Mid-December 2017 Book Selection-Jon Gordon, TRAINING CAMP, Wiley, 2009. Gordon explores how individuals develop an excellence perspective and learn how to put this perspective into action. The author explores eleven traits to become the best of the best using a playbook approach.
December 2017 Book Selection-Robert Pearl , MISTREATED, Public Affairs, 2017. This is the third book in the health care area that looks at the future of our health care system. Despite the overall quality of our system , many patients are mistreated and die. The author looks at ways to improve our health care system in the future. As the other two books, this is a worthwhile read for leaders.
Mid-November 2017 Book Selection- J.D. Vance,HILLBILLY ELEGY,Harper-Collins, 2016. This memoir discusses the life of poor white people who changed the landscape of American politics in 2016. It is one of the more important and illuminating books of the past year. I strongly recommend it to all my leadership readers.
November 2017 Book Selection-Thomas L. Friedman, THANK YOU FOR BEING LATE, FSG, 2016. Friedman has done it again. He discusses the accelerations of modern society and how the social media has changed our lives. The major problem is that we are not keeping up with all these changes. He talks about the supernova(so-called cloud filled with all kinds of information. he also talks about robots and how they are changing the workplace. This is a very important book for leaders who find leadership changing as well.
Mid-October 2017 Book Selection-Jon Gordon, THE HARD HAT,John Wiley, 2015. This Gordon book is based on the true story of a young man with excellent sport abilities who died much too young. George Boiardi had a great influence on many people that still continues today many years after his death. The book explores his life and his impact on his teammates. Twenty-one lessons are discussed on how to be a great teammate and the importance of leadership in these lessons.
October 2017 Book Selection-Ezekiel J. Emanuel, PRESCRIPTION FOR THE FUTURE,Public Affairs, 2017. This is the second of three books on the American health care System that I recommend. This book explains in detail the twelve transformational Practices which need to be made to make the medical organizations in our society more effective and efficient. If these transformations occur, money will be saved and people’s health will improve. The book is excellent and should be read by leaders.
Mid-September 2017 Book Selection-Robin Sharma, FAMILY WISDOM, JAICO, 2009. The monk who sold his Ferrari visits his sister and tells her the importance of a leadership home. Leadership skills make a home work better and become a foundation for raising children and teaching them to be leaders.
September 2017 Book Selection-Elisabeth Rosenthal, AN AMERICAN SICKNESS, Penguin Press, 2017. This is the first of three new books about the American health care system. The first part of the book addresses problems in various sectors of the health care system with some concern with how the business components of each sector cause major problems. The second part of the book deals with recommendations for change. I recommend this book to all my readers.
Mid-August 2017 Book Selection-Charles Van Doren, A HISTORY OF KNOWLEDGE, Ballantine Books, 1991. This is an excellent book to read alongside my August 2017 selection. The book examines the evolution of knowledge by homo sapiens through the centuries. leaders will gain important insights of who we are as a people and how we think.
August 2017 Book Selection-Yuval Noah Harari, SAPIENS, Vintage, 2014. This is an excellent book. It examines the history of homo sapiens and our development over the centuries. The book also raises the question of how sapiens have treated the planet. it also looks at the question of what is next for our evolutionary development. I strongly recommend this book to my leadership readers.
Mid-July 2017 Book Selection- Ken Blanchard and Claire Diaz-Ortiz, ONE MINUTE MENTORING,William Morrow, 2017. This is an excellent little book on the importance of mentoring and coaching. Using a story approach, the authors present a model called MENTOR.Mentoring requires that the person being mentored have a mission and vision for the mentoring relationship. I recommend this book highly.
July 2017 Book Selection- James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner, LEARNING LEADERSHIP, The Leadership Challenge, 2016. This book looks at the importance of practice and lifelong learning as being critical for successful leadership. Specifically, the book addresses five learning leadership fundamentals: believe you can, aspire to excel, challenge yourself, engage support, and practice deliberately. As with their other books, this one is also an excellent read.
Mid-June 2017 Book Selection- Jon Gordon, THE SEED, John Wiley and Sons, 2011. I have become a fan of Jon Gordon and his stories of the challenges faced by leaders. The story deals with the importance of purpose, passion and happiness in our lives. He is given a special seed and told to plant it in the place where he finds his purpose in life.
June 2017 Book Selection-Michael Lewis, THE UNDOING PROJECT, Norton, 2017. The author of Moneyball has written another best seller with this book. Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky are two Israeli psychologists who are lifelong friends and colleagues who have had great influence on the development of the specialty field of behavioral economics. Last month’s author Dan Ariely, who is also an Israeli who settled in the United States and has written several books on behavioral economics. The author discusses the lives and eresearch background of Kahneman and Amos Tversky and their important work on decision-making. This book is a good read and leaders will lean much from their research.
Mid-May Book Selection-Dan Ariely, PAYOFF,TED Books, 2016. In his newest book, the author explores the importance of motivation for successful leaders. Motivation is complex and it is impacted by a number of different processes. The author uses many examples of why motivation is important.
May 2017 Book Selection-Christine Porath, MASTERING CIVILITY, grand central Publishing, 2016. This book is a wonderful guide to the important issue of civility. The author explores the fundamentals of civility as well as the importance of civility in today’s world. Porath utilizes a number of self assessment tools to aid of readers in civility
in a number of different settings.
Mid-April 2017 Book Selection-Angela Duckworth, GRIT, Scribner, 2016. This book was a New York Times Best Seller. It explores how the power of passion and perseverance increses grit which also strengthens the leader. The author uses extensive research findings fron her own research and the research of others to support her hypothesis. The book is well written and deserves a look by those in leadership position.
-April 2017 Book Selection- Mark Miller, Leaders Made Here,Berrett-Kohler, 2017. Miller uses this book to explore the importance of a leadership culture for an organization. Using a story format, the author explores the necessary elements or commitments required to create a leadership culture. The five commitment model is a useful one for an organization. The author also argues for the importance of leadership development programs.. This is important in a time in which funding for theses programs is being drastically reduced.
Mid-March 2017 Book Selection-Robin Sharma, THE SECRET LETTERS OF THE MONK WHO SOLD HIS FERRARI, Collins, 2011. Sharma has written an extremely readable book about a man who is sent on a quest to find eight talismans and notes around the world which will help him to better define and live his life in a more meaningful way. This is a worthwhile book for leaders to read. Absorbing its messages will help you to live a better life.
March 2017 Book Selection-Jon Gordon,THE SHARK AND THE GOLDFISH, John Wiley, 2009. This is a book for all ages. What happens when a goldfish in a bowl accidently ends up hungry in a big body of water. He is taught leadership and how to be positive by a friendly shark. This is an excellent story.
Mid-February 2017 Book Selection- Ken Blanchard, Kathy Cuff, and Vicki Halsy, LEGENDARY SERVICE, McGraw-Hill , 2014. This is the story of a women who learns about the importance of customer service at a local university who tries to apply the information that she learns in the company she works for that does not understand the importance of good service.
February 2017 Book Selection-Peter F. Drucker, CLASSIC DRUCKER, Harvard Business Review Book, 2008. tis is an excellent book on a number of classic articles written by Drucker for the Harvard Business Review. A number of the articles were further developed into books during Drucker’s lifetime. If you have not read much Drucker, this will be a good introduction for you. The articles are divide into two sections–one part is on manager’s responsibilities and part two is on the world of executives.
Mid-January 2017 Book Selection- Gillian Tett, THE SILO EFFECT, Simon and Schuster, 2015. As organizations increase in size, silos are created. They are often effective in carrying out specialty activities. However, they tend to proliferate . Communication is cut off between silos and problems are generated. This book explores numerous examples of effective and ineffective silos. Tett then explores silo busters and ways to make modern organizations more effective. This is an excellent book that leaders need to read.
January 2017 Book Selection-Walter Isaacson, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN:AN AMERICAN LIFE, Simon and Schuster, 2003. This is another excellent biography of an important founding leader of our country. Although he was a flawed character, there is no question that he was a leader with many friends as well as enemies. His importance in our history has ebbed and flowed with the times. He was a great supporter of a strong middle class. He was a prolific writer. He was not afraid to voice his opinion on political issues. He was well traveled at a time when international travel was rare. He believed in the practical applications of science. He developed the idea of lending libraries. He also was a flirt. This book is a worthwhile read for leaders.
Rowitz On Leadership 