Right Kind of Wrong
Amy C. Edmondson
An exploration of the nuanced relationship between failure and success that urges us to embrace failure as a necessary and powerful element of growth.
How Not to be a Leadership D*ckhead
Steve Sallis
As its title suggests, this is a no-nonsense book that gets straight to the point of addressing the toxic behaviours that some leaders exhibit and providing practical advice on how to avoid them.
The Four Workarounds
Paulo Savaget
Workarounds - solutions that ignore how problems are 'supposed' to be solved - can achieve massive wins with minimal resources. And as this book reveals, they're powerful tools when it comes to complex problem-solving.
Direct: The Rise of the Middleman Economy and the Power of Going to the Source
Kathryn Judge
Over the past few decades, middlemen have taken control of the economy at the expense of the rest of us. This book explores how that happened and how going 'back to source' can help to build a more sustainable economy.
Love + Work
Marcus Buckingham
Bob Selden dips into Marcus Buckingham's new book, Love + Work, which asks why the simple idea of 'doing what you love' can be so challenging to put in practice.
Regenerative Leadership: The DNA of Life-affirming 21st Century Companies
Giles Hutchins and Laura Storm
In the context of recovering from the Covid pandemic, Regenerating Leadership provides a beacon for what companies can aspire to achieve and presents the alternative to rolling back to business as usual.
500%: How two pioneers transformed productivity
Andrew Holm, Julian Wilson & Peter Thomson
This story of how Matt Black Systems became a poster child for truly self-managing organisations should be essential reading for anyone with an interest in organisational design.
You're Not Listening: What You're Missing and Why It Matters
Kate Murphy
Despite living in a hyper-connected world which is supposed to make communication easier than ever, many people have simply forgotten how to listen.
Fad-Free Strategy
Daniel Deneffe and Herman Vantrappen
You may think that everything that can be written about business strategy has already been written, but Fad-Free Strategy proves the contrary with its end-to-end guide on how to make economics-rooted strategic decisions.
It's Good To Be King
James M. Kerr
It's Good To Be King, the new leadership book by James Kerr, explores some important leadership challenges along with suggestions for how to overcome them in an easy to read business parable form.
Accelerating Performance
Colin Price and Sharon Toye
Why do companies in the same sector pursuing near-identical strategies perform so differently? 'Accelerating Performance' sets out to find answers based on data and empirical evidence rather than anecdotes and theory.
The Trusted Executive
John Blakey
The Trusted Executive is one of those books that changes the way you think about leadership. It’s not the first to extol the importance of trust as the essential trait of leaders, but few other authors have expounded such a comprehensive framework for building trustworthy organisations.
Decision Making for Dummies
Dawna Jones
Don't be fooled by the title. This book offers systematic approaches for for making and communicating decisions and integrating analytical data and intuitive intelligence to solve the paradoxical problems of digital-age businesses.
Staying Sane in Business
Chris Welford and Jackie Sykes
Sanity at work. Is that really possible? This ground-breaking book sheds new light on the factors contributing to our psychological wellbeing and personal effectiveness at work, drawing on insights from the dual disciplines of psychology and psychotherapy.
5 Conversations: How to transform trust, engagement and performance at work
Nigel Purse and Nick Cowley
Based on 30 years of research, 5 Conversations aims to identify and draw out those vital two-way conversations between line managers and staff members and develop them in ways that build trusting relationships rather than antagonism.
Books we Like
What To Do When Leadership Is Needed
Bob Selden
What To Do When Leadership Is Needed is an inspiring yet practical book on leadership that should be on every managers bookshelf.
INDISPENSABLE: Build and Lead a Company Customers Can't Live Without
James M. Kerr
Every business seems to have a story, a mission and vision statement. But how many of these are truly essential for their customers? That's the question James M. Kerr explores in his latest book.
GRACE: A Leader's Guide To A Better Us
John Baldoni
Leadership guru and executive coach, John Baldoni, challenges conventional assumptions about leadership in "GRACE: A Leader’s Guide To A Better Us".
Podcasts
Awful Management
Gary Sheard
This book will strike a chord with anyone frustrated by bungling bosses, complacent companies or those well-meaning managers trapped in a long-established but outdated way of working.
Dont Be A Cant - A Manual for Happiness
Frank Bastow
Dont Be A Cant attempts to cover an entire ethos for life, in this case, taking responsibility for your own happiness. It is Frank Bastow's first book, and the first book I've read that comes with a money-back guarantee if you don't get anything out of it!
Commitment
Olav Massen, Chris Matts, Chris Geary
Your project has hit a bottleneck, the team is spread too thinly and Gant charts aren't helping. Do you through up your hands in despair? Or pick up a copy of 'Commitment - A Novel About Managing Project Risk'? Which option sounds better?
Business Secrets of the Trappist Monks: One CEO's Quest for Meaning and Authenticity
August Turak
As its title suggests, this is not your typical business book. But in showing that Trappist principles can be successfully applied to a variety of worldly business settings, it can inspire thoughtful leaders to evaluate their current approach to management and strategy.
Extreme Trust: Honesty as a Competitive Advantage
Don Peppers and Martha Rogers
Extreme Trust is another important contribution to the betterment of management thinking from the team of Peppers and Rogers., who argue that businesses must deliberately act to protect the interests of customers proactively, before they have a chance to spread negative buzz.
Light Footprint Management
Charles-Edouard Bouée
Light Footprint Management draws inspiration from two unconventional sources; Barack Obama's 'light footprint' military doctrine, and what the author has elsewhere called China's 'management revolution,' discussing how both have evolved as responses to our often complex and turbulent world.
Adaptability: The Art of Winning in an Age of Uncertainty
Max McKeown
In a fast-changing world, the ability to adapt quickly to any situation is becoming a vital asset for everyone. Adaptability tells you all you need to know about the art of strategy in a series of powerful survival rules and lessons from 50 top brands.
Faire la trace
Rémi Engelbrecht
'Faire la trace', by Rémi Engelbrecht, contains seven lessons for managers which can be learnt from guiding aspiring climbers in the European Alps. The author is both a qualified, alpine mountain guide and a management consultant so he writes with authority.
Embedded Sustainability - the Next Big Competitive Advantage
Chris Laszlo and Nadya Zhexembayeva
Sustainability has moved from being the 'right thing to do' to being the optimal driver of business strategy. This book articulates the drivers for innovation and how to practically think through and then act to embed sustainability into your organization's DNA.
A Brief Guide to Cloud Computing
Christopher Barnatt
If you want to know what lies behind all the hype about cloud computing and what it means for your business but don't want to be blinded by technical detail, this surprisingly readable book by Christopher Barnatt is a great place to start.