
What would happen if a top expert with more than thirty years of leadership experience were willing to distill everything he had learned about leadership into a handful of life-changing principles just for you? It would change your life. John C. Maxwell has done exactly that in The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership.He has combined insights learned from his thirty-plus years of leadership successes and mistakes with observations from the worlds of business, politics, sports, religion, and military conflict. The result is a revealing study of leadership delivered as only a communicator like Maxwell can.
Two books that really helped me:
- The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership (John Maxwell)
- Leaders Eat Last (Simon Sinek)
Maxwell claims that leadership is influence, not authority. When I became a co-founder, I thought that made me a leader. But as PG's excellent post and Maxwell affirm, leadership is quite distinct from positional authority -- and is much more difficult to attain.
Speaking directly to this post, I found that rating myself against Maxwell's "21 laws" was a sobering and likely accurate gauge of my leadership ability.
I'm a Lencioni fan:
Death by Meeting -- Describes 3 types of meetings
Getting Naked -- Describes how to consult
I'm also a Marshall Goldsmith fan:
What Got You Here Won't Get You There - Once you get beyond a Director level with some mistakes, read this book
Mojo, How to Get It, How To Keep It - Another "look yourself in the mirror" book
Also:
21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership - John Maxwell. A little prod to act more like a leader.
Ready Player One -- Ernest Cline, Great Young Adult Book. Escapist fantasy.
Every Shot Counts -- Mark Broady, Statistical Look At Golf, but has some smell of Kahnemann
To Kill A Mockingbird -- Timeless Classic I Never Got To. Loved Atticus. I won't read a Watchman if it spoils my view of what Atticus was all about.
Started But Not Finished:
Business Dynamics Thinking -- Sterman (out of MIT). I need to take off work to read this 'cause it is so massive. Basically it is control theory applied to business modelling. However, I am convinced if somebody can apply these models, it really is the best competitive advantage. However, too people willing to stick with it.
How to Measure Anything -- Douglas Hubbard. Sort of makes me mad because it is so commonsense, yet most businesses don't apply this commonsense approach.
-Books-
Lifecycle of a Technology Company by Edwin Miller
The Game by Neil Strauss (you laugh but it's basically all about getting more confident)
Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyasaki
The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell
They Call Me Coach by John Wooden
-Magazines-
Entrepreneur
Fast Company
BusinessWeek
Fortune
Money
Inc.
-Websites-
Hacker News
Fred Wilson's Blog (www.avc.com)
FoundersSpace (www.foundersspace.com)
A lot of these titles are more focused on leadership or business in general, but I think a successful entrepreneur should have a general knowledge of a lot of stuff out there. I'm sure that I'm forgetting some, and these don't include the books I've got for the MBA program I'm taking. I'd have to dig those up, but I can post the titles if you'd like.
[Edited because the formatting was really screwy]