08 Apr Heather Wright Selects Her Essential Leadership Books
This month, our director Heather Wright has selected four essential leadership books for your bookshelf or e-reader to help you to be an authentic leader and be your best self.
Primal Leadership: Unleashing the Power of Emotional Intelligence by Prof Daniel Goleman PhD, Richard Boyatzis & Annie McKee
This is the book that established emotional intelligence in the business lexicon and made it a necessary skill for leaders. Managers and professionals across the globe have embraced “Primal Leadership,” affirming the importance of emotionally intelligent leadership. The authors explain the necessity of leadership that is self-aware, empathic, motivating, and collaborative in a world that is ever more economically volatile and technologically complex. This book is a must-read for anyone who leads or aspires to lead.
Shackleton’s Way: Leadership Lessons from the Great Antarctic Explorer by Margot Morrell and Stephanie Capparell
Sir Ernest Shackleton has been called ‘the greatest leader that ever came on God’s earth, bar none’ for saving the lives of the twenty-seven men stranded with him on an Antarctic ice floe for almost two years. Shackleton’s Way details universal leadership tactics set against the thrilling survival story of the Endurance expedition. Ernest Shackleton set an example we can all follow, whether it’s hiring good workers, supporting and inspiring employees to do their best, managing a crisis with limited personnel and resources, creating order out of chaos, or leading by personal example with optimism, egalitarianism, humour, strength, ingenuity, intelligence and compassion. Shackleton’s Way is filled with fascinating and practical lessons of a leader who succeeded by putting people first and triumphing brilliantly when all the odds were against him.
Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek
Why are some people and organisations more inventive, pioneering and successful than others? And why are they able to repeat their success again and again? In business, it doesn’t matter what you do, it matters WHY you do it. Start with Why analyses leaders like Martin Luther King Jr and Steve Jobs and discovers their fundamental connection is that they all started withWHY. Simon Sinek explains the framework needed for businesses to move past knowing what they do to how they do it, and then to ask the more important question-WHY? Why do we do what we do? Why do we exist? Learning to ask these questions can unlock the secret to inspirational business. Sinek explains what it truly takes to lead and inspire and how anyone can learn how to do it.
Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t by Simon Sinek
In many successful organisations, great leaders are creating environments in which teams trust each other so deeply that they would put their lives on the line for each other. Yet other teams, no matter what incentives were offered, are doomed to infighting, fragmentation and failure. Why? Today’s workplaces tend to be full of cynicism, paranoia and self-interest. But the best organisations foster trust and cooperation because their leaders build what Sinek calls a Circle of Safety. It separates the security inside the team from the challenges outside. Everyone feels they belong and all energies are devoted to facing the common enemy and seizing big opportunities. Sinek shows that leaders who are willing to eat last are rewarded with deeply loyal colleagues who will stop at nothing to advance their vision. It’s amazing how well it works.
Our next Open Inspirational Leadership Programme is running on 13th and 14th April here at Advance Performance near Preston. We will be exploring topics such as visionary leadership, values and authenticity, developing the essential traits of leadership, and how to create dynamic and high-performing teams.
If you would like to book a place please ring 01772 813969 or email inspiration@advance-performance.co.uk