The Leader's Bookshelf


Book Description

For the last several years Adm. James Stavridis and his co-author, R. Manning Ancell, have surveyed over two hundred active and retired four-star military officers about their reading habits and favorite books, asking each for a list of titles that strongly influenced their leadership skills and provided them with special insights that helped propel them to success in spite of the many demanding challenges they faced. The Leader’s Bookshelf synthesizes their responses to identify the top fifty books that can help virtually anyone become a better leader. Each of the works—novels, memiors, biographies, autobiographies, management publications—are summarized and the key leadership lessons extracted and presented. Whether individuals work their way through the entire list and read each book cover to cover, or read the summaries provided to determine which appeal to them most, The Leader’s Bookshelf will provide a roadmap to better leadership. Highlighting the value of reading in both a philosophical and a practical sense, The Leader’s Bookshelf provides sound advice on how to build an extensive library, lists other books worth reading to improve leadership skills, and analyzes how leaders use what they read to achieve their goals. An efficient way to sample some of literature’s greatest works and to determine which ones can help individuals climb the ladder of success, The Leader’s Bookshelf is for anyone who wants to improve his or her ability to lead—whether in family life, professional endeavors, or within society and civic organizations.




The Leader's Bookshelf


Book Description

Which books inspired some of the world’s most successful people – and why? Come on a journey of literary exploration and find out how books can impact your life. It turns out that the life stories of many famous people start out with a particular book that inspired them when young. Here, Martin Cohen explores the lives of some remarkable people – inventors, scientists, business gurus and political leaders – and the books that have challenged, inspired, and influenced them. And so exploring the ideas, dreams and inspirations that this diverse group shared is at the heart of this book too. Inspiration, in particular, is the thread that ties together individuals with characters and backgrounds as diverse as Jane Goodall and Barack Obama, Malcolm X and Judge Clarence Thomas, Oprah Winfrey and Malala Yousafzai, Rachel Carson and Frans Lanting. Often, behind many tales of achievement lies much more than a collection of smart tactics. There are beliefs and values that guide many a grand strategy, too. And the strategies are often very different, which if you think about it, shouldn’t come as a surprise. If there really were just one recipe for success, well, everyone would be using it already. No, the thing that unifies these disparate approaches is that they all provided for their owners a kind of conceptual grid onto which a wide range of day-to-day creative, scientific, or business practices are able to develop and grow. For Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the founders of Google, for example, the grid was Charles Darwin’s notions of natural mutation and iteration. With Henry Ford, the man who pioneered the method of the assembly line, the grid was an obscure, ethereal theory of life as a sequence of reincarnations. And for both Oprah Winfrey and Steve Jobs, the grid was existentialist ideas about the pursuit of authenticity. In all these cases, a grand, indeed often philosophical, theory meshed perfectly with a practical business strategy. All of these remarkable people, and the books that most inspired them, are explored in this book.




The Sailor's Bookshelf


Book Description

Admiral Stavridis, a leader in military, international affairs, and national security circles, shares his love of the sea and some of the sources of that affection. The Sailor's Bookshelf offers synopses of fifty books that illustrate the history, importance, lore, and lifestyle of the oceans and of those who “go down to the sea in ships.” Stavridis colors those descriptions with glimpses of his own service—“sea stories” in popular parlance—that not only clarify his choices but show why he is held in such high esteem among his fellow sailors. ​Divided into four main categories—The Oceans, Explorers, Sailors in Fiction, and Sailors in Non-Fiction—Admiral Stavridis’ choices will appeal to “old salts” and to those who have never known the sights of the ever-changing seascape nor breathed the tonic of an ocean breeze. The result is a navigational aid that guides readers through the realm of sea literature, covering a spectrum of topics that range from science to aesthetics, from history to modernity, from solo sailing to great battles. ​Among these eclectic choices are guides to shiphandling and navigation, classic fiction that pits man against the sea, ecological and strategic challenges, celebrations of great achievements and the lessons that come with failure, economic competition and its stepbrother combat, explorations of the deep, and poetry that beats with the pulse of the wave. Some of the included titles are familiar to many, while others, are likely less well-known but are welcome additions to this encompassing collection. Admiral Stavridis has chosen some books that are relatively recent, and he recommends other works which have been around much longer and deserve recognition. ​




Choosing Leadership


Book Description

Choosing Leadership is a new take on executive development that gives everyone the tools to develop their leadership skills. In this workbook, Dr. Linda Ginzel, a clinical professor at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business and a social psychologist, debunks common myths about leaders and encourages you to follow a personalized path to decide when to manage and when to lead. Thoughtful exercises and activities help you mine your own experiences, learn to recognize behavior patterns, and make better choices so that you can create better futures. You’ll learn how to: Define leadership for yourself and move beyond stereotypes Distinguish between leadership and management and when to use each skill Recognize the gist of a situation and effectively communicate it with others Learn from the experience of others as well as your own Identify your “default settings” and become your own coach And much more Dr. Linda Ginzel is a clinical professor of managerial psychology at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business and the founder of its customized executive education program. For three decades, she has developed and taught MBA and executive education courses in negotiation, leadership capital, managerial psychology, and more. She has also taught MBA and PhD students at Northwestern and Stanford, as well as designed customized educational programs for a number of Fortune 500 companies. Ginzel has received numerous teaching awards for excellence in MBA education, as well as the President’s Service Award for her work with the nonprofit Kids In Danger. She lives in Chicago with her family.




The Leader's Brain


Book Description

Leadership is a set of abilities with which a lucky few are born. They're the natural relationship builders, master negotiators and persuaders, and agile and strategic thinkers. The good news for the rest of us is that those abilities can be developed. In The Leader's Brain, Wharton Neuroscience Initiative director Michael Platt explains how.




The Leader's Guide to Presenting


Book Description

Presentations are an inevitable part of a leader's day to day. They are fundamental to delivering information, motivating staff and building relationships. The Leader's Guide to Presenting is a highly practical guide to delivering engaging and influential presentations. From informal to formal settings, you'll discover how persuasion, influence and communication are critical to your own impact, the motivation and engagement of others and, ultimately, the success of your organisation. How to present when the stakes are high How to structure your message to gain agreement How to deliver with maximum impact and get the outcome you want How to pitch for success and handle difficult conversations




Leadership by the Book


Book Description

Told in the parable format of The One Minute Manager, this work draws on the model and messages of Jesus as a source of practical lessons in effective leadership. Recounting the story of a teacher, a minister and a marketplace leader who support one another in their leadership challenges, this book offers unexpected and exceptional answers to tough leadership issues. The authors offer simple strategies for bringing vision - and values - to the workplace by examining messages and examples from the Bible.




Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun


Book Description

Explains how the legendary military commander's principles of leadership can be applied to contemporary business situations in the '90s.




Real Leadership


Book Description

Too many organizations today play follow the leader: the commander articulates a “vision” and people uncritically go along with it. But this type of leadership—what Dean Williams calls "counterfeit leadership"—generates an unhealthy dependence on an authority figure and relies on dominance, control, and group seduction to get things done. By hampering people's ability to anticipate and react to changing circumstances, it creates a self-limiting cycle. And if the leader's vision is flawed, the entire organization suffers. The true task of a leader, Williams argues, is to get people to face the reality of any situation themselves and develop strategies to deal with problems or take advantage of opportunities. Real leaders don't dictate; they help people face their challenges and make adjustments in their values, habits, practices, and priorities to ensure the enterprise is given its best chance to succeed. Williams details how to apply this new approach to the challenges every organization or community faces. Throughout, he demonstrates the practical application of real leadership in the real world through examples from his own experiences working with organizations as diverse as the government of Singapore, Aetna Life and Casualty, and the nomadic Penan tribe in Borneo, as well as historical examples and the insights gleaned from his many interviews with presidents, prime ministers, and business leaders. At a time when so many “visionary” leaders have led their organizations to disaster, Real Leadership offers a needed, proven alternative.




Hal Moore on Leadership


Book Description

A comprehensive guide to the principles that helped shape Moore's success both on and off the battlefield. They are strategies for the outnumbered, outgunned, and seemingly hopeless. They apply to any leader in any organization - business or military.