Leadership Reading – Part 1

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This is the first of a 4-part series on books I recommend for leaders. I have hundreds of books on my shelves and it’s really tough to pick just a few, but these will give you an idea of some good reads, and some good authors.

There are plenty more good books out there and I’ve primarily selected more current reading. Just because I don’t mention them here, doesn’t mean other books aren’t good as well.

For this installment, I’ll look at four books I recommend that are pretty easy reads and contain a lot of good information.

The first is Turn the Ship Around by L. David Marquet. This is an interesting story of a submarine commander who decided to try a whole new strategy in leading his ship. The results are a great demonstration of what can happen when a leader is willing to share authority.

Next is The Three Signs of a Miserable Job by Patrick Lencioni. Written as a novel, the book follows a CEO as he sells his company and then takes on new leadership challenges. The story is based on Lencioni’s Three Signs which boil down much of basic leadership into something everyone can understand.

The third book is Start With Why by Simon Sinek. Sinek’s idea of start with why became well known a few years ago after his Ted Talk on the same subject. The book goes into much more detail about how leaders can be more successful when they concentrate on why a course of action is necessary or smart. You may disagree with some of his examples and the conclusion he draws, but you will be forced to think.

Last on this list is Bankable Leadership by Tasha Eurich. This book was just published in October of this year (2013). It’s one of the many books that fall in what I consider the “really obvious” category of books that seem to state what I consider to be the obvious basics of good leadership. That’s why I’ve put it on this list. Especially for new leaders, or leaders facing a new challenge, this book is full of ideas that you may not have considered or might have forgotten.

Next time I’ll talk about some books that present leadership in a little different way.