Leader's Beacon | The Leadership Experts

by Ronald Heifetz, Alexander Grashow, & Marty Linsky
Harvard Business Press, 2009
ISBN #978-1-4421-0576-4

Reviewed by Ian Cook

Dealing with change and problem solving–these tasks are at the core of what leader/managers do. But there are two distinctly different types of challenges that precipitate change and bring on problems for managers. The authors of this enlightening book lay these out right at the beginning: Continue Reading

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by Kevin Cashman
Berrett-Koehler, 2008
ISBN #978-1-57675-599-0

Reviewed by Ian Cook

At the point our body and our senses (eyes, ears, touch, etc.) meet the world lies a crossroads. At this very point we experience a constant, two-way flow from the…

1. Outside in–situations, actions and events in their environment
2. Inside out–how we feel, interpret, process these situations and decide on our response Continue Reading

Other articles you might like:

• Conflict and Change Co-exist
• Job Squeeze Is Real. Talk about it
• So, You Think You’re an Above Average Leader?
• Give Way to Get Ahead
• Misdirected by metrics?

by Rob Goffee & Gareth Jones
Harvard Business School Press, 2006
ISBN #1-57851-971-3

Reviewed by Ian Cook

People want to be led by a person, the authors contend, not by someone with a fancy job title or a manager who has amassed a vast chunk of organizational turf. Employees will choose to follow only a real, live, breathing human being who reveals at least some of their humanity, values, personality and, yes, vulnerability. Continue Reading

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• Success Disguised
• Up Your Self-Awareness to the Next Level
• Bringing It All Back Home
• The Leader as Authentic Actor
• So, You Think You’re an Above Average Leader?

by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan & Gareth Jones
McGraw-Hill, 2008
ISBN #978-0-07-148499-2

Reviewed by Ian Cook

If you are like me, and like most of the managers we all know, you have a default strategy for influencing people around you. You TELL them what they should do! You SHARE your wisdom and advice, often drawn from experience in similar situations. Your SUGGESTIONS are frequently spot on and brilliant. Continue Reading

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• Why Should Anyone Be Led by You?: What It Takes To Be An Authentic Leader

By Carol S. Dweck
Random House, 2006
ISBN #1-4000-6275-6

Reviewed by Ian Cook

John McEnroe reached great heights in the world of professional tennis but, by his own admission, he did not fulfill his potential. Whenever he lost, it was not his fault. Even his defeat at the 1984 French Open he blamed on sound coming from the headset of a network cameraman. As a world class athlete, he felt he had the right to abuse others. In fact, the image of him screaming at umpires is burnished in the minds of a generation. Continue Reading

Other articles you might like:

• Praise their Process Over their Competence
• It’s all in your head: what’s your leadership mindset?
• Did You Ever Try to Climb a Lattice?
• Employees who feel entitled
• Choose Stewardship Over Entitlement

By James M. Citrin
Rodale, 2007
ISBN #978-1-59486-358-5

Reviewed by Ian Cook

Ground-breaking tennis great Billie Jean King won 20 Wimbledon titles, 13 US Opens, the French and Australian Opens, and was ranked the world’s No. 1 woman tennis player seven times. She went on to do pioneering work on Title IX legislation for women’s access to athletics resources in schools and to found the Women’s Tennis Association and the grant-giving Women’s Sports Foundation. Continue Reading

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By David Rock
HarperCollins Publishers, 2006
ISBN #978-0-06-083590-3

Reviewed by Ian Cook

Managers are default programmed to solve problems. That’s what they are paid to do. That’s what they are good at. And that is how they see themselves, at a subconscious level. So, when an employee comes with a problem, the manager’s knee-jerk reaction kicks in (pun intended)–right into solution mode. The employee walks out with the manager’s solution and the manager feels great. Continue Reading

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• Conflict and Change Co-exist
• Four Styles Of Communication
• How Well Do You Get Along?
• Allow Team Members to Find Their Place
• 47 Ways to Build Valuable Connections … And Make Them Count!

by Bill George with Peter Sims
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2007
ISBN #978-0-7879-8751-0

Reviewed by Ian Cook

How do you become and remain an authentic leader? Continue Reading

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• Choose Stewardship Over Entitlement
• Develop Your Leadership Competence Asynchronously
• What is Your Philosophy on Leadership?
• Accelerate Your Growth with a Mastermind Group
• When Achievers Stall

By James M. Kouzes & Barry Z. Posner
Jossey-Bass, 2006
ISBN #978-0-7879-8296-6

Reviewed by Ian Cook

As a leader, would you say one of your goals is to leave a legacy? Based on their observations of leaders over the last twenty years, Kouzes and Posner expect your answer is probably “yes.” Continue Reading

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• Being a Leader is All about the Group
• The Three Laws of “Everybody Else”
• So, You Think You’re an Above Average Leader?
• Did You Ever Try to Climb a Lattice?
• Leadership Quotes – Volume 1

By John H. Zenger & Joseph Folkman
McGraw Hill, 2002
ISBN #0-07-138747-1

Reviewed by Ian Cook

“Good leaders…neither they nor their leaders appear to recognize the substantial contribution they could make by moving from being merely good to great” Continue Reading

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• Leadershift Leading Others The Way They Like To Be Led
• Three Keys to Exceptional Leadership
• Three Things You Need to Know About Recognition
• Don’t Miss Your Destiny
• Leadership: The Ultimate Act of Defiance

By Margaret J. Wheatley
Berrett-Koehler, 2005,
ISBN #978-1-57675-317-0

Reviewed by Ian Cook

Margaret Wheatley, back in 1992 with her book, Leadership and the New Science, was one of the first writers to bring into mainstream discussion the idea that organizations share a lot of the characteristics of living, self-organizing systems in nature. Large weather systems, ant colonies, and rush hour traffic patterns come to mind. In Finding Our Way Wheatley provocatively lays our how managers must operate to be effective in a system that is ‘”alive.” Continue Reading

Other articles you might like:

• Shift–From Evaluation to Coaching
• Leadership from the Inside Out: Becoming a Leader for Life
• Ouch! It Hurts To Think This Much!: (Communicating Performance Targets)

By Dennis W. Bakke
PVG, 2005
ISBN #0-9762686-0-4

Reviewed by Ian Cook

In 1982 Dennis Bakke co-founded the energy company AES and led it, by the year 2000, to $8.6 billion revenue, over $33 billion in assets in thirty-one countries, 40,000 employees, and an energy provider to over 100 million consumers. He resigned in 2002, essentially forced out by the board, after share price plummeted in the vortex of Enron’s demise. Continue Reading

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• Accelerate your Career – 4-Eye’d Employee (pt 2)
• Mindset: The New Psychology of Success