Bootstrap Leadership Blog

I’m often asked to recommend great leadership books… and since I love lists, here’s my list of the 25 “must have” leadership books.  If you just had these books on your shelf going into 2011, you’d be well versed in a variety of leadership techniques, stories, models and best practices.  Of course, new leadership books arrive literally every week (there are hundreds published each year) so you might have to keep adding to the list to stay up to-date.  But in my opinion, these 25 represent essential reading on our favorite topic. 

Here’s the list, in no particular order - how many of these are on your bookshelf?

 
 1.        The Practice of Management – Peter Drucker

 2.        The One Minute Manager – Ken Blanchard & Spencer Johnson

 3.        On Becoming a Leader – Warren Bennis

 4.        In Search of Excellence – Tom Peters & Robert Waterman

 5.        Credibility – James Kouzes & Barry Posner

 6.        The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People – Stephen Covey

 7.        Leading Change – John Kotter

 8.        Built to Last – Jim Collins

 9.        What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There – Marshall Goldsmith

10.       First, Break all the Rules – Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman

11.       Made to Stick – Dan & Chip Heath

12.       Leadership is an Art – Max DePree

13.       Emotional Intelligence – Daniel Goleman

14.       The Extraordinary Leader – Jack Zenger & Joe Folkman

15.       The Lessons of Experience – Morgan McCall, Michael Lombardo, Ann Morrison

16.       Execution – Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan

17.       Results-Based Leadership – Dave Ulrich, Jack Zenger, Norm Smallwood

18.       Competing for the Future – Gary Hamel & C.K. Prahalad

19.       The Leadership Engine – Noel Tichy

20.       The Power of Full Engagement – Jim Loehr & Tony Schwartz

21.       Winning – Jack Welch

22.       It’s Your Ship – Michael Abrashoff

23.       Why CEO’s Fail – David Dotlich & Peter Cairo

24.       Resonant Leadership – Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee

25.       Authentic Leadership – Bill George

There are many competencies associated with great leadership, and some take a lifetime to master.  However, there is one important trait that every leader should be able to leverage without practice or experience – authenticity. 

Being an authentic leader means being yourself.  Growing up, whenever you faced a new challenge, your parents probably said: “just be yourself”.  Turns out that is really great advice for leaders.  While you may admire many leadership styles, you should adapt the one that fits your personality.  Let your true self come through in how you make decisions, interact with others, etc.  Here’s a real example from my career…

Years ago, I had the pleasure of working with a CEO, who in addition to being very smart and creative, was also a very down-to-earth, fun-loving guy.  He liked nothing more than meeting employees and recognizing their accomplishments.  As a result, he spent a lot of time giving speeches in front of large groups.  Early on, he gave those speeches in a suit and tie, and stuck to the script, not to mention the podium.  The results were pretty bland, and frankly, not very motivating.  After awhile though, he gave up trying to be the CEO he thought others wanted him to be, and he started giving those speeches in logo wear and khakis, walking up and down the stage with great animation, improvising, laughing, and telling stories with passion and energy.  He went back to being himself, and the results were phenomenal – all because his leadership style started to mirror his true personality.  

Being authentic also means being your own person.  In his book, Authentic Leadership (2003), Bill George, former CEO of Medtronic, writes of the importance of being autonomous and independent, of finding your own voice as a leader.  Over time, you may have to adapt your style to different situations, but you’ll have a familiar foundation of principles to fall back on, since your style is molded from your core personality.   

There have been many great leaders down through the years, and all have had very different styles.  Create a leadership style that works well for you, one that reflects your personality, character and values.  If you’re being yourself, you never have to worry about “how to behave” as a leader – simply follow your instincts and do what feels comfortable to you.  You’ll find that being an authentic leader is the easiest way for you to be an effective leader.     

Readers of this column know that I read a lot of business books.  But it’s not like UPS is pulling up every week with packages from Amazon… I’ve had a lot of these books for a long time.  Some were gifts from authors or publishers, and dozens, frankly, have just been on my shelf for years from my corporate days.  Well, this week I decided to put a dent in my reading pile – I would try to read seven books in seven days. 

I wanted to do this for two reasons.  The first was that the pile was just growing too large – how am I going to learn what these books can teach me if I don’t dig in and get serious?  (This just in – books can’t add to your knowledge base if you don’t open them).  The second reason was to see if it was actually possible to read a book in a single day and absorb the information.  Here’s how I set myself up to succeed, the books I read, and my tips for reading a book in a single day.

First, I chose a mix of small and regular-sized books – four small ones, three large ones.  Next, I put the one I most wanted to read last, so I’d be building toward it throughout the week; I started with the book I was least interested in.  Finally, I picked seven very different topics, so I would be exploring a different concept every day.  The books (in no particular order):

The Inner Game of Work – Tim Gallwey (2000)

StrengthsFinder 2.0 – Tom Rath (2007)

Succession – Marshall Goldsmith (2009)

Brand You – Tom Peters (2001)

A Sense of Urgency – John Kotter (2008)

The Why of Work – Dave & Wendy Ulrich (2010)

Total Leadership – Stew Friedman (2008) 
 

What tips can I offer for this endeavor? First of all, don’t procrastinate; if you’re going to read a book a day, start early in the morning, and keep coming back to it throughout the day.  I didn’t read any of the books in a single setting; rather, I used the full day, and made the book my priority during gaps between coaching sessions, phone calls, email, etc.  With the smaller books, I was able to read every word; I can’t say that for the larger books.  I did make a very thorough skim of each chapter, however – reading enough to get the essence of the content (I probably read 60-70% of the book).  Second, read the Preface and the Introduction. A lot of readers skip these sections, but they’re valuable for learning why the book was written, the structure of the chapters, etc. 

Third - and this is the key to retaining the learning – write a 1-page “book report” of the key points.  Create a template you’re comfortable with, and move critical lessons, models, or lists right from the book to your document as you move through the chapters.  Pretend you’re writing the report for someone else – it will help you write it more clearly, capturing the main points of the book.

You can do this – you can read a business book in a single day.  Focus on writing down the 3-5 most important takeaways; that’s generally all you need to speak intelligently about the book.  How many business books do you have that you’ve never even opened?  Even if you do this just once a month, that’s 12 books you’ll get through in a year.  And if you have a good 1-page book report in your laptop, you can pass the book on to a colleague to spread the knowledge.  Presumably, you bought and kept these books for a reason – crack one open today and start absorbing the lessons!