By Jeff Bell
“There are two motives for reading a book; one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it.” Bertrand Russell, (1872-1970), philosopher and Nobel laureate.
As a leadership coach, I am insatiably curious. This means reading (non-fiction and fiction) 4 books per month. I find this personally satisfying and also professionally useful as it informs my coaching, consulting and writing practices.
It is doubly useful if I can point my coaching clients (invariably the business owner and/or chief executive) to something that they will find very useful in their leadership and personal endeavours.
So how important is it for the leader to be a reader, for instance:
- How much time do we spend reflecting on our decisions and our leadership behaviours?
- Where do our new ideas come from?
- What models of behavioural leadership do we rely on?
- How and how often do we vary the pace of our working day?
- How can we stimulate new inquiry by the people we lead?
Reading is a source for answers to each of these questions—each will enhance our leadership.
I set aside a minimum of 45min. each day to read—usually immediately before or after lunch (not to be done simultaneously). Over the past 40 years, I have read several hundred leadership/business books, among which I regard the following as my Top 20 for highly effective leadership and coaching (alphabetical by title):
| Title | Author | Abstract |
| Belonging. The Ancient Code of Togetherness | Eastwood, Owen | How to create a sense of belonging for a high performing culture and team. |
| Crucial Conversations | Patterson, Kerry et al | Models for interpersonal relationships and leadership. |
| Fierce Conversations | Scott, Susan | Enhancing relationships and leadership through conversation. |
| Focus | Goleman, Daniel | Outstanding leadership needs: self-awareness, empathy, systems awareness. |
| Good to Great | Collins, Jim | Leadership attributes and the correlation with great businesses. |
| Happiness is Overrated | Lu, Cuong | A Zen Buddhist view on the meaning of life, with practice suggestions. |
| Learned Optimism | Seligman, Martin | Changing your behaviours and prospects through how you think. |
| Man’s Search for Meaning | Frankl, Viktor | Prisoner of War experiences to interpret the meaning of life. |
| Never Split the Difference | Voss, Chris | Negotiation from hostage crises to business practice. |
| Start with Why | Sinek, Simon | Defining and finding personal and organisational purpose. |
| Strengths Finder | Rath, Tom | Sticking to what you are good at; Includes self-analysis tool. |
| TA Today | Stewart, Ian et al | Personality, relationships and communication models. |
| The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People | Covey, Stephen | Personal development, relationships and leadership. |
| The Coaching Habit | Stanier, Michael Bungay | The power of asking 7 specific types of question as a leader and coach. |
| The Intelligence Trap | Robson, David | The limitations and pitfalls of expert knowledge. |
| The Power of Now | Tolle, Eckhart | Being present, in the moment. [Has a religious bent.] |
| The Slight Edge | Olson, Jeff | Finding the right things, taking action every day, over a long period. |
| The True Believers | Hoffer, Eric | Leadership and mass movements in the 20th century. |
| Thinking, Fast and Slow | Kahneman, Daniel* | System 1 v System 2—”intuitive” responses versus deep thinking. |
| Whole Brain Living | Taylor, Jill Bolte | The anatomy of choice and the 4 Characters that drive our life. |
*Vale Daniel Kahneman, 2002 Nobel laureate who passed away in March, aged 90—famed for this and other work on the psychology of judgment, decision-making and behavioral economics.
And there are another 75 that I highly recommend—contact me as below if you want the combined list. And, please let me know any titles that you would recommend adding to the above.
Also, while the above are non-fiction titles, I also derive great enjoyment from fiction—it helps us to refine what we think and what we feel. Our vast trove of thoughts and experiences find somewhere to fit, belong, and grow. Almost every movie that was ever made originated from a novel. If we can watch so many movies, can we not pick up a novel—it has far more complexity and nuance.
Fiction authors I have read over the past year include Fredrik Backman (2 titles), Sebastian Barry, Steven Carroll, Gary Disher, Robert Drewe, Percival Everett, Sebastian Faulks, Richard Flanagan, Matt Haig, Patricia Highsmith, Claire Keegan, Stephen King (4 titles), Louise Milligan, Michael Morpurgo, Ann Patchett, Sally Rooney, Simon Rowell, Molly Schmidt, Glenna Thompson, Twan Eng Tan and Chris Whitaker.
Our thoughts create our world and the novel can open us up to thinking differently. About things that have happened, and what has never happened.
All these possibilities are at the heart of inspirational leadership.
So, if you are not already, what about becoming a regular and deep reader? It has so much to offer.