This was a great month for reading as I had four long flights and lots of time in hotels to read at night. These are my five best books for the month of November that will help you be a better more balanced and happier leader.
1. In Work-Life Bloom: How to Nurture a Team That Flourishes, award-winning author Dan Pontefract takes a fresh look at integrating our professional and personal lives. Just as a flower needs the right mix of sunlight, water, and nutrients to grow and thrive, team members need the right mix of work-life factors to create a fulfilling and harmonious existence.
Pontefract introduces six key work factors — trust, belonging, feeling valued, purpose, strategy, and norms –and six life factors –relationships, skills, well-being, meaning, agency, and respect — essential for creating an integrated work-life ecosystem that genuinely blooms. The 12 factors contain practical solutions and strategies for leaders who want to nurture Work-Life Bloom environments for their team members and achieve this mindset for themselves.
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2. The success of a negotiation is profoundly affected by how well you read body language. How can you learn to read the subtle clues―many lasting a fraction of a second―that your opponent projects?
Body Language Secrets to Win More Negotiations by Greg Williams will help you discover what the “other side” is revealing through body language and micro-expressions and how to control your own. It will help you become more adept at leveraging your knowledge of emotional intelligence, negotiation ploys, and emotional hot buttons. Through, engaging stories and examples, William’s book shows you how to employ a wide range of strategies to achieve your negotiating goals.
The success of a negotiation is profoundly affected by how well you read body language. How can you learn to read the subtle clues―many lasting a fraction of a second―that your opponent projects? Your next deal could go a lot better armed with this important information.
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3. This is the twenty-fifth anniversary of How to Think Like Leonardo DaVinci and I had to reread. The book was a Washington Post and NY Times bestseller and important for me in how I was thinking as a new entrepreneur. Drawing on Da Vinci’s notebooks, inventions, and legendary works of art, acclaimed author Michael J. Gelb, introduces seven Da Vincian principles, the essential elements of genius, from curiosita, the insatiably curious approach to life, to connessione, the appreciation for the interconnectedness of all things. With Da Vinci as their inspiration, readers will discover an exhilarating new way of thinking.
Step-by-step, through exercises and provocative lessons, anyone can harness the power and awesome wonder of their own genius, mastering such life-changing skills as problem solving, creative thinking, self-expression, goal setting and life balance, and harmonizing body and mind.
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4. In VisuaLeadership, by Todd Cherches teaches tools and techniques meant to “equip, enable, and empower” leaders to improve their efficiency and effectiveness, to maximize “performance, productivity, and potential,” and to “open your eyes to a world of new possibilities and new approaches” in becoming the visionary leader you need and desire to be.
Cherches relies on a single phrase as the foundation to all his thinking. Visual thinking and visual communication have the power “to communicate, to innovate, to manage, and to lead.”
When we communicate in this way, we increase the attention, comprehension, and retention we get from others. As a leader, you can leverage this by inviting and inspiring those you lead to see your picture of the future and follow you confidently into it.
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5. In an era marked by unprecedented challenges and a global pandemic, Dr. Jennifer Nash’s debut book, Be Human, Lead Human: How to Connect People and Performance, advocates for a radical shift in leadership thinking and practice. With only 12% of employees expressing confidence in their leaders, Nash identifies the need for leadership that fosters trust, creates connection, and drives performance.
Drawing from her extensive experience and empirical research, Nash introduces the Human Leadership operating model, a revolutionary approach that places humanity and human connection at the heart of organizational effectiveness. This groundbreaking model equips leaders with the human and relational skills necessary to navigate a new world of work, helping mitigate the risks of burnout, disengagement, and quiet quitting.
Be Human, Lead Human offers readers a personalized roadmap to transform their leadership practices and I highly recommend you get a copy.
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This month because its Thanksgiving and I love Thanksgiving I have a bonus recommendation You, Me, We: Why We All Need a Friend at Work by Morag Barrett, Eric Spencer, and Ruby Vesely.
6. We spend most of our waking day, our lives, at work – and we all want to feel like we are adding value, that our opinions matter, and that we belong. But it doesn’t always feel that way. We feel stuck on the never-ending hamster wheel to success. We feel isolated, and the pandemic hasn’t helped matters when the only time our boss or colleagues call us is to check in on what we’re doing, not how we’re doing. Disengagement and loneliness are increasing.
And, here’s why: We’ve been looking at engagement from the wrong angle. In asking “Do I have a (best) friend at work?” we’ve disempowered ourselves, allowing us to point fingers and blame the culture, and others, for why we feel alone. So, what does this mean? The first step in creating ally relationships, in having a friend at work, is by being a friend at work. The question we should be asking ourselves is “Am I a (best) friend at work?”
We need to look up and evaluate the health of our professional relationships; be intentional in how we show up within each relationship; and step up by developing and demonstrating the five practices of an Ally Mindset
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