Most leaders have already read the classic staples of leadership.
But reaching the next level often requires exploring less conventional paths. The books below may not be traditional leadership texts, but each offers powerful insights into personal growth, emotional intelligence, and decision-making—core elements of exceptional leadership that are often overlooked.
This doesn’t mean that I recommend these particular titles to everyone — I don’t. But they reflect some of the the less traveled pathways that have shaped my own thinking and can lead to not only better business outcomes, but also deeper satisfaction and purpose.
What if you could defuse tension and create accord in even the most volatile situations―just by changing the way you spoke? Over the past 35 years, Marshall Rosenberg has done just that, peacefully resolving conflicts in families, schools, businesses, and governments in 30 countries all over the world.
On Nonviolent Communication, this renowned peacemaker presents his complete system for speaking our deepest truths, addressing our unrecognized needs and emotions, and honoring those same concerns in others.
You’ll never see leadership the same way again after reading this book.These fifteen commitments are a distillation of decades of work with CEOs and other leaders. They are radical or provocative for many.
Our experience is that unconscious leadership is not sustainable. Fear drives most leaders to make choices that are at odds with healthy relationships, vitality and balance. Once you learn and start practicing conscious leadership you’ll get results in the form of more energy, clarity, focus and healthier relationships. You’ll do more and more of what you are passionate about, and less of what you do out of obligation. You’ll have more fun, be happier, experience less drama and be more on purpose. Your team will get results as well.
"You know the old saying, 'It takes a village.' Jason's new book shows us how."-- Susan Campbell, Ph.D. author of Getting Real, Saying What's Real, Truth in Dating, and Five-Minute Relationship Repair. Authentic Relating provides the framework to transform every aspect of relationships-starting with the one to ourselves. It is truth and compassion together in a journey to become more awake and aware in every relationship. With practice, we can learn to alchemize conflict into clarity, connection, and creativity. Many of the practices and tools can be used immediately to identify layers of truth and express them in a way that forges deeper bonds and safety with others.
Hold Me Tight offers a revolutionary new way to see and shape love relationships. The stories, new ideas and exercises offered in Hold Me Tight are based on the new science of love and the wisdom of Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy (EFT), an effective new model developed by Dr. Johnson.
We live, say Edgar and Peter Schein, in a culture of “tell.” All too often we tell others what we think they need to know or should do. But whether we are leading or following, what matters most is we get to the truth. We have to develop a commitment to sharing vital facts and identifying faulty assumptions—it can mean the difference between success and failure. This is why we need Humble Inquiry more than ever.
The Scheins define Humble Inquiry as “the gentle art of drawing someone out, of asking questions to which you do not know the answer, of building relationships based on curiosity and interest in the other person.”
How can we live our lives when everything seems to fall apart—when we are continually overcome by fear, anxiety, and pain? The answer, Pema Chödrön suggests, might be just the opposite of what you expect. Here, in her most beloved and acclaimed work, Pema shows that moving toward painful situations and becoming intimate with them can open up our hearts in ways we never before imagined. Drawing from traditional Buddhist wisdom, she offers life-changing tools for transforming suffering and negative patterns into habitual ease and boundless joy.
Kristin Neff, Ph.D., says that it’s time to “stop beating yourself up and leave insecurity behind.”
More and more, psychologists are turning away from an emphasis on self-esteem and moving toward self-compassion in the treatment of their patients—and Dr. Neff’s extraordinary book offers exercises and action plans for dealing with every emotionally debilitating struggle, be it parenting, weight loss, or any of the numerous trials of everyday living.
“I used to drink,” writes John Bradshaw, “to solve the problems caused by drinking. The more I drank to relieve my shame-based loneliness and hurt, the more I felt ashamed.”
Shame is the motivator behind our toxic behaviors: the compulsion, co-dependency, addiction and drive to superachieve that breaks down the family and destroys personal lives. This book has helped millions identify their personal shame, understand the underlying reasons for it, address these root causes and release themselves from the shame that binds them to their past failures.
Who are you? When you start to explore this question, you find out how elusive it really is. Are you a physical body? A collection of experiences and memories? A partner to relationships? Each time you consider these aspects of yourself, you realize that there is much more to you than any of these can define. In The Untethered Soul, spiritual teacher Michael A. Singer explores the question of who we are and arrives at the conclusion that our identity is to be found in our consciousness, the fact of our ability to observe ourselves, and the world around us. By tapping into traditions of meditation and mindfulness, Singer shows how the development of consciousness can enable us all to dwell in the present moment and let go of painful thoughts and memories that keep us from achieving happiness and self-realization.
Your soul signature is your spiritual DNA—it is who you are at your core, the most authentic part of you, your singular contribution to this world. And yet we reject our authentic selves. We allow our soul signature to become blocked by any number of emotional obstacles that life throws in our path: anger, fear, guilt, shame, sadness, despair. Any or all of these feelings overtake us and create a density, a heaviness that doesn’t permit us to embrace who we truly are, deep inside. We are energetic beings, Panache Desai reminds us, and emotions are energy in motion. When we are blocked we feel unworthy, less than, unloved, incomplete.
The core of essentialism as a concept focuses on the idea that any particular entity requires certain elements for its functioning and existence. These are the essential traits which make an entity what it is. Essentialism is a book which deals with situations wherein people would find themselves in the middle of an information explosion. They could also feel occupied with a lot of work, but still be unproductive. There are times when people follow the notion that they have to do everything, but on the contrary, they end up doing nothing. There is no specific direction to their tasks and neither to their goals. Essentialism as a concept narrows down this notion into doing the right things which are absolutely necessary, in a right manner and at the right time.
Conflict is going to be part of your life—as long as you have relationships, hold down a job, or have dry cleaning to be picked up. Bracing yourself against it won’t make it go away, but if you approach it consciously, you can navigate it in a way that not only honors everyone involved but makes it a source of deep insight as well. Seasoned mediator Diane Hamilton provides the skill set you need to engage conflict with wisdom and compassion, and even—sometimes—to be grateful for it.
Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful aftermath of combat; one in five Americans has been molested; one in four grew up with alcoholics; one in three couples have engaged in physical violence. Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, one of the world’s foremost experts on trauma, has spent over three decades working with survivors. In The Body Keeps the Score, he uses recent scientific advances to show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers’ capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust. He explores innovative treatments—from neurofeedback and meditation to sports, drama, and yoga—that offer new paths to recovery by activating the brain’s natural neuroplasticity. Based on Dr. van der Kolk’s own research and that of other leading specialists, The Body Keeps the Score exposes the tremendous power of our relationships both to hurt and to heal—and offers new hope for reclaiming lives.
Dr. David Grand presents the next leap forward in psychological care. Dr. Grand combines the strengths of brain-based and talk therapies into a powerful technique he calls Brainspotting. In Brainspotting, Dr. Grand reveals the key insight that allowed him to develop this revolutionary therapeutic tool: that where we look reveals critical information about what's going on in our brain.
Join him to learn about:
The history of Brainspotting, including how it evolved from EMDR practice as a more versatile tool for brain-based therapy
Brainspotting in action
An overview of the different aspects of Brainspotting and how to use them
How clients can use Brainspotting on their own to reinforce and accelerate healing
Why working simultaneously with the right and left brain can lead to expanded creativity and athletic performance
How Brainspotting can be used to treat PTSD, anxiety, depression, addiction, physical pain, chronic illness, and much more
