The style or styles we adopt as leaders reflect a wide range of factors and influences including our experience of being led (the examples we have followed) and our own values and beliefs. Moving from an approach which is both unconscious and incompetent to an approach which is thoughtfully chosen and effective requires deep self awareness. For this reason, leadership is about who we are as well as what we do. This diverse selection reflects the inner journey of a leader.
The Secret: Unlocking the Source of Joy and Fulfilment
Michael Berg
This tiny book is an introduction to the spiritual practice of Kabbalah. Whether or not Kabbalah interests you, The Secret opens up the possibility of living a life of joy and fulfilment in an age when many people hold the untested belief that we are not meant to live in joy.
The Power of Myth
Joseph Campbell
Campbell’s studies of many myths have opened up our understanding of key stages in the ‘hero’s journey’. It is essentially this journey that differentiates the leader from the manager. Reading Campbell’s book gives new insight into what it means to be a leader.
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People & The 8th Habit
Steven Covey
Covey’s Seven Habits and his more recent 8th Habit have become classics in the field of self management – if you like, the leadership of the self.
The Inner Game of Tennis
W. Timothy Gallwey
Gallwey’s book became an immediate hit amongst business men and women when it was first published because of its insights into our inner dialogue and the role this dialogue can play in the game we play. Although subsequent books have addressed the inner game in specific areas, including work, I still return to my battered second-hand copy of this book.
Born To Win: Transactional Analysis With Gestalt Experiments
Muriel James and Dorothy Jongeward
If you want to understand how Douglas McGregor’s ‘X’ and ‘Y’ leaders think about people, including themselves, you need look no further than the initial chapter of this book. This will help you to test your own way of thinking about people and work.
Synchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership
Joseph Jaworski
Jaworski’s book is rooted in his own experience and describes two quite different ways of being in his life as a leader.
The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature
Stephen Pinker
We are at our most effective as leaders when our leadership is rooted in an understanding and acceptance of human nature. For this reason I include Pinker’s book.
On Becoming a Person
Carl Rogers
Carl Rogers is often seen as the father of both therapy and coaching, offering a compassionate approach, in line with the essential findings of leadership theory.
The Road Less Travelled
M. Scott Peck
Scott Peck’s book has become a classic in the field of personal development and offers insights into the path we choose when we become a leader.
A Simpler Way
Margaret Wheatley and Myron Kellner Rogers
When we understand the way nature works we have the opportunity to live our lives with ease. A Simpler Way offers a way to preserve the colour and texture of a vital individual life whilst coming together to work with others.
Love’s Executioner and Other Tales of Psychotherapy
Irvin Yalom
Yalom’s books – from textbooks for psychotherapists to novels rooted in his practice and experience as a therapist – offer insights into what it means to accept oneself and others. Yalom offers a way of being which is both delightful and profound.