Events & Trends

Events | Trends

Trends: The XCEO Extreme Personal Leadership Suggested Reading List

1. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen R. Covey
Website: www.stephencovey.com/7habits.php

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change was a groundbreaker when it was first published in 1990, and it continues to be a business bestseller with more than 10 million copies sold. Stephen Covey, an internationally respected leadership authority, realizes that true success encompasses a balance of personal and professional effectiveness, so this book is a manual for performing better in both arenas. His anecdotes are as frequently from family situations as from business challenges.

2. Winning - Jack Welch & Suzy Welch
Website: www.harpercollins.ca/global_scripts/product_catalog/book_xml.asp?isbn=0061241490

While different from the steadier stream of war stories and real-life examples of Welch's first book, Winning is a very worthwhile addition to any management bookshelf. It's not often that a CEO described as the century's best retires, and then chooses to expound on such a wide range of management topics. Also, aside from the commentary on always-relevant issues like employee performance reviews and quality control, Welch suffuses this book with his pugnacious spirit. The Massachusetts native who fought his way to the top of the world's most valuable company was in many ways the embodiment of "Winning," and this spirit alone will provide readers an enjoyable read. --Peter Han

3. Good To Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't - Jim Collins
Website: www.jimcollins.com/lib/books.html

Five years ago, Jim Collins asked the question, "Can a good company become a great company and if so, how?" In Good to Great Collins, the author of Built to Last, concludes that it is possible, but finds there are no silver bullets. Collins and his team of researchers began their quest by sorting through a list of 1,435 companies, looking for those that made substantial improvements in their performance over time. They finally settled on 11--including Fannie Mae, Gillette, Walgreens, and Wells Fargo--and discovered common traits that challenged many of the conventional notions of corporate success. Making the transition from good to great doesn't require a high-profile CEO, the latest technology, innovative change management, or even a fine-tuned business strategy. At the heart of those rare and truly great companies was a corporate culture that rigorously found and promoted disciplined people to think and act in a disciplined manner. Peppered with dozens of stories and examples from the great and not so great, the book offers a well-reasoned road map to excellence that any organization would do well to consider. Like Built to Last, Good to Great is one of those books that managers and CEOs will be reading and rereading for years to come. --Harry C. Edwards

4. Corporate Rise: The X Principles of Extreme Personal Leadership - Dr. Curtis J. Crawford
Website: www.corporaterise.com

Drawing from his own experiences and those of several of the most successful international corporate leaders in the U.S., Europe and Asia, Dr. Curtis J. Crawford has assembled a set of eleven principles for extreme personal leadership and outlines a clear-cut strategy for both aspiring and seasoned leaders to become what he calls X-Leaders. He shows how…

• X-Leaders have a passion for developing people and find imaginative ways to inspire people to excel.

• X-Leaders cultivate creativity, are customer-centric, and drive their companies with decisions grounded in facts.

• X-Leaders are visionaries who anticipate the future and have confidence in the abilities of their people. [br] • X-Leaders convert the energy generated by chaos into better decisions, believe that the company comes first, and insist on teamwork.

• X-Leaders are role models and expect greatness.

5. What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful - Marshall Goldsmith & Mark Reiter
Website: www.marshallgoldsmithlibrary.com/html/books/WhatGotYouHere.htm

Goldsmith, an executive coach to the corporate elite, pinpoints 20 bad habits that stifle already successful careers as well as personal goals like succeeding in marriage or as a parent. Most are common behavioral problems, such as speaking when angry, which even the author is prone to do when dealing with a teenage daughter's belly ring. Though Goldsmith deals with touchy-feely material more typical of a self-help book—such as learning to listen or letting go of the past—his approach to curing self-destructive behavior is much harder-edged. For instance, he does not suggest sensitivity training for those prone to voicing morale-deflating sarcasm. His advice is to stop doing it. To stimulate behavior change, he suggests imposing fines (e.g., $10 for each infraction), asserting that monetary penalties can yield results by lunchtime. While Goldsmith's advice applies to everyone, the highly successful audience he targets may be the least likely to seek out his book without a direct order from someone higher up. As he points out, they are apt to attribute their success to their bad behavior. Still, that may allow the less successful to gain ground by improving their people skills first.

6. The Leadership Challenge - Barry Z. Posner & James M. Kouzes
Website: www.leadershipchallenge.com/WileyCDA/l

Leadership Challenge is based upon learnings from leaders at all levels--and shows how "regular people" can make a huge, positive difference in their organizations. It is written in a way that can help executives, mid-managers, first-line supervisors, project leaders--and even individual contributors--better understand how they can lead--and be able to immediately apply what they have learned in their work. -- Marshall Goldsmith

7. Compliance & Conviction: The Evolution of Enlightened Corporate Governance - Dr. Curtis J. Crawford
Website: www.enlightenedboards.com

Why, and whom, should care about corporate governance is researched and discussed. Providing a historical perspective, this book focuses on topics including succession planning, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) supervision, executive compensation, and director independence. The influence of institutional investor pressure and differences between traditional, standard and enlightened boards, are examined.

Included is a set of measurement tools available to assist directors in determining what type of board they are and aspire to be.
 

8. Remarkable Leadership: Unleashing Your Leadership Potential One Skill At A Time - Kevin Eikenberry
Website:  http://remarkableleadershipbook.com/

Predicated on the notion that leaders are not born, but are made and remade and made over again, author and consultant Eikenberry provides a guide to honing leadership skills that’s succinct and sensible, demonstrating that leading is as much about listening, asking questions and empowering others as it is about charisma and vision. Thirteen chapters enumerate what remarkable leaders do—"learn continually," "communicate powerfully," "influence with impact," "think and act innovatively," etc.—and how they do it. In hopes of narrowing the gap between those who aspire to remarkability and those who’ve already achieved it, Eikenberry provides plenty of "Now Steps," exercises for evaluating and improving one’s position that can be implemented in short order. Obvious but edifying techniques include storytelling practice, journaling and building a network of well-nurtured relationships. Eikenberry also offers online resources ("Bonus Bytes") tied to specific points in the text, available on the book’s web site. A solid leadership primer, this book will instruct, if not exactly inspire, anyone looking to manage others more effectively. (Sept.) (Publishers Weekly Annex, September 2007)

9. Leadership Brand: Developing Customer- Focused Leaders to Drive Performance and Build Lasting Value - Dave Ulrich & Norm Smallwood
Website: www.rbl.net/resources/books-and-articles/books/leadership-brand

Your company’s brands hold intangible value and differentiate your firm from rivals. So does your leadership brand—a shared identity among your organization’s leaders that differentiates what they can do from what your rivals’ leaders can do. —In Leadership Brand, Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood show how branded leadership delivers unique value for firms’ investors, customers, and employees—elevating market value and creating a sharp competitive edge.

The authors present a six-step process for creating leadership brand in your organization. A wealth of tools helps you differentiate your firm’s leaders from those of rivals, craft a unified identity among them, and articulate a unique statement of your brand. Additional chapters and tools show you how to assess and measure your leadership brand, where to invest in the brand, which practices instill the brand, and how to communicate the brand to your many stakeholders.

With its compelling new model and hands-on approach, this book helps you clarify what makes your leaders unique—and use your leadership brand to leave rivals far behind.

10. The DNA of Leadership: Leverage Your Instincts to Communicate-Differentiate-Innovate - Judith E. Glaser
Website: www.dnaofleadership.com/

Just as your DNA may determine your destiny, a company's organizational DNA may determine its destiny. The DNA of Leadership helps you understand how to shape your company's genetic code for success. Expert author Judith E. Glaser identifies the 7 vital leadership practices that can reshape an organization into a WE-centric culture--a culture that will enable people to effectively work together during times of organizational change. Learn how to "graft" these 7 practices onto meetings, conversations, and strategic initiatives, and you'll leverage talent, maximize results, and boost profits in amazing ways!

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