Best Leadership Books of 2012

THE WAYS we have thought about leadership have not always served us well. We have tended to think of leadership as something outside and above the rest. If leadership isn’t among, it will let us down.

Hierarchies are still important, but they must allow for freedom to act, think, and experiment in a way that encourages individual growth.

Moving ahead we need more clarity. We need to look at what we do with fresh eyes. As Andy Grove said to Gordon Moore, after a year of aimless wandering, “If we got kicked out and the board brought in a new CEO, what do you think he would do? … Why shouldn’t you and I walk out the door, come back, and do it ourselves?”

We need to step back and take another look. We have become mired in the organizational processes that are no longer relevant to the world we live in. It requires taking a fearless inventory of all that we do. And that takes courage.

Looking beyond the immediate result we seek or problem we are trying to solve or skirt, we need to continually ask, “What message are we sending?”

What is your approach to leadership?

How is that helping or hindering others?

How has your leadership style changed?

Are we sending the right message?

The list below represents my picks for the best leadership books of 2012. All of these books have helped us to look at the what and ask why?

* * *
What Matters Now: How to Win in a World of Relentless Change, Ferocious Competition, and Unstoppable Innovation by Gary Hamel

The Strategy Book by Max McKeown

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg

The Twelve Absolutes of Leadership by Gary Burnison

The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business by Patrick Lencioni

The End of Leadership by Barbara Kellerman

Yes to the Mess: Surprising Leadership Lessons from Jazz by Frank J. Barrett

Resilience: Why Things Bounce Back by Andrew Zolli and Ann Marie Healy

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain

Turn the Ship Around! How to Create Leadership at Every Level by David Marquet

How Will You Measure Your Life? by Clayton M. Christensen with James Allworth and Karen Dillon



Biographies:

Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham

The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Volume 3: Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965 by William Manchester and Paul Reid

Eisenhower in War and Peace by Jean Edward Smith

Related Interest:
Best Leadership Books of 2011
Best Leadership Books of 2010
Best Leadership Books of 2009

Posted by Michael McKinney at 05:54 PM
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