Books

A bias for action – Brush and Goshal, Harvard Business Review Press 2004
Only 10% of managers act purposefully to get truly important work done. The other 90% simply ‘spin their wheels’ by procrastinating, detaching emotionally and distracting themselves with busy work. Why does this happen and what separates productive managers from their less purposeful colleagues? Based on exclusive research across several industries and illustrated through stirring personal stories. A bias for action shows that great managers produce results not by motivating others but by engaging their own willpower through a powerful combination of energy and focus to encourage collective action.

Personal and Organisational Transformations through Action Inquiry – Fisher, Rooke, Torbert, Edge Work Press, 2000
An exceptional book – will assist those looking for and edge in developing better leaders and the organisational capabilities needed for the 21st Century. Profusely illustrated with real world examples it provides new ways of thinking about leadership and organisational development and shows how leaders at all levels can engage in a new approach he authors call ‘developmental action inquiry’

Riding the Waves of Culture – Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner, Nicholas Brearley Publishing 1997
A must read for all international / intercultural managers. A powerful pioneering work that has gained the respect of corporate leaders around the world. David Wigglesworth, Sietar International

Change in Organisations – Petruska Clarkson, Whurr Publishers 1995
This book integrates the experience of working with ot within organisations, offering a sound conceptual framework for understanding that experience and practical help for transforming possibilities

Living strategy: putting people at the heart of corporate purpose – Lynda Gratton, Financial Times Prentice Hall 2000
Living strategy is insightful and eminently practical. Lynda Gratton shows convincingly what it means for management to be successful in a time which people instead of capital are the key to corporate success. This book is a clear warning for companies that fail to build organisations in which people can flourish and grow. Arie de Geus, author of ‘The Living Company’

Leading the revolution Gary Hamel, Harvard Business School Press 2002
Begins by taking us through what Hamel describes as the End of Progress, whereby ther evolution of industrial society is seen to be replaced by the revolution of the new economy. This change is underpinned by the rising expectations of the stakeholder economy: it is not enough to beat your last annual earnings, or be better than your competitor – the revolutionary company will be best of breed by every benchmark, nothing less. Failure to do so will leave you vulnerable to other revolutionaries

Leadership and the New Science: discovering order in a chaotic world – Margaret Wheatley, Berret – Koehler Publishers 1999

‘Years ahead of it’s time this daring book will convince you that leaders must substitute Newtonian mental model for a biological model in organisations of every size – your employees are already getting ‘hip’ to stuff, you’d better wake up’ Wall street journal

The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook – Peter Senge, NB Publishing 1994

‘This fieldbok should be a valuable guide and reference to those leading or simply taking part in organisational transformation. There is a lot to learn and use in this fieldbook. Phillip Carroll, President and CEO of Shell Oil Co (USA)


Writers on Leadership – John van Maurik Penguin 2001

In this book, John van Maurik, an acknowledged authority on the subject of leadership, distills the ideas of over thirty ‘gurus’, academics and practitioners from Kouzes and Posner, Kenneth Blanchard and John Adair to Meredith Belbin, Stephen Covey and Peter Senge


Leaders: Strategies for taking Charge – Bennis & Nanus. Harper Business Essentials 1985

One of the top 50 Business Books of all time – The Financial Times

What Leaders Really Do, John Kotter, Harvard Business Review

Widely acknowledged as the world’s foremost authority on leadership, Kotter has devoted his remarkable career to studying organizations and those who run them, and his bestselling books and essays have guided and inspired leaders at all levels. Here, in this collection of his acclaimed Harvard Business Review articles, is an astute assessment of the real work of leaders. Convinced that most organizations today lack the leadership they need, Kotter’s mission is to help us better understand what leaders-real leaders-do. True leadership, he reminds us, is an elusive quality, and too often we confuse management duties and personal style with leadership, or even mistake unworthy leaders for the real thing. Yet without leadership, organizations move too slowly, stagnate, and lose their way. With John Kotter on What Leaders Really Do, readers will learn how to become more effective leaders.

Good to Great: Why some companies make the leap and others don’t, Jim Collins, Harper Collins 2001
‘Making the transition from good to great doesn’t require a high-profile CEO, the latest technology, innovative change management or even a fine-tuned business strategy. At the heart of those rare and truly great companies was a corporate culture that rigorously found and promoted disciplined people to think and act in a disciplined manner. Peppered with dozens of stories and examples from the great and not-so-great, Collins lays a well-reasoned roadmap to excellence that any organisation would do well to consider. This is one of those books that managers and CEOs will be reading and rereading for years to come.’—Harry C Edwards

The extraordinary Leader, John Zenger and Joseph Folkman, McGraw Hill 2002
This is a ‘must read’ for coaches, leaders, and those who develop them. The Extraordinary Leader goes beyond anecdotes or ‘war stories,’ it builds upon comprehensive research. It is destined to be a classic in our field.“¬¬ – Marshall Goldsmith, Named by Forbes as one of five top executive coaches and one of Wall Street Journal’s “Top 10” executive educators

Now discover your strengths by Buckingham and Clifton, The Gallup Organisation 2001
This book proposes a unique approach to managing personnel: focus on enhancing people’s strengths rather than eliminating their weaknesses. Effectively managing personnel—as well as one’s own behaviour—is an extraordinarily complex task that, not surprisingly, has been the subject of countless books, another best seller from the authors of First Break all the Rules

The Five Dysfunctions of a team by Patrick Lencioni, 2002, Jossey Bass
What I like about the model is that all the stuff I already use in organisational development slots in nicely: what it gives is a clear roadmap. Using the model, both the facilitator and the participants can all be clear about what they are doing and why. For example, I’ve used psychometrics many times, but using them within the framework of building trust (the first stage in the model) seemed to make the learning deeper and more lasting.
Anyone who is part of a senior level team (where the team members are also team leaders), or anyone who works with these teams should find the book useful.

Working with Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman, Bantam Press 1998
Emotional Intelligence includes self-awareness and impulse control,persistence,zeal and motivation,empathy and soial deftness. These are the qualities that mark people who excel: whose relationships flourish, who are stars in the workplace. In working with Emotional Intelligence Goleman reveals the skills that distinguish star performers. The good news is that Emotional Intelligence can be developed.

Spiritual Capital, Wealth we can live by by Zohar and Marshall, Berret-Koehler 2004
The standard IQ test measures rational intelligence—the skills we use to solve logical or strategic problems. For a long time, IQ results were considered the best measurement of a person’s smarts and potential for success. But in the early 1990s Daniel Goleman pointed out that success is also dependent on emotional intelligence—the thinking that gives us empathy, compassion and the ability to respond appropriately to pain or pleasure. Now, at the beginning of the 21st century, authors Danah Zohar and Dr. Ian Mitchell claim that there is another important Q to consider—the SQ, otherwise known as Spiritual Intelligence. In fact, the authors assert that “SQ is the necessary foundation for both the IQ and the EQ. It is our ultimate intelligence.”

Gifts differing – understanding personality types by Isabel Myers Briggs with Peter Myers, Davis and Black Publishing, 1980
Written by the creator of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator inventory, this text distinguishes four categories of personality styles and shows how these qualities determine the way people perceive the world and come to conclusions about what they’ve seen.

Scripts people live Claude Steiner, Grove Press 1974
Read this book and the scales will fall from your eyes about the nature of human dynamics and interaction between people. This is a straightforward and brilliantly stimulating introduction into the world of transactional analysis. Thoroughly recommended

NLP Workbook, Joseph O’Connor, Element 2001
The ideas 0f NLP are explained well and it is very useable as a workbook for dealing with personal, relationship and work issues. You can read it methodically or dip into it. If you are fed up with an aspect of your life that you feel is holding you back – and are determined to do something about it, then this book will provide you with the tools to take charge of the situation and change

Coaching for performance – John Whitmore, NB Publishing 1997
This edition includes additional chapters on incorporating meaning and purpose into work, into goal-setting, and a spiritual approach to coaching, together with a final section on “Coaching the Organizations’ Culture”. Adopted by many of the world’s major corporations, this work also argues for using questions, rather than instructions and commands, and following the GROW sequence – Goals, Reality, Options, Will – to generate prompt action and peak performance. It explores the dynamics of team development and it positions coaching as the essential team leadership skill.

Learning to lead – Bennis and Goldsmith, NB Publishing 1997
This book explains clearly the source of personal underpinnings of true leadership. It provides a useful structured approach to help people discover themselves, find their inner voice and move others to act