Top Ten Books for Leaders

I often get asked what books I recommend for certain topics; so in this series, I’ll share my top 10 recommendations for books on: Organizational Change, Self Development, Leadership, and Entrepreneurship. I’ve culled through hundreds of books and selected those that I refer to over and over and over again. These are the ones that are dog-eared, stuffed with notes and Post-its.

My hope is that you’ll share the titles of the books that inspire and inform you… as it is not too late to put then on my wish list for Santa.
Kris

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In Leadership is an Art, Max DePree tells us that “buying books is easy; owning them is not.”  He goes on to explain that, “Good readers take possession of what they are learning by underlining and commenting and questioning. In this manner they ‘finish’ what they read.”  He ends his introduction by saying: “You can read this book quickly; but I hope you cannot finish it quickly. It will be worth a lot more to you if you finish it, if you have truly made it your own book.”

DePree also shares that leadership is NOT learned by reading, alone – and I fully concur. But I also know that leaders who are thoughtful and open themselves to new ideas WHILE they get their hands dirty leading, grow into better and better leaders. My mantra is that LEADERS READ.

My list of top ten comes with a disclaimer – these are NOT for learning to manage or supervise. They are in my area of specialty: transformational leadership.

Leadership Is an Art by Max DePree

Max writes of what he knows – he practiced his leadership at Herman Miller, Inc., a premier furniture manufacturer known for innovative design and a workforce characterized by deep respect, high growth and shared leadership. DePree sums it up by noting that the book strikes three main themes: integrity, relationship building and community building. My copy of the book is littered with notes and highlights – there are delightful quotes and paragraphs that contain keen insights. This is an elegant book – relatively short – but packed with wisdom and insight that come from the actual practice of leadership, not the study of someone else’s leadership.

Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness by Robert K. Greenleaf

Greenleaf wrote this series of masterful essays in response to the protests and power struggles of the 70’s – but his work is timeless. In fact, I believe his thoughts are even more relevant today in the wake of Enron, the debacle on Wall Street and the dysfunction in our nation’s capital.

The position that leadership serves those in the organization turns our traditional views of hierarchical power upside down. The idea of servant leadership dates back over 2500 years and is present in several religious texts, including the Bible and Tao Te Ching. We may however, have come to a point in time with social media and global connectedness, that the idea that the power of leader is only legitimate if granted by those led.

This is a rich read, and a book in which I reread passages several times, getting deeper and deeper meaning from them. As with DePree’s book, it is characterized by depth of thought rather than a prolific number of pages.

Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive through the Dangers of Leading by Ronald A. Heifetz and Marty Linsky

A seminal book on transformational leadership, the authors explore the truism that real leadership surfaces conflict, challenges the status quo, and demands change. This of course, is painful – and the reaction to that pain often is backlash to the leader. One only has to think of the great leaders who have been assassinated (King, Kennedy, and Lincoln) to see this phenomena at work.

Heifetz and Linsky offer up practical strategies to both lead well and make a difference – and to manage the personal and professional challenges that surface when those you lead resist. I use the principles and strategies outlined in this book with the leaders I work with as they implement change… and they work!

HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Leadership

For those who prefer more of a smorgasbord, this is the book for you. The book includes essays by Goleman, Drucker, Kotter, Heifetz, Bennis and Collins (and a few other notables as well). This is a great book if you would like to read several shorter pieces by leadership thought leaders in order to decide where you want to take a deeper dive.

On a side note, I will share that the Harvard Business Review monthly journal is always a great source of readings about leadership – well researched, timely, and thought provoking. If you don’t want to subscribe, each article is also available as a download for a nominal fee.

The Oz Principle: Getting Results Through Individual and Organizational Accountability by Roger Conners, Tom Smith and Craig Hickman

As I coach leaders, one of the most common dilemmas they face is how to get the results they need when those results are dependent on many people, each one needed to do their part. The book sorts out victim behavior from accountable behavior – and provides practical techniques on how to create accountable teams, departments and organizations.

In the organizations I’ve worked in that adopt these ideas, there is far less moaning and groaning, far less blaming, far less disengagement – and much more focused action toward achieving something of value.

Leading Out Loud: Inspiring Change Through Authentic Communications by Terry Pearce

If every leader that I coach through an organizational transformation would master communicating as Pearce describes, my job would be easy. This is another dog-eared, Post-it flagged book with notes tucked inside. I’ve used it as a framework for leadership communication in consulting and teaching. It is rock solid.

Warning: It is not easy! Pearce advocates some very difficult things for leaders to do: being vulnerable, owning their personal motivation, and speaking to minds and hearts. If I had only two tools to use in fostering a change in an organization it would be leadership and storytelling – and this book shows how to seamlessly integrate both.

Leaders Make the Future: Ten New Leadership Skills for an Uncertain World by Bob Johansen

Based on research and work from the Center for Creative Leadership, Johansen describes the world that leaders face today as VUCA: Volatile, Uncertain, Chaotic, and Ambiguous. While VUCA is not an elegant acronym, I believe the description is apt.

Johansen says the top skills are: Maker Instinct (connection & creativity), Clarity, Dilemma Flipping (problems into opportunities), Immersive Learning Ability, Bio-Empathy (seeing and using principles from nature), Constructive Depolarizing (resolving tense situations involving divergent cultures), Quiet Transparency (being open and honest about what matters), Rapid Prototyping (creating innovative solutions fast, failing quickly, and learning on the run), Smart-Mob Organizing (using business and social networks), Commons Creating (ability to seed, nurture, and grow shared assets that can benefit all players).

Quite the list, and a provocative and insightful read. I suggest that leaders should take heed – that even if these are not leadership competencies on your annual performance review, they will serve you well today and in the future.

The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations by James Kouzes and Barry Posner

OK – I admit to being a Kouzes and Posner fan! As I pulled books off my shelf to write this post, I realized I had two Kouzes and Postner’s books! If you only read one, make it this one.  There are many things that make me a fan – but two of them are, that this is a research-based book and more importantly, they researched the question: What do people desire from their leaders?  And what did they find? The top things desired by followers of their leaders were honesty, competency, being forward-looking, and inspiring. I totally concur!

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable and The Five Temptations of a CEO: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni

A bit of a cheat to list two here, but Lencioni writes in story (or fable) and has a knack for short, crisp, easy reads that pack a punch. His pattern is to write a business fable or story and then extract the learning into a model that you can apply to your situation. In these two books he points to what NOT to do, and in the process teaches you what to do. Anyone who has been in an organization for more than two weeks will relate!

Polarity Management: Identifying and Managing Unsolvable Problems by Barry Johnson

This may be one of the least read books on my list, and you may be scratching your head. But what makes leadership difficult is just this – figuring out how to manage polarities. So what is a polarity? Johnson describes them as unsolvable problems; I tend to think of them as competing goals, seemingly at odds with one another. Examples help, so here are some common polarities that leaders must manage:

• Standardization and Customization
• Candor and Diplomacy
• Control and Empowerment
• Structure and Flexibility
• Planning and Implementation
• Short term and Long term

Inability to manage polarities by leadership leads to the dramatic swings that many organizations experience – going from a total focus on empowerment until problems arise and then making a dramatic shift to control in order to compensate. A great metaphor is steering a car hard to the left and then dramatically over-correcting by a sharp turn to the right. Many of us have had whiplash from leadership initiatives that careen wildly between two polarities. There is a better way, and artful leaders master this – read Johnson to learn how!

There are no lack of books out there on leadership – I’m curious to see which ones you “own”.