Good to great is one of the classics of the Leadership library. Collins performed extensive research in an effort to characterize what enabled good companies to become great. Some of his findings might surprise you!
H3 Leadership emphasizes the priorities of Being Humble, Staying Hungry, and Always Hustling, and it proposes a series of habits that leaders should develop to support these priorities. This book offers encouragement and perspective to leaders of all experience levels, and is a great resource to return to for reminders of leadership habits to maintain.
Creativity Inc. is the story of Pixar, and it's leader Ed Catmull. The digital animation company responsible for a slew of highly successful animated movies started out in the business of making the computers to enable computer animation, not in making movies. The transition, and how it was led, makes for a wonderful read!
Start with Why by Simon Sinek helps the reader to understand that before we determine what we are going to do, or how we are going to do it, we need to explore and understand the "why" we are motivated to do things. This book helps leaders who are focusing on self-awareness in their leadership development journey.
The first book we will review in this series is Endurance, Shackleton's Incredible Voyage, by Alfred Lansing. One of many examples of the telling of Sir Ernest Shackleton's doomed attempt to cross the Antarctic continent in 1914, this podcast discusses some of the leadership lessons that can be learned from the story.
For developing leadership acumen and effectiveness, I am a huge believer in the benefit of establishing a habit of reading books. Over my 30+ year leadership career, I have read over 100 books focused on leadership and personal development. As we launch this podcast, the intent is to share some of my book recommendations from this list. In this episode, I make the case for being a regular reader, make some suggestions on how to make reading a personal habit, and explain how I will present each book I discuss.