Blog Post

As another installment to our reading list, below is information on eleven books on Leadership that were submitted by our colleagues.  Please note that we tried to assign ownership to the description/review wherever possible.

Background: As we have deployed more and more 360 assessments, many of our customers have requested that we include a reading list for participants who would like to explore ideas for increased management effectiveness.  I thought it would be interesting to ask clients and colleagues to share what they considered the best articles, books and online resources for the current business marketplace.  What I received was an amazing list of books, articles and websites.  We organized these into specific topic areas, and I will be sharing some of these resources in this blog.

Why Should Anyone be Led By You
Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones
Product Description: Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones argue that leaders don’t become great by aspiring to a list of universal character traits. Rather, effective leaders are authentic: they deploy individual strengths to engage followers’ hearts, minds, and souls. They are skillful at consistently being themselves, even as they alter their behaviors to respond effectively in changing contexts. In this lively and practical book, Goffee and Jones draw from extensive research to reveal how to hone and deploy one’s unique leadership assets while managing the inherent tensions at the heart of successful leadership…
Citation: Goffee, Robert, and Gareth Jones. Why Should Anyone Be Led by You?: What It Takes to Be an Authentic Leader. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business School, 2006. Print
ISBN: 1578519713

Leadership Without Easy Answers
Ronald Heifetz
Editorial Review: Heifetz (Kennedy Sch. of Government, Harvard Univ.) presents a new theory of leadership for both public and private leaders in tackling complex contemporary problems. Central to his theory is the distinction between routine technical problems, which can be solved through expertise, and adaptive problems, such as crime, poverty, and educational reform, which require innovative approaches, including consideration of values. Four major strategies of leadership are identified…
Citation: Heifetz, Ronald A. Leadership without Easy Answers. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap of Harvard UP, 1994. Print.
ISBN: 674518586

Leadership on the Line
Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky
Amazon Review: …Leadership is always a risky business, but those risks can be understood and reduced. Effective leadership comes from doing more than the technical work of routine management; it involves adaptive work on the part of the leader, and a willingness to confront and disturb people, promote their resourcefulness, and engage their ability to adjust to new realities. But adaptive change always encounters resistance. Heifetz and Linsky examine four forms of resistance–marginalization, diversion, attack, and seduction–before presenting a number of practical resistance-response skills to nurture and employ…
Citation: Heifetz, Ronald A., and Martin Linsky. Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive through the Dangers of Leading. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business School, 2002. Print.
ISBN: 1578514371

Leadership that Matters
Sashkin, Marshall and Molly Sashkin.
Product Description: Leadership That Matters promotes leadership that not only improves productivity and performance but also makes a positive difference in the lives of organization members. “Transformational leadership” is based on three personal characteristics, as well as on the organization’s culture. Using this new model of leadership that transforms individuals from subordinate followers into self-directed leaders, the authors discuss how to develop the required characteristics and construct an appropriate culture to bring about desired changes.
Citation: Sashkin, Marshall, and Molly G. Sashkin. Leadership That Matters: the Critical Factors for Making a Difference in People’s Lives and Organizations’ Success. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 2003. Print.
ISBN: 1576751937

Principle-Centered Leadership
Stephen R. Covey
Editorial Review from Library Journal: The great “angst” of life has seemingly gripped us all, and there seems to be no limit to the number of writers offering answers to the great perplexities of life. Covey, however, is the North Star in this field. Following his successful Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (S. & S., 1989), Covey now responds to the particular challenges of business leaders by applying his natural laws, or principles, of life to organizations. Covey explains these laws (security, guidance, wisdom, and power), and discusses how seven-habits practice and focus on these principles will result in personal and organizational transformation…
Citation: Covey, Stephen R. Principle-centered Leadership. New York: Free, 2003. Print.
ISBN: 671792806

Radical Leap:  A Personal Lesson in Extreme Leadership
Steve Farber
Product Description: The business world is ready for an entirely new approach to leadership. Steve Farber has written the perfect book to energize business leaders and help them make the leap into extreme leadership. In fact, taking a giant “”L.E.A.P.”” forward is exactly what Farber prescribes. What exactly is an extreme leader? One who cultivates love, generates energy, inspires audacity, and provides proof. In his exciting and innovative business parable, The Radical Leap, Farber explores an entirely new leadership model, one in which leaders are not afraid to take risks, make mistakes in front of employees, or actively solicit employee feedback…
Citation: Farber, Steve. The Radical Leap: a Personal Lesson in Extreme Leadership. New York: Kaplan Pub., 2009. Print.
ISBN: 1427797927

Strengths-Based Leadership
Tom Rath and Barry Conchie
Product Description: In Strengths Based Leadership, #1 New York Times bestselling author Tom Rath and renowned leadership consultant Barry Conchie reveal the results of this research. Based on their discoveries, the book identifies three keys to being a more effective leader: knowing your strengths and investing in others’ strengths, getting people with the right strengths on your team, and understanding and meeting the four basic needs of those who look to you for leadership…Filled with novel research and actionable ideas, Strengths Based Leadership will give you a new road map for leading people toward a better future.
Citation: Rath, Tom, and Barry Conchie. Strengths Based Leadership: Great Leaders, Teams, and Why People Follow. New York: Gallup, 2008. Print.
ISBN: 1595620257

On Becoming A Leader
Warren Bennis
Editorial Review from Publishers Weekly: Business consultant and University of Southern California professor of business administration, Bennis here deplores what he considers a dearth of leadership in the world. Although he provides solid, practical guidance in how to fill this vacuum, his philosophically and psychologically rich volume seeks primarily to define leadership–which, in his view, requires self-knowledge and clear personal goals… But while a leader may demonstrate talent, the author observes that its fulfillment depends largely on organizational response to the challenge.
ISBN: 3981031849

The Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun
Wes Roberts
Product Description: Roberts’s sensational New York Times bestseller shows how the legendary military commander’s principles of leadership can be applied to contemporary business situations.
Citation: Roberts, Wess. Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun. New York: Warner, 1990. Print.
ISBN: 446391069

Mavericks at Work
William C. Taylor
Amazon Review: In Mavericks at Work, Fast Company cofounder William C. Taylor and Polly LaBarre, a longtime editor at the magazine, give you an inside look at the “most original minds in business” wherever they find them: from Procter & Gamble to Pixar, from gold mines to funky sandwich shops. Want to stop doing business as usual? Then take some lessons from the 32 maverick companies Taylor and LaBarre profile.
Citation: Taylor, William, and Polly G. LaBarre. Mavericks at Work: Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win. New York: William Morrow, 2006. Print.
ISBN: 60779616

The Extraordinary Leader: Turning Good Managers into Great Leaders
Zenger and Folkman
Product Description: People can learn how to lead. This was the position John H. Zenger and Joseph R. Folkman took when they wrote their now-classic leadership book The Extraordinary Leader—and it’s a fact they reinforce in this new, completely updated edition of their bestseller…Now, Zenger and Folkman revisit the subject to address leaders’ most pressing concerns today. The result is an up-to-date, essential leadership guide for the twenty-first century that includes: Late-breaking research on the psychology of leadership, New information on leading in a global environment, A breakthrough case study on measuring improved leadership behavior, Studies revealing the importance of follow-through.
Citation: Zenger, John H., and Joe Folkman. The Extraordinary Leader: Turning Good Managers into Great Leaders. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print.
ISBN: 71628088