrorism activities in our country. We have politics but very little strong national leadership. We need to be individually prepared for a potential crisis event.Thge authors presents important scenarios for us to become a more resilient nation. This is an important book for all leaders to read.
June Book Selection-Jim Champy and Harry Greenspun, REENGINEERING HEALTH CARE, FT Press, 2010. With all the changes occurring in the health care delivery area, Chapy and his medical colleague address the issue of reengineering in the health field. The authors define reengineering as the radical improvement of health care and its delivery processes in order to enhance quality and to significantly lower costs. This must be done while expanding patient access to care and improved accessibility to care when access to a health facility occurs. The authors explore in detail the issue of improved technology and the utility of electronic information systems. They look at the reorganization of the processes of delivery of greatly improved health care. They finally explore and discuss the people sde of the health care delivery system from the perspective of health care providers as well as patients.
Mid-May Book Selection-John Hamm, UNUSUALLY EXCELLENT,Jossey-Bass, 2011. This is a very good approach to the practice aspects of leadership. The book explores in details the nine essential skills of unusually excellent leaders. These nine essential skills are tied to the three critical leadership practices related to credibility, competence, and consequence. The nine skills that are explored include authenticity, trustworthiness, being compelling, leading people, strtegizing, executing strategy, communicating effectively, making decisions, and leadership impact. Hamm also points out that people join organizations but leave because of bad relationships with their bosses. This is clearly a good book for the practicing leader. You can contact the author at johnhamm@mac.com
May Book Selection-Seth Godin, WE ARE ALL WEIRD,Do You Zoom, Inc, 2011. This book picks up in a popular approach to Taleb’s BLACK SWAN. We are moving beyond the normal traditions of the past. The normal are the people in the middle who are sometimes labeled the masses. By extension, the weird are not the normal. The weird follow their own individual interests. they make choices and join tribes that reflect their interests. The rich psychologically believe that they have the resources to make any choices they want. Social media have made us all potentially rich. As usual, this Godin book is a fun read. His book sub-title says much about this book-The myth of mass and the end of compliance. Find out more about Godin’s ideas at www.thedominoproject.com
Mid-April Book Selection-Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller-GREAT LEADERS GROW, Berrett-Kohler, 2012. This book is the latest in a sweies of books by Blanchard and his colleagues on the things leaders need in order to become excellent in their practice activities. Using the parable of a young man who is the son of a great leader, the story involves his learning the importance of lifelong learning. The book discusses the four components of the GROW system and how it helps to move the leader forward. The last section of the book is especially useful in that it gives the reader guidance on the importance of serving others which was the theme of their book THE SECRET. This book selection also has a personal assessment tool as well as suggested further readings. A number of online sources are also given
April Book Selection- Patrick Lencioni, THE ADVANTAGE, Jossey-Bass, 2012. Including this book, I have now read all nine books by Lencioni. What he has done in this book has integrated many ideas from his other books into a more comprehensive view of leadership and teams. He presents the four disciplines of team, clarity, communication, and human systems(reinforcement) to increase organization health. He argues that relying on only a mission statement to guide action is much too narrow a view. He presents six questions which when answered will serve as an important guide to understanding how the organization really works. Many short case studies are also presented. Additional materials to guide your reading of the book can be found at www.tablegroup.com/theadvantage
Mid-March 2012 Book Selection-Stewart Liff, MANAGING GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES, Anacom, 2007. If you have ever or are a supervisor or manager in a governmental agency, this book is for you. It explores how rules,regulations, laws, and elected official oversight surrounds you each day. The author talks about the excellent governmental and the bad governmental employee affects your administrative working life. The book guides you in dealing with difficult employees, labor uniones discrimination in the workplace, and performance management. In some ways, the book is not always easy to read and digest because of the complexities inherent in government work.
March 2012 Book Selection- Dan Ariely-PREDICTABLY IRRATIONAL ,Harper-Collins-2008. This book was really fun. If you liked books on behavioral economics like the two FREAKONOMICS books, you will like this. This book argues that humans are not really a rational species that make decisions on the basis of rational thinking. in fact, most of our decision-making in irrational. The author argues that we are often blinded by our own minds.He examines the reasons why we overpay, underestimate and procrastinate. The author undertook many experiments with a number of colleagues to examine our irrationality and examine ways to compensate for not making the right choices. Leaders will find this book useful in better understanding the realities behind decision-making.
Mid-February 2012 Book Selection-Hilarie Owen, THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MENTORING,Kogan Page, 2011. This is an excellent guidebook out of Great Britain on the art of mentoring. Owen argues strongly that mentoring schemes are better at training leaders than most workshops. Much of her discussion relates to mentoring in organizations although she does see the advantage of specific job related coaching. She also discusses the importance of training the mentors as well as the mentees.
February 2012 Book Selection-Richard H. Axelrod,TERMS OF ENGAGEMENT(REVISED AND EXPANDED), Berrett-Koehler, 2010. Axelrod makes a distinction between the old change management approach of Kotter and Conner and the new change management approach which he advocates. The new change management methodology is based on the four principles of widening the circle of of people engaged in change, the importance of people connections, the creation of communities of action, and the critical nature of fairness in what we do. These four principles need to be practiced in the context of honesty, transparency, and trust. Axelrod and his wife Emily have developed the Conference approach to the new management paradigm which involves large groups of people who will be impacted by organizational change.
Mid-January 2012 Book Selection- Can M. Alpaslan and Ian M. Mitroff, SWANS, SWINE, AND SWINDLERS, Stanford Business Press, 2011.- This book is about messes and systems growing our of the work of Ackoff, Taleb, and of course Mitroff. Mitroff has become one of the leaaders in interpreting crises and emergencies. This book is an intriguing book that looks at both theory and application to the financial crisis of 2008. Messes are about the dynamic interaction related to what has been called wicked problems. All crise are messes but all messes are not crises. Once you have a mess, it breeds other messes. Messes needs leaders who are tolerant, resilient and able to deal with complexity and uncertainty. Messes require multidiscpinary involvement to solve. Messes affect the ability to confront swans who operate under false assumtions and generally wrong beliefs, swine who operate with greed, arrogance and narcissism, and swindlers who are unethical and corrupt.
January 2012 Book Selection- Stephen R. Covey, Bob Whitman, abd Breck England, PREDICTABLE RESULTS IN UNPREDICTABLE TIMES, Franklin Covey, 2009. The Franklin Covey group is an interesting marriage between the Covey group and the Franking time management company. THe combination has led to research on leadership and management as well as leadership semiinars and books. This book is one of the books in a new series. The authors argue that it is possible to have predictable outcomes for your organization even during times of unrest and instability if you remember to do certain things. The book presents four critical principles for bringing about these predicticable results including the principles of excellent execution, high trust levels with all your stakeholders, achieving more with less and finally transforming fear into engagement.
Rowitz On Leadership 