The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable


Patrick Lencioni - 2002
    This time, he turns his keen intellect and storytelling power to the fascinating, complex world of teams. Kathryn Petersen, Decision Tech's CEO, faces the ultimate leadership crisis: Uniting a team in such disarray that it threatens to bring down the entire company. Will she succeed? Will she be fired? Will the company fail? Lencioni's utterly gripping tale serves as a timeless reminder that leadership requires as much courage as it does insight. Throughout the story, Lencioni reveals the five dysfunctions which go to the very heart of why teams even the best ones-often struggle. He outlines a powerful model and actionable steps that can be used to overcome these common hurdles and build a cohesive, effective team. Just as with his other books, Lencioni has written a compelling fable with a powerful yet deceptively simple message for all those who strive to be exceptional team leaders.

Leaders Open Doors: A Radically Simple Leadership Approach to Lift People, Profits, and Performance


Bill Treasurer - 2013
    This radically simple concept is the heart of Leaders Open Doors.This book presents a fresh and unique take on leadership that will benefit experienced leaders and those just starting their leadership journeys. With a little courage, anyone at any level can be a leader.Drawing on two decades of experience, author and speaker, Bill Treasurer, in this new second edition, combines personal stories and anecdotes to illustrate how (and how not) to inspire people. He approaches these ideas with the belief that great leadership is not hierarchical--it is the peoples' willingness to take initiative and reach their goals that is crucial to successful leadership.

Leading Change


John P. Kotter - 1988
    By outlining the process every organization must go through to achieve its goals, and by identifying where and how even top performers derail during the change process, Kotter provides a practical resource for leaders and managers charged with making change initiatives work.Needed more today than at any time in the past, this immensely relevant bestselling business book serves as both visionary guide and practical toolkit on how to approach the difficult yet crucial work of leading change in any type of organization. Reading this highly personal book is like spending a day with the world’s foremost expert on business leadership. You’re sure to walk away inspired—and armed with the tools you need to inspire others. Published by Harvard Business Review Press.

Overcoming Fake Talk: How to Hold Real Conversations That Create Respect, Build Relationships, and Get Results


John R. Stoker - 2013
    Stoker offers proven advice for turning challenging confrontations into rewarding exchanges that foster collaboration, improve performance, and achieve results.

Nothing Is Impossible: 7 Steps to Realize Your True Power and Maximize Your Results


Tom Oliver - 2013
    In this extraordinary new road map for success, Tom Oliver--a motivational self-made entrepreneur and coach to many of the world's most notable CEOs, philanthropists, and entertainers--shows you how to dramatically alter your life path. Nothing IsImpossible is a proven seven-step whole-brain plananyone can use to improve his or her business, life, and career from the man Deepak Chopra calls anextraordinary leader.Have you ever struggled with success?Have you ever felt that your strengths were left untapped--your true talents unrecognized?Do you have a different plan for yourself from the one others might imagine for you?As Oliver explains, what really distinguishes people who get things done and realize their dreams from those who don't is that they don't allow their self-doubts to stop them--they don't cultivate what the Buddha called the habit of doubt. This book dispels that doubt, freeing you to set and meet the personal and professional goals most people only dream about.Clearly, step by step, with personal anecdotes from some of the world's most influential leaders and his own remarkable life, Oliver presents a practical playbook for anyone who wants to change his or her life and future. It also features comprehensive exercises and abundant resources.Whether you're a business professional, athlete, entrepreneur, artist, or anyone else, after readingand implementing the wisdom of Nothing Is Impossibleyou'll be able to transcend the boundaries of what today's world thinks is possible.

A Team of Leaders: Empowering Every Member to Take Ownership, Demonstrate Initiative, and Deliver Results


Paul Gustavson - 2014
    But the reality often falls short... Now imagine having a team where everyone steps up and performs all of the leadership tasks. Imagine a team that is constantly sharing knowledge and pushing the envelope--one that does long term planning and produces outstanding performance. A Team of Leaders shows readers how to design systems that nurture the leadership potential of every employee--the key to creating high-performance teams. The book's proven principles and techniques include: ● The Five-Stage Team Development Model that maps the transition from traditional to self-directed teams ● Best practices in team process design ● A Team Value Creation Tool that allows members to appreciate the significance of what they contribute each day ● Visual Management ● And more Filled with real-world examples, this fresh approach transforms passive groups of disparate people into effective teams of leaders--workplace teams that work!

Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change


William Bridges - 2003
    When restructures, mergers, bankruptcies, and layoffs hit the workplace, employees and managers naturally find the resulting situational shifts to be challenging. But the psychological transitions that accompany them are even more stressful. Organizational transitions affect people; it is always people, rather than a company, who have to embrace a new situation and carry out the corresponding change. As veteran business consultant William Bridges explains, transition is successful when employees have a purpose, a plan, and a part to play. This indispensable guide is now updated to reflect the challenges of today's ever-changing, always-on, and globally connected workplaces. Directed at managers on all rungs of the corporate ladder, this expanded edition of the classic bestseller provides practical, step-by-step strategies for minimizing disruptions and navigating uncertain times.

The Leader's Checklist: 15 Mission-Critical Principles


Michael Useem - 2011
    He helps you to personalize your checklist to the unique needs and demands of your organization. To demonstrate the power of the Leader’s Checklist, Useem examines accounts of extraordinary leadership, including the triumphant rescue of 33 miners in Chile.Based on solid research and years of leadership development work with a wide array of companies and organizations in the United States and abroad, The Leader’s Checklist will help you develop your ability to make good and timely decisions in unpredictable and stressful environments—for those moments when leadership really matters.

Leadership Transformed: How Ordinary Managers Become Extraordinary Leaders


Peter Fuda - 2013
    But now, internationally renowned leadership expert Dr. Peter Fuda has created a single, coherent roadmap for leadership effectiveness in Leadership Transformed.After more than a decade’s research and practice, Dr. Fuda shares the seven common themes that have enabled hundreds of CEOs around the world to transform themselves into highly effective leaders, and transform the performance of their organizations as well. Through his work, Dr. Fuda discovered that the best way to elicit deep and broad discussion of the seven leadership themes—and to describe the CEOs’ mastery of what they had learned—was through metaphor. Fire—motivational forces that initiate and sustain transformation efforts.Snowball—mutual accountability, and the consequent momentum that occurs when a critical mass of leaders commit to shared leadership principles.Master Chef—leadership frameworks, tools, and strategies that can be “artfully” deployed.Coach—how a “coaching staff” can collectively help leaders achieve their aspirations.Mask—leaders can shed the heavy burden of wearing a mask in favor of a more congruent “best self.”Movie—leaders can develop critical capabilities of self-awareness and reflection.Russian Dolls—how a leader’s personal journey can align with the journeys of his or her colleagues and organization.

The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader: Becoming the Person Others Will Want to Follow


John C. Maxwell - 1999
    Maxwell now provides a concise, accessible leadership book that helps readers become more effective leaders from the inside out. Daily readings highlight twenty-one essential leadership qualities and include "Reflecting On It" and "Bringing It Home" sections which help readers integrate and apply each day's material.

Leaders Eat Last


Simon Sinek - 2013
    His second book is the natural extension of Start with Why, expanding his ideas at the organizational level. Determining a company’s WHY is crucial, but only the beginning. The next step is how do you get people on board with your WHY? How do you inspire deep trust and commitment to the company and one another? He cites the Marine Corps for having found a way to build a culture in which men and women are willing to risk their lives, because they know others would do the same for them. It’s not brainwashing; it’s actually based on the biology of how and when people are naturally at their best. If businesses could adopt this supportive mentality, employees would be more motivated to take bigger risks, because they’d know their colleagues and company would back them up, no matter what. Drawing on powerful and inspiring stories, Sinek shows how to sustain an organization’s WHY while continually adding people to the mix.

The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever


Michael Bungay Stanier - 2016
     Drawing on years of experience training more than 10,000 busy managers from around the globe in practical, everyday coaching skills, Bungay Stanier reveals how to unlock your peoples' potential. He unpacks seven essential coaching questions to demonstrate how--by saying less and asking more--you can develop coaching methods that produce great results. – Get straight to the point in any conversation with The Kickstart Question – Stay on track during any interaction with The Awe Question – Save hours of time for yourself with The Lazy Question – and hours of time for others with The Strategic Question – Get to the heart of any interpersonal or external challenge with The Focus Question – and The Foundation Question – Ensure others find your coaching as beneficial as you do with The Learning Question A fresh innovative take on the traditional how-to manual, the book combines insider information with research based in neuroscience and behavioural economics, together with interactive training tools to turn practical advice into practiced habits. Witty and conversational, The Coaching Habit takes your work--and your workplace--from good to great. "Coaching is an art and it's far easier said than done. It takes courage to ask a question rather than offer up advice, provide and answer, or unleash a solution. giving another person the opportunity to find their own way, make their own mistakes, and create their own wisdom is both brave and vulnerable. In this practical and inspiring book, Michael shares seven transformative questions that can make a difference in how we lead and support. And he guides us through the tricky part - how to take this new information and turn it into habits and a daily practice. --Brené Brown, author of Rising Strong and Daring Greatly

The Fred Factor: How passion in your work and life can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary


Mark Sanborn - 2002
    Because of that, he is constantly going the extra mile handling the mail – and sometimes watching over the houses – of the people on his route, treating everyone he meets as a friend. Where others might see delivering mail as monotonous drudgery, Fred sees an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of those he serves.We’ve all encountered people like Fred in our lives. In THE FRED FACTOR, Mark Sanborn illuminates the simple steps each of us can take to transform our own lives from the ordinary – into the extraordinary. Sanborn, through stories about Fred and others like him, reveals the four basic principles that will help us bring fresh energy and creativity to our life and work: how to make a real difference everyday, how to become more successful by building strong relationships, how to create real value for others without spending a penny, and how to constantly reinvent yourself. By following these principles, and by learning from and teaching other “Freds,” you, too, can excel in your career and make your life extraodinary. As Mark Sanborn makes clear, each of us has the potential be a Fred.THE FRED FACTOR shows you how.

Likeable Business: Why Today's Consumers Demand More and How Leaders Can Deliver


Dave Kerpen - 2012
    Kerpen explains how to ensure that every aspect of a business communicates transparency, accountability, responsiveness, and authenticity--which customers find more likeable than traditional marketing campaigns.Dave Kerpen is cofounder and CEO of the marketing firm Likeable Media. He has won three WOMMY awards from WOMMA for excellence in word-of-mouth marketing.

The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth


Amy C. Edmondson - 2018
    With so much riding on innovation, creativity, and spark, it is essential to attract and retain quality talent--but what good does this talent do if no one is able to speak their mind? The traditional culture of "fitting in" and "going along" spells doom in the knowledge economy. Success requires a continuous influx of new ideas, new challenges, and critical thought, and the interpersonal climate must not suppress, silence, ridicule or intimidate. Not every idea is good, and yes there are stupid questions, and yes dissent can slow things down, but talking through these things is an essential part of the creative process. People must be allowed to voice half-finished thoughts, ask questions from left field, and brainstorm out loud; it creates a culture in which a minor flub or momentary lapse is no big deal, and where actual mistakes are owned and corrected, and where the next left-field idea could be the next big thing.This book explores this culture of psychological safety, and provides a blueprint for bringing it to life. The road is sometimes bumpy, but succinct and informative scenario-based explanations provide a clear path forward to constant learning and healthy innovation.* Explore the link between psychological safety and high performance * Create a culture where it's "safe" to express ideas, ask questions, and admit mistakes * Nurture the level of engagement and candor required in today's knowledge economy* Follow a step-by-step framework for establishing psychological safety in your team or organization Shed the "yes-men" approach and step into real performance. Fertilize creativity, clarify goals, achieve accountability, redefine leadership, and much more. The Fearless Organization helps you bring about this most critical transformation.