Leadership is defined differently by everyone. Some people may believe in a strong, dictatorial form of leadership while others are much more compassionate, acting less as a leader and more as a member of the team. Discovering your own leadership style can be difficult, and sometimes it’s best to listen to the experts in order to get a better idea of what does or doesn’t work for you. If that’s the case, try reading some of these great books written by some of the best leaders around the world.
Act Like A Leader, Think Like A Leader – Herminia Ibarra
Herminia Ibarra is an expert on leadership and development, and is a renowned professor at INSEAD, one of the world’s leading international business schools. In her book, she offers excellent leadership advice which can help you redefine your job in order to make more strategic contributions, diversify your network so you can connect and learn from more stakeholders, and help you become more playful with your self-concept, allowing your familiar leadership style to evolve. Pick up Act Like A Leader, Think Like A Leader if you’re looking for advice to help define your biggest leadership challenges.
Turn The Ship Around! – L. David Marquet
Written by a former commander of a US Navy submarine, Turn The Ship Around! is based on the real-life story about how L. David Marquet turned things around and realized his full potential. Marquet takes from lessons he learned during his tenure with the navy, and goes in depth on developing leaders who are not afraid to question authority when needed. If you’re looking for something to help you turn your own leadership style around, this book is a great choice.
Man’s Search For Meaning – Viktor Frankl
A survivor of the holocaust, Viktor Frankl uses his book to take you on a journey of how he and others found meaning to survive when survival felt meaningless. Frankl discusses how one cannot avoid suffering, but luckily they have the power to choose how to cope with it, find meaning from it, and move on with new purpose. Frankly uses a theory known as “logotherapy”, which holds that our primary drive in life isn’t pleasure, as Freud explained, but the discover of and pursuit of what we ourselves find meaningful.
Smarter Faster Better – Charles Duhigg
Charles Duhigg writes about eight key productivity concepts in Smarter Faster Better which explain why some companies people get as much done as they do. These concepts range from motivation and goal setting to focus and decision making, and are all drawn from from the latest findings in neuroscience, psychology, and behavioral economics as well as the experiences of some of the most productive people in the world and how they don’t merely act differently, but make the proper choices in order to seperate them from the merely busy to the genuinely productive.