I’ve been pondering what I think great leadership is and what I wish I could more reliably expect from leaders. So much of that comes down to your core values aligning with the environment that you are in, feeling supported as you grow. The best thing about books is that you can learn so much, for virtually nothing, and take away what speaks to you.
This is a list of books that have stayed with me throughout the years. By this point I am probably misremembering them, or applying my own understanding or experience over their messages, but they communicated to me so clearly and wisely that I often think back to them as a key building block in my learning journey.
Side note: I enjoyed this comparison recently about the marketing of development books 👇. Totally outrageous.
Here are the biggest items that have stuck with me:
Unifying passion and work is the current holy grail. Potentially more important: aligning your core values to an organisation’s to create a happy and empowering environment. Yvon Chouinard has built what is today an iconic company: Patagonia. And he’s done it by daring to be different, not following a conventional route and prioritising the people he worked with. Sticking to what he believed paid off - even when there were no other examples in the market. Be brave, it’ll make you happy if nothing else. Also, don’t be a dickhead, the planet is really important.
The larger the organisation, the more likely that employees have never experienced what their customer goes through. Get out there and be your own customer, you’ll be amazed at what you find. Guaranteed you’ll find many, seemingly small, improvements and your customer will be much happier as a result. Customer What? by Ian Golding is your step by step guide on how you do this.
Caring about your employees and team members means being clear. Learning how to communicate directly, with compassion, is always the best way. Kim Scott’s work in Radical Candor is a framework of holding what once might have seemed tough conversations in a positive and supportive way.
The more senior you get, the more you rely on an A-team of players around you. But remember that senior person who immediately brings across their inner circle from the old role? Way to alienate your new teams. Whilst moving roles and organisations with grace shouldn’t be so hard, Ross Brawn makes it look easy. A great leader doesn’t need to bring their star players - they build up trust and performance within the new environment. Leave places in a better state than when you found them, don’t steal the talent when you go.
Be excited about the choices that you make - it’s what makes your life meaningful. You only have Four Thousand Weeks in your life and in this book productivity expert Oliver Burkeman explores how best to use them. My biggest takeaway? You can never experience everything, ever. So actually it’s the making of choices, the intention and decision behind them, that creates joy in your life.
There are 1000’s of books on habits, and Atomic Habits might just be the most well known and effective. Whichever speaks to you, know this: Your habits today will change who you are in the future. One step at a time… start, and be consistent.
Lastly and most importantly: inclusion is important for everyone, everywhere, all the time. If this is central to your philosophy as a leader, then you will build the best product/services/team/experience. Invisible Women is filled with harrowing examples of how we consistently ignore half the population. Caroline Criado Perez knocks you over the head with WHY this is not ok and how disastrous the results are for everyone. Once you know WHY you must act, Annie Jean-Baptiste has delivered the playbook on HOW you can start Building for Everyone.
Here’s the list:
Let My People Go Surfing - Yvon Chouinard
Customer What? - Ian Golding
Radical Candor - Kim Scott
Total Competition - Ross Brawn and Adam Parr
Four Thousand Weeks - Oliver Burkeman
Atomic Habits - James Clear
Invisible Women - Caroline Criado Perez
Building for Everyone - Annie Jean-Baptiste
Let me know any others you’d add!
Disclosure: Books linked to above may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops.