Leadership58

An Everyone Culture

A superb overview of the importance of intentionality and learning for organisations with some great examples. So much of what is written here about Deliberately Developmental Organisations (DDOs) resonates with what we were doing at Endava. I was lucky enough to be invited to attend the Next Jump Leadership Academy and get a firsthand experience of how they operate - you can find out more in this blog.

Reinventing Organizations

An inspirational and beautifully written book about what the most radical and innovative organisations are doing in terms of culture and the supporting structures and processes. For many people the ideas will be too extreme, but the examples he gives serve as a great way to challenge accepted and more traditional thinking about organisations.

Abolishing Performance Appraisals

Way ahead of its time, this book provides a great explanation of why performance appraisals aren't the right answer to getting the best from your people. I'm lessed convinced by the alternative process and solution, but it's well worth reading.

Tools and Techniques of Leadership and Management

Professor Ralph D. Stacey's most accessible book about complexity and business leadership. While some of the conclusions go beyond practical and into the realm of overly purist, the basic premise that culture is shaping and shaped by individual conversations is a truly powerful one.

5 Voices

Why is it that some people just never seem to understand what we're trying to say? Why do some people annoy or frustrate us more than others? This book sets out a simple and very powerful approach to understanding your leadership behaviour right now and your impact on other people.

Brain Savvy HR

Takes what we know from the latest research on neuroscience - how the brain works - and applies it to the world of HR. Highly readable, thought-provoking and engaging.

The Advantage

First recommended to me by Endava's CEO, John Cotterell, this is the book that has shaped a huge amount of what we did there. It was also the first business book I read (and I'd read a lot!) that I felt really captured my philosophy and thinking about organisations.

5 Gears

A really effective short-hand for communicating and engageing with people. Using the analogy of a the gears in a manual car, 5 Gears help you to select intentionally the right gear for the right situation.

Changing Employee Behaviour

I really struggle with the title and subtitle of this one as I don't think you can change someone else's behaviour and I hate the term manager, but the content itself is fantastic. Practical, insightful and, perhaps most important of all, genuinely helpful when it comes to creating an environment where change can happen.

Quiet

For three decades I was convinced that I should be an extravert. Steve Cockram helped me to understand why this was the case and that I'm by nature an introvert. This book then helped me make more sense of introversion and it's potential for business and leadership.

Daring Greatly

This superb book explains why being vulnerable is both incredibly courageous and an incredibly powerful way to live and lead. Brené Brown explains how being vulnerable actually means being prepared to be the real and whole you - it's not easy, it feels exposed, but it is worth it.

Empathy

Rob Machin, one of the Directors at Endava, recommended this to me and it really resonated with me. So much of what is in this book fits with complexity thinking and the need to be able to hold opposing views in our mind at the same time without judging either to be better or worse, more right or more wrong than the other is a key skill in the new creative economy.

The Inclusion Imperative

I met Stephen at an HRD event in Barcelona after I'd heard him speak about his work on inclusivity for the 2012 London Olympics. I was so impressed by his message and his delivery that I bought the book and I'd happily recommend it to anyone who wants to understand why inclusivity is so important.

Lean In

A wonderful example of authentic leadership and an exploration of gender diversity. Sheryl Sandberg calls on all of us to 'lean in' and participate in making change happen. One element she discusses that really resonated with me was the need for partners to balance responsibilities at home.

The Leader's Guide to Radical Management

Stephen Denning writes one of my favourite blogs about leadership, business and the creative economy. The newsletter is well worth signing up for, but this book sets out his thinking and approach in a very clear, well-argued and engaging way.

Management 3.0

I came across this when I was looking to find out more about Agile and what it might mean for leadership. While I don't agree with everything in here (especially the chapter about performance management), there's a lot of really interesting and really useful stuff.

Group and Team Coaching

One of two core books on the first module, Team Coaching for Consultants, of my Ashridge Masters of Executive Coaching. This one brings together complexity, psychology, systems thinking and action learning to provide the theory as well as the practice of coaching teams - a skillset that is different to coaching individuals.

Effective Teamwork

Possibly the least inspiring front cover of any of the books I've recommended, but the content is superb. It's the other core book from the first module of the AMEC. This really does provide practical lessons from organisational research. 

Team of Teams

I actually listened to this on Audible (a great way to catch up on reading when you can't sit and read). It's a fascinating account of General McChrystal embraced complexity and transformed the way the Special Forces task force in Iraq operated. While the setting is specialist, the lessons and implications are clearly drawn out and relevant to the commercial world as well.

What Every Body is Saying

The first book on body language that I've read and actually found practical, interesting and helpful. Some fascinating examples from cases he worked as well as tips and tricks all served up with a healthy warning on how easy it is to get the messages wrong.