Rowitz On Leadership

Mid-December Book Selection- Ron Friedman- THE BEST PLACE TO WORK, Perigee, 2014. In short, this book answers the complex question of what makes us want to get up in the morning enthusiastic about going to work.  The book presents numerous examples and methods for making the workplace  a positive environment. The author  offers a game plan for building a thriving workplace.    Also see  ignite8o.com

December Book Selection-Robin Sharma, WHO WILL CRY WHEN YOU DIE,Jaico, 2009. This book includes 101 life lessons from the monk who sold his Farrari.  Although living is a complex process, there are many ways to enhance our experiences from day to day.  As we near the end of our life, we do not want to look back with regret about the things we didn’t do and the people we didn’t help.   This is a worthwhile book for all leaders to read as are the author’s other books.

Mid-November Book Selection-Ken Blanchard, Jane Ripley, and Eunice Parisi-Carew, COLLABORATION BEGINS WITH YOU, BerrettKohler, 2015. Collaboration neds to occur at all levels of an organization.  The twenty-first century leader needs to be a silo buster and realize the importance of working across programs in and outside our organizations.  Each individual needs to realize that they need to commit to collaboration. The authors present a collaboration model within the domains of heart, head, and hands.   For more information, go to   http://www.kenblanchard.com

November 2015 Book Selection-Walter Isaacson, THE INNOVATORS, Simon and Schuster, 2014.   Every leader needs to read this book about the history of the digital revolution.   Isaccson gives a detailed account of this history with details about the key players in this revolution over the last  two centuries.  You will read about Ada Byron, Alan Turing, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and many others.   with social  media as a key component to modern life, this book provides leaders with a background for their activities today.  This book also provides arguments for the support of collaboration in innovation and leadership.

Mid-October 2015 Book Selection- Seven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, WHEN TO ROB A BANK, William Morrow, 2015.   Those Freakonomics guys are back.    This is a book of letters from the author’s readers with some very clever answers from their behavioral economics perspective.    The book is a fun and worthwhile read for those who enjoy their approach to the world.

October 2015 Book Selection- Herminia Ibarra, ACT LIKE A LEADER, THINK LIKE A LEADER, Harvard Business School Press, 2015.  Many people talk and think about what their leadership philosophy might be, but action needs to come first.    leaders become leaders by what they do. it is possible to redefine your job from a leadership mind-set and test it to determine leadership as an action.   If the action redefines your job role, then leadership becomes a reality. Leaders also grow their networks and work collaboratively and strategically.  Each activity helps the individual evolve as a leader. The author uses the concept of “outsight” to show how we need to redefine ourselves.    She also argues that play is part of the process.

Mid-September 2015 Book Selection, Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson, THE NEW ONE MINUTE MANAGER, William Morrow, 2015.    This is a revision of the classic book.  It  has been updated for the 21st century. it still includes the three important rules for the manager.  The goals and praisings rules are updated and the  third rule has been changed from the rule for scolding to the redirect rule.    The book is clearly worth a reread.

September 2015 Book Selection-Elizabeth Kolbert, THE SIXTH EXTINCTION, Picador, 2015.    The first five extrinctions on our planet were natural events when many species disappeared.    The author argues that there are signs of a sixth extinction occurring that are due to human beings.   We have impacted our planet in negative ways.   We have affected the air of our planet as well as destroyed the habitat of many plants and animals.  Our leaders have to lead and change our destructive ways so that our planet can survive.  This is an important book which I think leaders need to read and digest.  The future is in our hands.

August 2015 Book Selections- Tom Rath, EAT, MOVE,SLEEP, Missionday,2013 and ARE YOU FULLY CHARGED? Silicon_guild, 2015. Rath has become extremely interested in what leaders can do to improve their quality of life and their leadership effectiveness.  These two boos and his last book WELL BEING explore these quality of life issues with any scientific studies.  In EAT, Rath introduces an app called WELBE to monitor our progress in improving your wellbeing.  These books are good guides for a leader on topics usually ignored in leadership books.   I strongly recommend these August selections as well as the earlier book. In Fully Charged, Rath gives the reader homework assignments.    Also see      www.tomrath.org

Mid-July 2015 Book Selection-Dan Ariely, IRRATIONALLY YOURS, Harper, 2015.  The author answers his readers who have questions.  He uses his expertise in behavioral economics and other social sciences to answer.   He uses humor as well as cartoons to make this a fun read.    For those who like  Ariely and read his other books or seen his TED talks, this book is good summer fare.

June 2015 Book Selection-Marshall Goldsmith, TRIGGERS,  This book answers the question of what are the triggers to behavioral change.  Triggers are often events that are unexpected that cause us to make changes in our lives.   We try hard to avoid making change   The status quo is comfortable.   Context is always an important factor in change.  The author presents an interesting set of techniques to guide your life in the form of a number of question you need to ask yourself each day.  Yocreate the questions  on a 1-10 continuum beginning with the phrase “Did I do my best to….”

Mid-June 2015 Book Selection-Paul Smith, LEAD WITH A STORY, AMACOM, 2012.  The most effective way for leaders to get followers to understand what a leader is trying to do is to tell a story rather than present another Powerpoint presentation.   Leaderes need to become good storytellers.   They need to collect stories.   This book is filled with examples which the author tells readers that they can use as needed.  The book provides stories for 21 tough challenges that are faced by business leaders.  Smith also gives a template for developing your own stories.  Also see     www.leadwithastory.com

June 2015 Book Selection-Steven Brill,AMERICA’S BITTER PILL, Random House, 2015. This book goes on the bookshelf next to the classic book on American health care by Paul Starr.  Brill has created an excellent book on the development of the Affordable Care Act( Obamacare)  and its implementation.   The book is quite different than Emanuel’s book on the ACA.  It is more objective and presents this history in terms of the pros and cons of the process.  All American leaders need to read this book to better understand the ACA and its future.

Mid-May 2015 Book Selection- Robin Sharma, LEADERSHIP WISDOM, Jaico Books, 2009, The monk who sold his Ferrari once again comes to the aid of a business leader who is having problems with his company.  In this book, the monk teaches the eight rituals of visionary leaders. One of the rituals deals with the important issue of a leader’s legacy. As with his other books, Sharma presents a very readable and useful model linking the West with Eastern philosophy.

May 2015 Book Selection-Laurence Barton, CRISIS LEADERSHIP NOW, McGraw-Hill, 2008.  This is an excellent book on how to deal with all types of crisis from the vantage of the workplace.   In addition to discussion about each type of crisis category, the author presents a number of important tools for crisis leadership activities.   The book includes a forty page crisis management plan. There is also crisis risk assessment tool.   The author also presents  a ten pillar model of business continuity.  I strongly recommend this book for your crisis preparedness and leadership library.

Mid-April 2015 Book Selection-John Kotter, ACCLERATE,Harvard Business School Press, 2014, From the Industrial Revolution until now. the major organization model has been hierarchical in structure and management-based in operation. The author argues that this traditional  structure is not sufficient.  It is not so much obsolescent but rather needs to be joined by a parallel coalition-based system in which change is addressed by members of various administrative units within the hierarchy.  These individuals are change agents. Kotter believes these two systems will work together to create change and implement these changes.  He goes on to discuss five principles to guise this dual system and also discusses  eight accelerators in action.

April 2015 Book Selection-Robin Sharma, THE GREATNESS  GUIDE,  Jaico Book, 2009.  Sharma blends eastern and western thought into his view of how to be great leaders and human beings.  This book presents 101 short pieces on how to improve our lives and how to be better leaders.  You can read one or two pieces a day and have a positive learning experience  each day of the next three months.  This is an excellent book that I heartily recommend. Also see wwwrobinsharma.com

Mid-March 2015 Book Selection-Mark Miller, CHESS NOT CHECKERS, Berrett-Kohler, 2015.   I am a “raving fan”  of Mark Miller.  I regularly read his excellent blog   GreatLeadersServe.com     This new book is an excellent addition to our leadership library.   Traditional organizations try to utilize simple straightforward approaches to the challenges facing their organization and leadership like playing checkers.   Life and organizations are more complicated and complex today.  Our challenges are also more complex.    We need new strategies to address our challenges.   It is more like playing chess than checkers.  This is an excellent and very readable book.

March 2015 Book Selection-Ken Blanchard and Morton Shaevitz, REFIRE DON’T RETIRE, Berrett-Koehler, 2015. We haave come a long way since gerontologists were arguing that retirement was about disengagement from life.   This book argues through an excellent parable that retirement does not have to be the end of things but can be the beginning of new involvement in life. Refire our lives  after leaving our full time jobs should be the rule.  Leaders do not need a formal position to continue to be leaders.  The authors present the refire approach through the lens of increasing relationships,  stimulating our minds,  keeping our bodies healthy, and exploring our spirituality.    This is an important book for those who are contemplating the next phase of their lives.

Mid-February 2015 Book Selection-Lee. G. Bolman and Terence Deal, HOW GREAT LEADERS THINK,  Jossey-Bass, 2014.  This book is a practical book tied to the authors interest in reframing organizations.  Successful leaders build their skills in leadership from the stories they accumulate during their careers. In fact, their thinking which is based on their stories affects the quality of their thoughts.  Thinking must precede actions.  The authors present leadership successes and failures from their four dimension reframing model related to structural leadership, human resource leadership, political leadership, and symbolic leadership.    As with the authors’ other books, this one is well written and an important book for my readers to digest.

February 2015 Book Selection- James W. Begun and Jan K. Malcolm, LEADING PUBLIC HEALTH, Springer, 2014.   Public health has been somewhat obsessed with the definition of competencies in training and education programs.  One of the areas for which competencies have been developed is the area of public health leadership and management.   The authors have reviewed the several listings of public health leadership competencies. They then developed a framework of 25 leadership competencies for public health.  They used the framework to  guide their presentation on public health values and traits, public health knowledge, population health, collaboration, power, public health surprises, and continuous quality improvement issues. This is an interesting approach which will prove useful for trainers and public health faculty.    Students will also find this to be an excellent guide for their early practice experiences as administrators and program directors.

Mid-January 2015 Book Selection- Walter Isaacson, STEVE JOBS, Simon & Schuster Paperback, 2013. This is an excellent biography of the flawed leader and founder of Apple. On the surface, he appeared to be a command and control leader, but he was clearly more than this. He was arrogant, creative, emotional, passionate, a builder, critical, and a family man.   Isaacson has done an excellent job of covering Job’s life.  I strongly recommend this book.

January 2015 Book Selection- Steve Farber, THE RADICAL LEAP, Dearborn Publishing, 2004.  This is the tenth anniversary of this now classic book on leadership.   The author spent a number of years with the Tom Peters Group and was also influenced by the work of Kouzes and Posner whose book THE LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE has been a core text in many leadership development programs. This book serves as the foundation for the work of the author in the last decade on extreme leadership.   Using a story format followed by a daily  handbook on extreme leadership,  the author presents his four part model  of LEAP–love, energy, audacity, and proof.   This is clearly a worthwhile read for my blog readers.   See   http://www.stevefarber.com.