Bob Sutton laments his label as “the asshole guy.” But, some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have labels thrust upon them. Sutton published The No Asshole Rule a few years ago, in which he revealed the costs of keeping asshole employees and the benefits of ditching them. In Good Boss Bad Boss, he [...]
Wally Bock is a fixture in the online leadership community. So when Wally offered to send me a review copy of Ruthless Focus: How to Use Key Core Strategies to Grow Your Business, I was excited (and to be honest, flattered). Wally co-authored the book with Thomas Hall, who had been researching companies that experienced [...]
Clever people dream up intriguing new products or services, they develop new processes that bring their organization to new levels. They are the organizations competitive edge. They are crucial to an organization’s success…but they come with their own unique set of challenges. In Clever, authors Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones revel how clever people are overly [...]
What is the difference between a competent leader and am extraordinary executive? This is the question Richard Davis proposes to answer in The Intangibles of Leadership. Davis argues that intelligence, pedigree and training are all important…but there is more to it than that. Davis cites research, case studies and his own experience as a management psychologist [...]
Citing Zappos as great examples of employee engagement or customer service is almost cliché. So when the people behind Tony Hsieh’s new book Delivering Happiness offered me a review copy, I was a little hesitant. But I’m glad I accepted. The book is half-biography of Tony and half a biography of Zappos. It traces Tony’s career [...]
In the world of business books, there are inspirational books and valuable books. Inspirational books give you a shot of motivation to get you working on your business again. Valuable books are the ones you turn to again and again. When Thomas Nelson offered to send me a review copy, I thought that a book [...]
Charlene Li made a splash a few years ago when she co-authored Groundswell. Through Groundswell, many leaders saw the need to make their organizations more open using social media. But just how to do it remains a mystery. In Open Leadership, Li seeks to teach her readers how to demonstrate open leadership and transform their organizations in the [...]
Few business parables are well written. Fewer still explain solid leadership principles. Greater Than Yourself: The Ultimate Lesson of True Leadership does both. Steve Farber, author of The Radical Leap and The Radical Edge, returns with a new fable. In Greater Than Yourself, Farber explores what it takes to build and develop the people underneath you (your GTY projects). Greater [...]
What can we learn from failure? According to Dr.Tim Irwin, plenty. Irwin presents the findings of his research on leadership failures in Derailed: Five Lessons Learned from Catastrophic Failures of Leadership. In Derailed, Irwin explores case studies of six well-known CEOs who, despite all the normal predictors of success, eventually succumbed to derailment and resigned [...]
Theorists may be familiar with Lewin’s Unfreeze-Change-Refreeze model. Those fortunate enough to hold an IVY-league MBA may be familiar with Kotter’s eight-stage model (Reviewed Here). However, more people will eventually be familiar with the Heath brothers Switch model. The creative minds behind Made to Stick recently released their sophomore effort, Switch: How to Change Things [...]
About
David Burkus is the editor of LeaderLab, a community of resources dedicated to promoting the practice of leadership theory. He is an executive coach, a sought-after speaker and an adjunct professor of business at several universities.