Books that have made me stronger in my work. Part 4. Leadership and management

Here we are, the final entry to my four-part work-related book recommendation series. Here is the most impactful and actionable list of titles that will help you navigate the circle of leadership and management.

As a reminder, the first article was about books on personal development, the second - on content and product alignment, and the third - on all things innovation. Thank you for your suggestions, as always, please send me your ideas for all the lists in the comments.

Being able to lead and manage at work has always been essential to me, and my career to date has often put me in complex circumstances where leadership competencies needed to be applied. For instance, culture and strategy changes, low staff engagement, impacting others without direct authority, delivering savings. restructuring and reinvestments. All difficult things, and sometimes it’s simply not enough to rely only on your natural abilities, you’ve got to learn from others.  

By the time I read the first book - Why Should Anyone Be Led by You: What It Takes to Be an Authentic Leader by Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones - I had, perhaps, some 5 years of leadership under my belt, without really thinking about it properly. This book helped me a lot to structure my thoughts and techniques; it advanced my strategic thinking on the subject of leadership. It was the first time I really started to pay attention to trying and being authentic, bring my whole self to work, not being afraid of coming across as vulnerable. The subject of leadership has been overhyped in the last few years, and it feels like the true meaning of it has been lost - this book certainly lands all the right messages effectively. 

The best way of describing what this book does well, instead of using a quote, is to look at the chapter summary:

1. Know and show yourself – enough
2. Take personal risks
3. Read – and rewrite – the context
4. Remain authentic – but conform enough
5. Manage social distance
6. Communicate – with care
7. Authentic followership
8. The price and prize of leadership

Once you have figured out your own strengths and competencies, you really ought to know more about the dynamics of leading and influencing others - and the best book on the subject, without a doubt, is Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek. You can master all the tricks of the trade (‘what’ and ‘how’) but without explaining the ‘why’ behind your strategy, you won’t get far - giving people meaning is the most fundamental part, the very base of any successful project, company or innovation. The book - and his famous TED talk - is applicable to companies of any size, commercial or non-profit, and people who follow those who start with why, do so because they want to, nott because they have to.  

Quote: If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader. Great companies don't hire skilled people and motivate them, they hire already motivated people and inspire them. You don’t hire for skills, you hire for attitude. You can always teach skills. 

We all want to retain the best people we work with, after all, you have done great things together and more great things await you in the future. It doesn’t always happen, though, and your best people do leave, even if you shared your ‘why’ for a long time. Be prepared for it. In fact, prepare for it right from the get-go, even at the point of hiring them - one of the trends of modern working is a realistic approach to employee-employer relations, which is very well argued and described in The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age by Reid Hoffman (Linkedin founder), Ben Casnocha and Chris Yeh. 

Modern employees, with a massive bias towards action, prefer to execute a role as if it is their own ‘tour of duty’, with no strings attached, no expectation of eternal dedication etc - their mission is mutually beneficial to employees and company that can be completed in a realistic period of time. ‘By delivering something amazing, I’ll add value to your company and by doing so I am adding value to my own market value, which means I can move on once done here’ - I like this realistic and honest approach and it has served me very well in the past.  

Quotes: The most entrepreneurial employees want to establish “personal brands” that stand apart from their employers’. It’s a rational, necessary response to the end of lifetime employment. In this sense, a business is far more like a sports team than a family. Teams win when their individual members trust each other enough to prioritize team success over individual glory; paradoxically, winning as a team is the best way for the team members to achieve individual success.

Arguably, the most impressive and thought-provoking book in this list is the next one - Redesigning Leadership: by John Maeda, a technologist and a designer, who served as the president of Rhode Island School of Design.

In this book, he shares his own learnings on how he moved his own mindset from that of a highly talented, empowered individual to that of a leader of a group of such accomplished people. He writes about the art of a meaningful conversation, of pulling people together for their mutual benefit, of being transparent and honest. Learning on the go, experimentation, feedback and critique - all of the important leadership attributes we learned a lot about from many other books from previous lists, too. 

Quotes: Being prepared isn’t a matter of how much you practice. It’s about knowing that even if you fail, you won’t give up. Respect is constantly earned, and shouldn’t be assumed because of your position.

Lastly, a very practical and a very important one for you - the one which made my transition from decades in public service news to a C-level position in a hyper-growth startup so much easier - The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels by Michael Watkins. This book should be read by anyone preparing for their new role, irrespective of seniority; it carries dozens of useful nuggets and helps you structure your thinking and remain on the front foot during the most demanding of circumstances. It is the most practical book on this list and I love recommending it - it helped me tremendously and I know it will help many of you too.   

Quote: Negotiate success. Because no other single relationship is more important, you need to figure out how to build a productive working relationship with your new boss (or bosses) and manage her expectations. This means carefully planning for a series of critical conversations about the situation, expectations, working style, resources, and your personal development. Crucially, it means developing and gaining consensus on your 90-day plan.

This brings me to the end of list 4 and the conclusion of the series. Thank you for your attention, I hope at least one of the 20 titles profiled would be useful to you. Happy reading and, as always, please send me your work-related books recommendations!